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Record Yourself to Reduce Performance Anxiety

I asked many of my students to casually record themselves during practice to reduce their anxiety. It was something different that I wanted to try for getting ready for the Christmas recital. I’ve noticed a big decrease in stage fright this year and it reduced their anxiety.

Casual Recording vs Regular Recording

Casual recording is different than regular recording. Here’s the difference.

In regular recording, you’re playing through something 200 times trying to get a good take. You’re used to playing it perfectly, but it won’t come out right because that ominous recording light is on. It’s important to get everything perfect because you’re going to share it with others.

In casual recording, you just turn on the recording device, whatever comes out comes out, and you go back to practicing as normal. You don’t plan on sharing the recording, but you might review it to see if there’s something that you can improve. Maybe.

Some Results

First of all, I have to say that I didn’t create a scientific study. I’m dealing with people, not double-blind studies. Here are the patterns I’m seeing from my students and myself in the nervousness factor.

Starting Point: Crash and burn at least once per phrase, insists they can play perfectly at home. I believe them. I assign them to casually record themselves once a day.

1 Week of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with only one or two crash-and-burns.

2 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence, one or two small mistakes.

3 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence and emotion. Maybe a mistake or two because they’re human.

I have a tendency to attract a certain kind of student to my studio. I’m not saying that your results will be the same. Yours might be better or worse. This is just a summary of what I’m seeing in my studio, purely anecdotal.

Casual Recording Helps with Performance Anxiety

So, how does casual recording help? It makes the act of recording a no-big-deal, every day kind of thing. It makes you used to dealing with performance anxiety on a certain level each time you do it. That’s why I’ve been recommending my students to casually record themselves once a day to reduce their anxiety.

A regular recording might actually increase your anxiety because your body is thinking, “Ugh, another three hours to record one piece, and even then it won’t be perfect.” Can you feel the dread?

From my results, I’m going to start assigning casual recording for a month before a performance. I’ve seen how it has helped my students this winter. I know it will help them through the rest of their lives.

The Performance

Every once in awhile, poetry just pops into my head and I have to write it down or I obsess. Since you guys like to read my writing, I thought I’d share this piece of poetry.

The Performance

I empty my soul for my audience.
My soul goes out to you through my performance.
It sympathizes with you and heals you.
It brings out past joys and hurts because you need to remember them.
It reminds you how hope and happiness feels.


Everything I have ever thought or felt goes into my performance.
My performance pulls all the bad things out of your being and blows them away.
It cleans your psyche.
It fills the empty places of your being with love, joy, and happiness.
It heals both you and me.


During my performance, our spirits twine.
I draw happiness from you, and you draw happiness from me.
It doesn’t deplete our happiness, it increases it.
It is an exponential formula for creating joy.
It either energizes me or fully depletes me.

I always leave satisfied.

Guess I Need to Buy a Trumpet

It all started at my studio Christmas recital. My oldest child was getting ready to play her solo on Clarinet. I noted that I don’t teach her anymore on Clarinet, but she still wanted to play in the recital. I’ve done that in the past with other people. For the record, I still teach her piano.

I went on to say that back in college I took all the pedagogy courses which helped me be certified through 8th grade on all the wind and percussion instruments. My oldest is now in high school, so I handed her over to a clarinet specialist.

I got a phone call shortly after the recital, asking to start two young trumpet players. They’re below band age, but I knew that technology has changed. If I can start a flute player in 1st grade due to new technology in flutes, I can definitely start a trumpet in 1st grade. The trumpet only uses a quarter of the volume of air as the flute (not talking about backpressure) and they don’t have to worry about a long reach with the arms.

Research time!

I love research. My favorite way to do it is to sit there with a cup of coffee and 20 tabs open on my browser, reading through each website that popped up on my internet search.

I looked at a ton of websites, and they all agreed that the pTrumpet was the way to go, especially for children under 5th grade. The reason for this is not because of lung development, but because of the weight of a regular trumpet vs. a plastic trumpet. A regular trumpet is just too heavy for the littles.

