December 10, 2024 • 10 mins
Performing is supposed to be fun -- that's why we do it. I've had so many stressful performances and joyous ones. They are usually the same ones. Today we discover how we can perform with joy, even if we are feeling nervous.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
That was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to see them because Ihave trust in them that they
will be good and the people whosee you also have that.
Hello and welcome to theConfident Musicianing Podcast.
My name is Eleanor and I am aBritish-American oboist studying
at the Royal Conservatoire ofScotland Literally my dream
(00:21):
school and it took me a long wayto get there.
I applied and auditioned for 12schools in three different
countries.
It was a lot of hard work but,oh my gosh, so worth it.
I want you to have theconfidence to work hard in
achieving your goals.
So come with me as we go onthis journey together.
(00:42):
So sit down, pull up a chair,take a seat or, if you're on the
go, welcome to the ConfidentMusicianing Podcast.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, andwelcome back to another episode
of the Confident MusicianingPodcast.
(01:02):
Thank you for being here.
Let's dive in.
So, basically, somethinghappened last week that was a
bit nerve-wracking and I gotthrough it.
But I didn't just get throughit, I got through it gladly.
So what I'm talking about is myfirst ever performance class
(01:24):
with other Woodwind students.
Now, if you don't know whatthat is because, to be honest,
this time last year I didn'teither.
It is a class that I have atmusic school which, basically,
you get chosen for differentclasses to perform a piece and
then you get feedback from theother students in the class and
(01:46):
also the teachers.
And I was chosen to play in aperformance class last week and
I performed and I don't know whyI did this.
And if you are an oboistespecially if you're an oboist
who knows this piece, you knowthat this is a tricky, tricky
piece.
(02:07):
Schumann's second oboe romance.
There's literally not acrotchet or quarter note rest
until like the third to last bar.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one especially forstamina.
It's very, it's very difficult,um, but I chose to do it.
Um and um.
(02:27):
So I I was a bit nervous aboutit.
I was, I was really nervousabout being able to, to get
through it.
Um.
But I remember sitting there inlike the warmup room before I
was about to go on and for somereason I just felt quite
contented.
I felt quite contented and Iwas like you know what, I'm
(02:47):
really proud of myself forgetting this far.
Um, and this is my first everperformance class in front of
all the woodwind students andI'm just going to have fun.
Um, and yes, of course I was abit nervous.
And yes, of course I was a bitnervous and yes, of course the
performance could have gonebetter.
It could have always have gonebetter.
There are always things, youknow, there's always things, but
(03:09):
I just I did really, really,really enjoy it and I was
nervous on the inside, but, like, I was also contented and ready
to go.
And so I've come up with threedifferent things to kind of
incorporate more joy in yourperformance, because there was
joy in that performance.
And let's, I want to just gothrough them with you today so
(03:32):
that you can have more joy inyour practice as well.
So the first thing is thinkingof your younger self.
I remember gosh, this was likealmost three years ago I was
doing a Japanese speech contest.
If you don't know this, I speaksome Japanese and I was in a
(03:52):
Japanese speech contest.
I had to write, memorize andperform a five minute speech in
Japanese and perform afive-minute speech in Japanese.
I ended up winning, actuallyfor the intermediate category,
and I remember kind of givingmyself a pep talk before I went
on to perform this speech andthis idea was think of your
younger self, how proud theywould be of you now.
(04:13):
So I thought at that time of myyounger self learning Japanese,
because I did start learningJapanese quite young.
I really enjoyed it and whatthat Eleanor would think of me
doing this competition and itwas so like I don't know.
It just gave me so much, somuch strength to do this,
because I knew that I was doingthis for her.
(04:35):
So if you think about maybe aperformance that you've done,
something that you've been apart of, that just has you know
like you can, you can thinkabout the younger version of you
and how proud they would bebecause we have all gotten
somewhere, even if thatsomewhere is um, you've just
started learning an instrument.
(04:56):
That is somewhere you've gottensomewhere.
