The Bulletproof Musician

A few weeks ago, my dog herniated a disk. He could barely sit, let alone walk and squat to do his business.

The vet gave him some drugs (apparently dogs take codeine?!), and told us that he needed to be kept in his crate, pretty much 24/7 for the next few weeks, to allow his spine to heal.

For the first week or so, it seemed like nothing was changing, and we began to worry - what do we do if this is how he is for the rest of his life?

But one day, suddenly, he had a smidge more pep in his step. The next day, things were better still. And he has continued to improve with each passing day.

Umm...and what does this have to do with music?

Well, have you ever had one of those days (or weeks), where nothing seems to be improving, and you start to wonder if the real problem is simply a lack of ability or talent?

It's easy for our mind to go there, but often, the issue is more a matter of having patience - and taking comfort in the knowledge that you're practicing the right way.

And how do you know if you're practicing the right way?

Whether it's learning how to play fast, be more in tune, nail those tricky shifts, or become a more expressive player, cellist Hans Jørgen Jensen shares insights on how to approach these issues in your daily practice.

Hans Jørgen Jensen: On Practicing With the Mind, Not Just the Fingers

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Praising a student is easy. Giving critical feedback can be much tougher.

I mean, how can we call their attention to the things that don't sound great, while still building up their confidence?

Are feedback sandwiches (praise-criticism-praise) the answer? Or do we just praise their efforts? Or compliment mediocre work anyway?

A 2014 study provides some clues, and highlights one specific ingredient that is important to include in whatever feedback we give students, that could make them feel more empowered and likely to not only accept our feedback but act on it too.

Get all the nerdy details: How to Give Students Critical Feedback Without Crushing Their Confidence

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever had one of those moments in the practice room, where you suddenly notice that physically, you've been going through the motions for the last couple minutes, but mentally, you've been spacing out or thinking about something else entirely?

It might mean that you could use a quick nap, practice break, or even a drink of water (yep, there's a study on that!) to clear your head. But it could also be that you've just got a lot of stuff on your to-do list competing for your time and attention.

Jotting down these tasks on a to-do list can help - but a 2011 study found that this may not be enough to stop them from randomly popping into your thoughts and being a distraction. Luckily, the researchers also found a simple technique that can help to increase your focus in the moment!

Get all the nerdy details and this week’s practice hack right here:

​How to Increase Your Focus in the Practice Room

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

I actually never got into coffee myself. Not for any health or philosophical reason, but because I'm not a fan of hot liquids in general (is that weird?).

I can certainly appreciate the appeal of having something to boost your energy and get you through those mid-afternoon slumps. But what if there was a better way to not only get through the day but also increase the effectiveness of your practice, while improving learning and performance?

A 2008 study suggests that napping may be a better way to go for maximal practice gains, as caffeine might actually impair learning. Eek! 😳

Get all the nerdy details right here:

​Boost Learning and Performance With Naps, Not Coffee!

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

It's often said that "perfect practice makes perfect," but what does "perfect practice" actually look like?

Does it mean what it sounds like it means? And is the saying even true, anyhow?

Researcher Robert Duke has been studying learning for decades, and has conducted a number of studies specifically in the area of music learning and teaching. In today's episode, he shares many of the insights he's gained over the years, and dispels some common misunderstandings about learning, which have direct implications on how we practice and teach.

Whether it's the role of mistake-making in learning, whether advanced players make more or fewer mistakes than less-experienced players, what professionals and students do differently in the practice room, and the potential value of limiting the number of repetitions you allow yourself to do, I think you'll find at least one new thing in today's episode that will change how you approach practicing in the upcoming week.

Get all the nerdy details here:
Robert Duke: On the Value of Errors, and How Learning Really Works

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder what it is that makes great teachers great? Like, are there any commonalities in the pedagogical approaches of renowned teachers?

A 2006 analysis of 30 hours of lesson footage of violinist Donald McInnes, oboist Richard Killmer, and pianist Nelita True found 19 common elements in their teaching approach across a range of students, from high school to doctoral level.

Click through for all the nerdy details:

19 Things That Great Teachers Do

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever had someone suggest that you "think of your performance as a gift that you are sharing with the audience" as a way to help you calm your nerves before a performance?

Did that resonate with you at all? And either way, is there any evidence that reframing performances in such a way would help at all?

A 2015 study provides some clues. Learn more in today's episode, or click through for all the nerdy details:

How the ‘Gift’ Reframe Could Enhance Performance

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself struggling to get a tricky shift or big leap in tune consistently?

There are lots of helpful ways to practice and problem-solve such challenges, but there's a method that comes from sports - involving a metronome, believe it or not - that might be helpful to add to your toolbox.

How to Nail Shifts and Big Leaps More Consistently

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

As a kid, I had a habit of scanning the audience to see if I could catch a glimpse of my mom's reactions to my performance.

Generally, she'd be making a frowny sort of face, which didn't feel great then, but I now understand was probably more a look of concern, rather than disapproval.

I don't know why I did that, because it didn't help. And how freaky must that have been for the people in the audience? Especially in the vicinity of my mom? Like, what the heck is this kid looking at? Wait...is he looking at me?

Anyhow, I mention this because I found a study that reminded me of this old habit. Essentially, a team of researchers found that high and low-anxious folks tend to focus on very different things during a stressful task, and that this difference in attention was associated with either a milder or more severe stress response.