My trumpet mom bought the trumpets at Reverb (affiliate link) because that was the best price I could find, being on sale for 50% off for Christmas. I didn’t see any at my local music stores. I also didn’t think to ask, so, if you’re reading this, sorry!

Now I had to research which what the best trumpet method book to buy. I looked at a ton of websites to see what the best method books were out there for trumpet. I saw a bunch of them recommended band method books, but I wanted something specifically written for trumpet.

The number one ranked was Rubank (affiliate link). Well, I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, lol. The Rubank series has been a standard for band instruments for decades. I trust it.

There were a few websites that also recommended using Arban along with the Rubank. It’s a $45 book, which I thought was a little steep for a brand new beginner book, even though it’s supposed to stick with you all the way through college. I figure I’ll mention it later once they’re a little more serious.

Time to Message Musician Gear Garage

So, I’ve made it pretty clear that I love buying used instruments, especially when first starting out. As soon as I was done doing the research for my client, I messaged my friend, Chad, over at Musician Gear Garage. I said, “Welp, I need to buy a trumpet.”

Chad asked me what my budget was and I told him. He told me he had an Olds Ambassador from the early 60’s. Due to my purposes, he said that it would be a great fit for me. I should have something better than a student trumpet for teaching as I get better and better.

He told me that Olds started out as a professional instrument maker. As the student market grew, they took their professional trumpets, stamped them with the Ambassador label, and sold them as student trumpets. They did that until 1964 when they merged with Reynolds.

“Sold!” I said, and I set up an appointment to do my yearly checkup for my woodwind instruments, at which I’d buy up my new trumpet.

Buying a “New” Trumpet

When I got there, I dropped off my woodwinds and said, “So, where’s my new trumpet?” We opened it up and it was a shade of brass that I’d never seen before. It has almost a reddish tone to it.

He had a wide selection of mouthpieces for me to try out to check which one I liked the most. As I stood there buzzing, I double-checked every mouthpiece after I made my decision. As I tried them out, I was getting better. Due to this phenomenon, I changed my decision at least three times. I finally settled on a standard 7C (I can’t remember the brand, lol).

I really loved the fact that he allowed me to try out all the mouthpieces for my individual best fit. I’m sure I wouldn’t get that kind of treatment if I were to buy a trumpet at most other places.

Maintenance

This is what he told me about maintenance:

  1. Valve Oil should happen any time you feel one of the valves sticking. He showed me a different way to put in the valve oil that makes it less likely that you will ruin a valve.
  2. Slide Oil should happen once a week. I like to do those types of things on Sundays.
  3. A Bath should happen once per quarter. It’s just a little dish soap in the bathtub and your disassembled trumpet (minus the felt pads).

As long as I meet these requirements, I don’t need to bring in my instrument regularly like I do a woodwind. I only have to bring it in when something is stuck or dented. Woohoo!

So, that’s the story about how I bought my first trumpet. I had a lot of fun doing it. Stay tuned for hearing about my first week playing it.

I’m Back!

I’m not one to give myself the option of excuses. I generally feel that if you want to do something, you’ll figure out a way.

That being said, I have been remiss in my bi-weekly articles, and I apologize. Let me tell you about the happenings from the past few weeks that have kept me away from my computer.

I Got Covid

Yes, I got the dreaded Covid-19 over Thanksgiving. It was a light case – similar to a bad cold – but I did get fatigue. I had a hard time getting myself to do anything for a whole month.

I did get shortness of breath. Before calling the doctor (it was a Sunday), I decided to try playing flute, first. Within 15 minutes, my shortness of breath went away. I had a hard time practicing very long due to the fatigue, but I made sure to practice my flute without fail every day because of this. It kept the shortness of breath away.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, I’m just telling you about my experiences.

Phantom of the Opera

I talked more about that here. I’m greatly enjoying myself as music director, but it’s more work than I was doing before.