Or if that somewhere is, youare at a music school, or maybe
you just got an orchestral jobor you know something, something
really major like that.
They are all steps, they're allsteps and our younger selves
would be proud of us.
So thinking about that canreally bring out the joy and the
(05:16):
just the excitement that youryounger self would have for you,
because they're still insideyou.
The next thing is understandingthat people are there because
they want to be.
So this is another thing nowfor my performance class.
All the woodwind students haveto be there.
It is a requirement for school,but we can think about it maybe
(05:40):
in a different way.
If you are doing a recital, ifyou are doing some sort of
performance where you knowpeople have chosen to be there,
they have chosen to be there.
You know what I mean.
Like they have chosen to bethere.
They could do other things,they haven't.
They've chosen to see youperform and I think that that is
just a really importantreminder that, like they want to
(06:05):
see you, and that must meansomething.
Think about, for example, allthe concerts that you have been
to.
You have wanted to hear thatperson and you have wanted to
have fun, just like.
Think of one concert, forinstance.
A few days ago I went to seethe Royal Scottish National
Orchestra perform their NewWorld Symphony.
I wanted to go, I was excited,I wanted to have fun.
(06:27):
That was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to see them because Ihave trust in them that they
will be good and the people whosee you also have that.
You know what I mean.
Like they also have that.
So if you think of one concert,just literally one that is like
that.
Just think about that and thenthink about the reverse.
(06:50):
People want to see you, justlike you want to see other
people in a concert, right?
And the third thing isassociating positive thinking to
your performances.
We don't want to take this tothe extreme.
I mean we have bad performancessometimes.
We don't want to be toopositive, that it is dangerous
or, you know, not helpful for us.
(07:10):
But it is okay to kind ofremember the positives as well
as the negatives.
I feel like sometimes we onlyremember the negatives and
that's not a good way to goabout things.
So choosing excitement overfear means that the next time
you are performing it will beeasier to be excited.
(07:33):
So if you are performing andyes, there might be things that
are stressful, yes, there mightbe things that didn't go well
but if you remember also themaybe lovely comments that you
got after your performance ormaybe something that you were
able to do that maybe a fewweeks ago, you will be able to
happen more in the future.
(08:05):
If you create more negativethoughts, then it is easier for
your brain to create more lateron.
But if you create more positivethoughts in the moment or even
after, then the next time youperform, your brain will find it
easier to to still create thosepositive thoughts and memories.
So that is another way of goingabout it associating positive
(08:30):
thinking to your performances.
Now, of course, you can havethings that you want to improve.
Of course there are things thatwill have maybe not gone as
well as you wanted to, but thatis okay for me.
Um, after my performance in theclass, I got out a notebook and
I just wrote down all of thethings that I wanted to improve
from it, and you know my, mythoughts and my, my things that
(08:53):
I want to do with it.
That's completely normal to doas well, but I think as well, on
top of that, remembering thepositives is a completely fine
thing to do.
I also wrote down some of thecomments that I got from other
students who said that Iperformed very well and they
thought that it was really goodand all of these things.
(09:13):
I also remembered some of thoseas well.
So the next time I have aperformance, I can kind of have
my confidence come from that aswell.
Okay, let's do a quick recap.
The first thing is thinking ofyour younger self.
How proud they would be of you.
The second thing isunderstanding that people are
there because they want to be,because they are there because
(09:36):
they want to be.
This is a fact and associatingpositive thinking to your
performances.
Yes, you can have things thatyou want to work on, of course,
but also remembering the thingsthat went well as well can be a
key factor to having good vibesin the performances coming up.
(09:59):
Okay, I know this episode was alittle bit of a shorter one I
don't know how long it's been,but, yeah, it's been a little
bit of a shorter one, but I hopethat you enjoyed it and I hope
to see you in the next episode.
If you did enjoy this episode,please do um, heart it, follow,
(10:21):
subscribe whatever, whatever isthat is on your platform to show
some love.