Trumpet!

I will be starting a new series about this, but I am relearning the trumpet. I learned it back in college as part of my certification for music education, and now I’m relearning it for a teaching gig.

Published Composer!!!

I published a piano arrangement, Hallelujah, based on Leonard Cohen’s piece. I’m kind of in shock and awe that this happened.

My Husband Opened His Garage

My husband is an ASE Master Technician. He opened his own mechanic’s garage on January 4th. I’ve been helping him (almost) every morning with phone calls, checking in clients, etc. The name of the shop is DC Automotive.

Conclusion

So, it’s been a busy month and a half, but things are starting to settle into a groove. I feel like I can go back to writing an article every other week. Thank you for your patience, and I’ll see you in my next article. 🙂

Trust Your Training

Life keeps sending me the same message: trust your training. Imposter syndrome is strong in the music community and I’m no exception. I wanted to let you know what happened to me recently to send me that message, once again.

The Proposal

A couple of weeks ago, the producer asked me to conduct for the pit orchestra for Kim Moore’s Phantom of the Opera. I hadn’t touched a conductor’s baton since college. We won’t talk about how many years ago that was. I turned them down because I don’t have much experience conducting.

I had been playing flute with that acting troupe for the past two years. There were times, as first chair, that it was my role to jump in and help with rehearsals. She called back and explained that they were so impressed with my ability to help with rehearsals that they wanted me to conduct. She pointed out that I have the training and I help people practice all the time as a teacher, I just need to trust my training.

She was right. I am good at helping people practice because of my interest in practice techniques. I also rehearse people every day as part of my job as a flute and piano teacher. My husband and I discussed it, and we decided to go for it. After all, I am technically fully qualified for the position. Also, I have a tendency to underestimate my abilities.

Several Weeks of Nervousness

When I got all of the information about the conducting position, they told me that I also had to rehearse the singers. I wasn’t just the pit orchestra conductor, I was the music director. AAAAHHH!!!

If you’ve read my post about singing, you know that I absolutely love to sing, but I’ve only recently overcome my insecurities about it. I have good reason for those insecurities.

What if I messed up? What if someone called me out on a mistake that I didn’t realize I did? What if they could tell that I haven’t worked with a choir in a very long time?

Reminding Myself To Trust my Training

When I was in college, I was required to take three courses on teaching people to sing and how to conduct a choir. Since then, I’ve been to educational workshops and had many in-depth discussions with a few friends who are professional singers. Flutes and singers have a lot in common with tone production and breathing. Even James Galway has mentioned that he’s interviewed famous opera singers to help him with his tone and vibrato.

I’m a Lutheran, and we’re famous for being the best in the world at teaching choirs to sing. In addition to the “street cred” that I get for being a Lutheran in the world of music, the information isn’t limited to music world. I even saw information on that little factoid on the travel channel. It’s a bit of a mystery why we’re so good at teaching people to sing, but it’s because we simplify everything to make it as easy as possible.

I spent those weeks of nervousness reminding myself of my training, reviewing my textbooks and workshop booklets, and bolstering my self-confidence.

The First Rehearsal

After those few weeks of self-doubt and reviewing my information from old classes and workshops, the day finally arrived. I spent all day reviewing the music, running the parts for myself, and practicing doing cues (that was the only part that it seemed I was rusty at). Finally, evening came and time for rehearsal.

This is a semi-professional musical, so some people are pros and some are amateurs. I knew that there would be the gambit of training from, “Hey, you have a nice voice,” all the way to classically trained.

I started with asking if anyone didn’t know how to belly breathe. All the kids raised their hands, so I taught belly breathing.

Then we dove into the music. I never came up for air. I was in my element. We were singing with the recordings. I was pounding parts on the piano and throwing out diction tips. We were having a blast.

I taught back-breathing to some of the more advanced singers to help them hold their notes longer. They were really excited to get that new skill. Everyone was very receptive to my working with them and everything felt completely natural.