But I hope that you do showsome love for this episode, um,
and the podcast, and I will seeyou in the next episode.
All right, take care Bye.
That was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to see them because Ihave trust in them that they
will be good and the people whosee you also have that.
Hello and welcome to theConfident Musicianing Podcast.
My name is Eleanor and I am aBritish-American oboist studying
at the Royal Conservatoire ofScotland Literally my dream
(00:21):
school and it took me a long wayto get there.
I applied and auditioned for 12schools in three different
countries.
It was a lot of hard work but,oh my gosh, so worth it.
I want you to have theconfidence to work hard in
achieving your goals.
So come with me as we go onthis journey together.
(00:42):
So sit down, pull up a chair,take a seat or, if you're on the
go, welcome to the ConfidentMusicianing Podcast.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, andwelcome back to another episode
of the Confident MusicianingPodcast.
(01:02):
Thank you for being here.
Let's dive in.
So, basically, somethinghappened last week that was a
bit nerve-wracking and I gotthrough it.
But I didn't just get throughit, I got through it gladly.
So what I'm talking about is myfirst ever performance class
(01:24):
with other Woodwind students.
Now, if you don't know whatthat is because, to be honest,
this time last year I didn'teither.
It is a class that I have atmusic school which, basically,
you get chosen for differentclasses to perform a piece and
then you get feedback from theother students in the class and
(01:46):
also the teachers.
And I was chosen to play in aperformance class last week and
I performed and I don't know whyI did this.
And if you are an oboistespecially if you're an oboist
who knows this piece, you knowthat this is a tricky, tricky
piece.
(02:07):
Schumann's second oboe romance.
There's literally not acrotchet or quarter note rest
until like the third to last bar.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one especially forstamina.
It's very, it's very difficult,um, but I chose to do it.
Um and um.
(02:27):
So I I was a bit nervous aboutit.
I was, I was really nervousabout being able to, to get
through it.
Um.
But I remember sitting there inlike the warmup room before I
was about to go on and for somereason I just felt quite
contented.
I felt quite contented and Iwas like you know what, I'm
(02:47):
really proud of myself forgetting this far.
Um, and this is my first everperformance class in front of
all the woodwind students andI'm just going to have fun.
Um, and yes, of course I was abit nervous.
And yes, of course I was a bitnervous and yes, of course the
performance could have gonebetter.
It could have always have gonebetter.
There are always things, youknow, there's always things, but
(03:09):
I just I did really, really,really enjoy it and I was
nervous on the inside, but, like, I was also contented and ready
to go.
And so I've come up with threedifferent things to kind of
incorporate more joy in yourperformance, because there was
joy in that performance.
And let's, I want to just gothrough them with you today so
(03:32):
that you can have more joy inyour practice as well.
So the first thing is thinkingof your younger self.
I remember gosh, this was likealmost three years ago I was
doing a Japanese speech contest.
If you don't know this, I speaksome Japanese and I was in a
(03:52):
Japanese speech contest.
I had to write, memorize andperform a five minute speech in
Japanese and perform afive-minute speech in Japanese.
I ended up winning, actuallyfor the intermediate category,
and I remember kind of givingmyself a pep talk before I went
on to perform this speech andthis idea was think of your
younger self, how proud theywould be of you now.
(04:13):
So I thought at that time of myyounger self learning Japanese,
because I did start learningJapanese quite young.
I really enjoyed it and whatthat Eleanor would think of me
doing this competition and itwas so like I don't know.
It just gave me so much, somuch strength to do this,
because I knew that I was doingthis for her.
(04:35):
So if you think about maybe aperformance that you've done,
something that you've been apart of, that just has you know
like you can, you can thinkabout the younger version of you
and how proud they would bebecause we have all gotten
somewhere, even if thatsomewhere is um, you've just
started learning an instrument.
(04:56):
That is somewhere you've gottensomewhere.
Or if that somewhere is, youare at a music school, or maybe
you just got an orchestral jobor you know something, something
really major like that.
They are all steps, they're allsteps and our younger selves
would be proud of us.
So thinking about that canreally bring out the joy and the
(05:16):
just the excitement that youryounger self would have for you,
because they're still insideyou.
The next thing is understandingthat people are there because
they want to be.
So this is another thing nowfor my performance class.
All the woodwind students haveto be there.
It is a requirement for school,but we can think about it maybe
(05:40):
in a different way.
If you are doing a recital, ifyou are doing some sort of
performance where you knowpeople have chosen to be there,
they have chosen to be there.
You know what I mean.
Like they have chosen to bethere.
They could do other things,they haven't.
They've chosen to see youperform and I think that that is
just a really importantreminder that, like they want to
(06:05):
see you, and that must meansomething.
Think about, for example, allthe concerts that you have been
to.
You have wanted to hear thatperson and you have wanted to
have fun, just like.
Think of one concert, forinstance.
A few days ago I went to seethe Royal Scottish National
Orchestra perform their NewWorld Symphony.
I wanted to go, I was excited,I wanted to have fun.
(06:27):
That was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to see them because Ihave trust in them that they
will be good and the people whosee you also have that.
You know what I mean.
Like they also have that.
So if you think of one concert,just literally one that is like
that.
Just think about that and thenthink about the reverse.
(06:50):
People want to see you, justlike you want to see other
people in a concert, right?
And the third thing isassociating positive thinking to
your performances.
We don't want to take this tothe extreme.
I mean we have bad performancessometimes.
We don't want to be toopositive, that it is dangerous
or, you know, not helpful for us.
(07:10):
But it is okay to kind ofremember the positives as well
as the negatives.
I feel like sometimes we onlyremember the negatives and
that's not a good way to goabout things.
So choosing excitement overfear means that the next time
you are performing it will beeasier to be excited.
(07:33):
So if you are performing andyes, there might be things that
are stressful, yes, there mightbe things that didn't go well
but if you remember also themaybe lovely comments that you
got after your performance ormaybe something that you were
able to do that maybe a fewweeks ago, you will be able to
happen more in the future.
(08:05):
If you create more negativethoughts, then it is easier for
your brain to create more lateron.
But if you create more positivethoughts in the moment or even
after, then the next time youperform, your brain will find it
easier to to still create thosepositive thoughts and memories.
So that is another way of goingabout it associating positive
(08:30):
thinking to your performances.
Now, of course, you can havethings that you want to improve.
Of course there are things thatwill have maybe not gone as
well as you wanted to, but thatis okay for me.
Um, after my performance in theclass, I got out a notebook and
I just wrote down all of thethings that I wanted to improve
from it, and you know my, mythoughts and my, my things that
(08:53):
I want to do with it.
That's completely normal to doas well, but I think as well, on
top of that, remembering thepositives is a completely fine
thing to do.
I also wrote down some of thecomments that I got from other
students who said that Iperformed very well and they
thought that it was really goodand all of these things.
(09:13):
I also remembered some of thoseas well.
So the next time I have aperformance, I can kind of have
my confidence come from that aswell.
Okay, let's do a quick recap.
The first thing is thinking ofyour younger self.
How proud they would be of you.
The second thing isunderstanding that people are
there because they want to be,because they are there because
(09:36):
they want to be.
This is a fact and associatingpositive thinking to your
performances.
Yes, you can have things thatyou want to work on, of course,
but also remembering the thingsthat went well as well can be a
key factor to having good vibesin the performances coming up.
(09:59):
Okay, I know this episode was alittle bit of a shorter one I
don't know how long it's been,but, yeah, it's been a little
bit of a shorter one, but I hopethat you enjoyed it and I hope
to see you in the next episode.
If you did enjoy this episode,please do um, heart it, follow,
(10:21):
subscribe whatever, whatever isthat is on your platform to show
some love.
But I hope that you do showsome love for this episode, um,
and the podcast, and I will seeyou in the next episode.
All right, take care Bye.
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