I was going to teach J-breathing for one of the pieces because of some accented sections, but there were too many singers in that piece who were just learning belly-breathing for the first time. I mentioned that to the producer at the end of the rehearsal and one of the classically trained singers overheard me and asked me to teach him.

By the time I got to my vehicle, I was walking on air. It was one of those dream rehearsals that everyone involved in music education has ever wanted to have. I felt silly for worrying all those weeks.

How Does This Apply to You?

It’s nice that I felt vindicated, but this blog is about me helping you to be a better musician. I mostly share practice techniques, but sometimes we have to get past our psyches in order to be better musicians.

So, as musicians, we have specialized training. It starts with your private lessons, then goes to festivals, classes, camps, and workshops. Your training even includes the people you talk to in the bathroom at those events listed above. Sometimes you even learn more from those bathroom conversations than the event itself. Your training also includes reading articles, listening to or reading interviews, and being on web forums.

My whole message in this is to trust your training. Rely on your education. You know this stuff. You can do it. You might be a little rusty and that’s okay. You might have learned it a long time ago and have to review it, and that’s okay. You still know it and it will come back to you at the drop of a hat.

Rant: Hymn Arrangements for Solo Instruments

I have a frustration around hymn arrangements for solo instruments and piano. Most of them are written at about a 7th grade level for the instrument. No runs, no fun rhythms, and no ornamentation, just a hymn that is played exactly how we would sing it.

That’s great for 7th graders or someone who is just coming back to their instrument. I have absolutely no problem with young musicians playing in church. In fact, I encourage it. On the other hand, it’s discouraging for anyone at a high school level or above.

When I was in college, I found one book that I absolutely love. The arrangements are beautiful and interesting. The problem is finding a church organist who is able to play it. The piano part is harder than the flute part and it would take the average church organist 3 months to learn it. Not practical.

I’m starting to see more and more hymn arrangements out there that have a harder flute part, which is great to see. I’m glad that the composers are hearing us and filling our needs.

The problem with these arrangements is sometimes people with doctorates in piano have a hard time playing the accompaniment part. I’m not exaggerating. Many of the books try to overcome this by coming with a CD which is nice for at home but a little cheesy for a performance.

I would like to see more hymn arrangements in the school of Donjon’s Offertoire which has half-notes in the accompaniment and 32nd notes in the flute part. Unfortunately Offertoire isn’t hymn-based, but you get the idea. Arpeggios are prettier on the piano than half notes, so maybe do some *easy* arpeggios in one hand with half notes in the other hand.

I know that the answer to all of this would be to just write them all myself, but I have a hard time getting over my fear of sending stuff in to the publisher. Therefore, I have a hard time finishing things. Anyone want to stand over my shoulder and make me do it? (Kinda joking, but really I’m not.)

So, hear me, oh, ye sacred composers! We want church flute music that’s challenging for the soloist but sight readable for a church organist – we’re talking right around early to middle intermediate. Go! Do! Be better than me and actually send stuff into the publisher!

How to Write Your Own Technical Exercises

No one taught me how to write my own technical exercises. It’s something that I figured out on my own by teaching from the technique books that go along with the methods for Faber, Alfred, and Bastien. I know that I’m not the only one who helps their students learn this technique, and I’ve never seen a source that formally teaches how to do it.

Several Philosophies on Technical Exercises

There are lots of different philosophies about how to use technical exercises and whether to use them at all. First let me say that I’m a huge supporter of technical exercises (besides that article, also see here), I’m just presenting some different philosophies around them.

Philosophy #1: You don’t need technical exercises, just repertoire.

The people who feel this way have several reasons for it:

  1. It takes too much practice time away from the repertoire.
  2. It causes pain from repeating a pattern too much with bad form.
  3. The patterns that are taught aren’t necessarily found in music that they play.
  4. They’re boring.

Philosophy #2: Use a technical studies book.

These people know that, while these technical studies might not necessarily come up in the repertoire that they’re currently working on, they’ll eventually come across the patterns that are taught in the book. They religiously practice them daily as part of their warm-ups and excel because of it.

Philosophy #3: Write your own Technical Exercises.

Some of these people agree with the people in Philosophy #1, but have seen the results from the people in philosophy #2. Some of these people were entrenched in philosophy #2 and discovered that they could write their own technical exercises, and started doing that occasionally.

The Steps to Write Your Own Technical Exercises

Step 1: Identify the problem.

You’re playing along, sightreading your new piece, and, BAM! A tough section hits you straight in the eyes.

This is Mozart’s Concerto #1 for flute. The circled section is what we’ll be working with today.

Step 1: Divide the notes by 3 or 5, overlapping.

In this instance, I chose to divide them up by 3. This makes the technical study easier.

If you want to divide it up by 5, there will be less studies. It’ll be a little bit harder, but you’ll learn it faster.

Divide up the notes by 3, overlapping.
This is a division by 3, overlapping. We want it to overlap so we can transition better between ideas.

Step 2: Write out the first study.

Make the first section into repeating 16th notes so that each note gets the chance to be first on the beat.

The section marked 1 goes with the first section in the above picture.

Step 3: Repeat Step 2 for each note division.

Step 4: Play it.

If you run through the whole thing once (with repeats), you might be able to play the excerpt correctly. If not, keep practicing at it. You can even decide to practice a different section per day five times while playing the rest of it once.

You may have to change up the rhythms to get it into your fingers, but you’ve done the lion’s share of the work just by writing it out.

Why Writing Your Own Technical Exercise Works

The important factor in this exercise is that each note gets a chance to be the first on the beat. Your brain automatically gives preference to the first note of the beat and accents it. You’re changing the accent of the pattern, therefore evening things out in your head.

Another factor is that as you write out the notes, your subconscious mind sees patterns that it didn’t see when you first read through the section.

The final factor is that you’re using your creative energy to write something, so your subconscious deems it as important. To your subconscious, writing your own is more relevant to your practice than a technical exercise that some dead guy thought might be helpful a long time ago.

Final Note:

Once you’ve written your own technical exercises a few times, you can start doing it in your head rather than on paper. It won’t be as powerful for the subconscious mind, but it’ll save you 5 minutes.

Adult Beginners on Musical Instruments are Fabulous

Adult beginners take up about 20% of my studio. I absolutely love to teach them how to play a musical instrument for many reasons. Here’s why.

Adult Beginners Are Dedicated

Adult beginners are generally really good at practicing regularly. They have a goal – to play well – and they know there’s only one way to achieve it. Practice.

Adult Beginners Learn Quickly

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Chinese Proverb.

Many adults want to catch up to where they would be if they started learning as a child. Luckily, their brains are fully developed so in the first year they gain about three years’ worth of skill. Children’s brains and muscles are still developing, so they take longer to learn things

Don’t believe me? Check out an adult beginner’s piano book. The last pieces are about the same level as the end of the third book in the children’s series.

I Don’t Have to Dumb Myself Down

When I teach a practice technique to a grade schooler, if they ask why it works, I have to say, “magic,” because I will completely lose them if I explained why.

When I teach a practice technique to an adult, I can go into the psychology of why it works and how we’re going around a wall our subconscious minds built rather than through. This is one of my favorite things.

Emotional Performances

This goes back to having a fully developed brain. It also goes to having more life experiences. If I assign something like the Moonlight Sonata, which should be played with tons of emotion, I can get it instantly from an adult. I usually have to teach someone younger than 8th grade how to fake it.

Adult Beginners Know What They Want

Most adult beginners usually have a clear vision of what they want to get out of their music lessons. While my job is to push them forward, they will show me the direction they want to be pushed.

Most want to use the piano to relax and maybe release some emotions. These are things that are necessary to life as a musician, anyway.

Some absolutely love the classical music and they want to be classically trained. The classical music is what drives them. Some are driven by pop, musicals, and Disney.

Some adults have a different purpose to learning their instrument. They want to learn how to compose or play in a band or church. I keep these things in mind when helping them decide on repertoire.

Ergonomics

Maybe I’m crazy, but I absolutely love helping people with the ergonomics of their instrument. I want them to enjoy the life-building activity of playing their instrument. I don’t want them to have to deal with tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, or some other form of tendonitis.

Because our bodies are not what they used to be, we have to be more careful about injury. Depending on the person, I sometimes start out with various upper-body stretches that target the common issues that flutists or pianists have. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I Get to Watch their Brain Grow

Studies have shown how great learning an instrument is for your brain. Here’s an article with a few different studies about that.

With kids, I don’t notice the difference because their brain is growing, anyway. I can’t always tell that their brain growing faster than it was before because I didn’t necessarily know them before.

With adults, I can really see a difference after the first year of playing an instrument. I’m not sure how to measure it, but they learn faster, remember things better, and are all-around sharper. It’s fun to see.

Conclusion

As you can see, I love working with adult beginners. I think it’s fabulous to see people learn new skills at every stage of life. If you’re not feeling great about starting later, I hope this either helps you strengthen your resolve or decide to start.

Scales Don’t Take as Long as You Think

Scales really don’t take that long to practice. I never really thought about that until I hopped on Facebook the other day. The following quote was the first thing that came up. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Tip of the Day: “If you play scales in 16ths at a metronome marking of 96, you can play all the major and melodic minor scales in about two minutes. Little time to practice is no excuse for not practicing scales every day.” Patricia George, Flute Talk Magazine, April 2009.

My first thought was, “YES!!!! You tell ’em!” My opinion on scales is here.

Then I thought about my personal practice. Unless I’m using my 5-minute warm-up, I just run through a page or two from a scale book every day. I don’t usually run through all of the scales, just the one the book is focusing on for that page (a lot of times I’ll sync that up with the key signature that I’m playing in for my repertoire). That’s a lot more time than 2 minutes.

Those exercises in the scale books are there to even out your fingers so you can play your runs evenly. They do that through different rhythms and articulations. Most of the scale exercises go through all the church modes, not just Major or minor. That way you can begin and end on a different note of the scale and not get thrown off in your repertoire.

In other words, running through all your scales, major and minor, from memory is kind of like mopping. It keeps everything clean, it doesn’t take as much time as you think, and it’s important.

Running through a page or two of a scale book is kind of like scrubbing grout with a toothbrush. It’s not feasable to do the whole floor, but the section that you run through is gleaming. This is why we think that scales can take a long time.

Both things are important. It may or may not be necessary for you to run all your scales every day, but it might be smart to do so once every week or two. If you’re going to rehearsals, you’re (hopefully) running through your scales beforehand during your 5-minute warm-up.

I’m not going to rehearsals right now, so I don’t know about you, but I’m going to start running all my scales once a week just to keep things clean. It might be on a day that I’m a little pressed for time because practicing scales like this doesn’t take long. Once rehearsals start back up, I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Practice Session Musings

Someone said something the other day that really resonated with me. He said, “Even if you feel like you’re having an off day, every time you pick up your instrument, you’re getting better than you were yesterday.”

It resonated because it’s something that I’ve been wanting to say about practice sessoins, but I couldn’t get the words to gel in my mind. When he said it, my jaw dropped and I thought, “Someone put it into words!”

Suzuki said, “Only practice on the days you eat.”

Mary Kay Ash said, “If you take a day off, you’ll have an off day.”

I’ve already talked about practice vs play, but sometimes a practice session can be just playing things you already know because it’s fun or because it feels good. You’re still moving forward, even if you’re playing things that you already know.

I’m not saying that you should substitute playing for having a regular practice session every day, but it might be nice to play once a week instead of practicing. You’re still at your instrument. You may not be moving forward as fast as you like, but you’re keeping it fun.