With college auditions coming up in the next couple months, this seemed like a particularly relevant tip that could come in pretty handy, whether during the playing bits or interview bits.

Get all the nerdy details and this week’s practice hack right here:

​How to Keep Anxiety From Spiraling, on Stage and Off

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

When it comes to practicing (or exercising or studying, etc.), there are a lot of times when we want to do the right thing...but we don't feel like it. And because feelings often win out, it can be easy to end up procrastinating, delaying, and putting things off.

But what if there were a way to make practicing (or working out/studying) more enjoyable?

Turns out there's a very crafty way to make practicing more enjoyable - while making sure we don't cheat ourselves by making practice easier.

Learn how in this week's practice hack, taken from a 2016 study in behavioral economics:

A Clever Practice Hack to Make Practicing More Enjoyable

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

We tend to think of laser-like focus as a good thing - but sometimes this can lead to getting stuck obsessing about a particular section of music and working on it over and over, but with no real progress being made.

How can we avoid this, and approach practicing so that we are able to boost our creative problem-solving abilities and come up with more effective solutions in less time?

A 2017 study provides some surprising answers!

The Problem With Intense Laser-Like Focus in the Practice Room

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Self-doubt is something that plagues us all from time to time. Whether it’s a rough semester in school, a trying week with a difficult conductor, or a string of auditions where it feels like we’ve stopped growing and hit a plateau, it can be easy to question our abilities and wonder if we have what it get any further down the path.

Conventional wisdom suggests that we have to find a way to eliminate this self-doubt, but it turns out the relationship between self-doubt and performance may not be what you’d expect.

Why a Little Self-Doubt Before Performing Could Be a Good Thing

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Jennifer Montone is Principal Horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and teaches at teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. Jennifer is an active chamber musician, hs performed as a guest artist or soloist with numerous orchestras, and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, also has a Grammy Award for her performance of the Penderecki Horn Concerto with the Warsaw National Philharmonic.

Today’s episode is made extra special, in that I’m joined by guest co-host Catherine Cho (violin). A top prize-winner at the Hannover, Queen Elizabeth, and Montreal competitions, Catherine maintains an active performing career, serves on the faculty at The Juilliard School, and has also recently been appointed Artistic Advisor of the biennial Starling-DeLay Symposium.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore…

4:12 - Why is playing horn such a mental game? And what do horn players worry about anyway? Jennifer illustrates the mind of a horn player by walking us through one of her recent low points - and how she recovered.

8:32 - How do you separate how you feel from how you sound? As in, how do you avoid getting sucked into the mental negativity spiral of assuming that if you feel bad you must sound bad?

11:29 - What do violinists (and string players) worry about? And whether as a horn player or violinist (or any musician, really), how can one get to a better place mentally?

14:05 - Jennifer describes the three ingredients that seem to contribute to an optimal mental balance during performing.

17:10 - A funny anecdote which illustrates how different musicians approach nerves differently.

18:38 - Are young musicians nowadays more open to talking about nerves than in previous generations? Or is that just because teachers are more open to providing a space to talk about this than in the past?

23:46 - How does parenthood affect you as a musician? What are the positive impacts, and what are some of the challenges?

28:43 - Jennifer and Catherine describe their teaching journeys and how they’ve worked at the craft of teaching over the years.

35:22 - What kinds of notes do Jennifer and Catherine take during (or after) lessons?

37:44 - What it says on the refrigerator magnet that Jennifer will look to for support on tough days.

35:08 - The thing Catherine did one year with her studio that made a “very, very significant” change in the growth of her students that year.

43:06 - What is something that was really difficult for Jennifer and Catherine? And what is something that has come pretty easily?

46:02 - The approach Jennifer adopted when recovering from a serious jaw injury that helped her go from feeling like a player with lots of technical shortcomings, to feeling like a much stronger and more confident technical player.

====

And, if you’ve been feeling stuck on a practice or performance or audition plateau lately, check out the Beyond Practicing mental skills course mentioned in the episode, which is available at

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Most people intuitively assume that the best way to address performance anxiety is to calm down, but research suggests that this may actually result in worse performances (?!).

A 2013 paper describes three studies in different performance domains that give us a counterintuitive - and more effective - way to respond to performance anxiety.

 Why Telling Yourself to “Calm Down” Backstage May Be Counterproductive

====

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

We are often encouraged to maintain a positive mental attitude. And there are tons of books and blog posts devoted to explaining how important this is as well.

But sometimes it can be exhausting to keep it up!

So how important is it really, to maintain a positivity 24/7?

Or could there be some hidden downsides?

A 2018 study provides some counterintuitive findings, related not just to overall mental health and well-being, but performance as well.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Kim Laskowski has been the associate principal bassoonist of the NY Philharmonic since 2003, winning her position at age 48 - without a prior symphonic background.

She shares her story in this episode, as well as tons of insights on practice and preparation, from how to listen, how to do repetitions in your practice without going on autopilot, and more.

 Kim Laskowski: On Developing a Beautiful Expressive Sound and Teaching Yourself How to Learn

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

You've probably had teachers who encouraged you to listen to recordings, and one of the Suzuki method's core elements is the importance of listening to recordings. But does this actually help learning? Or is it just one of those things that we do because it sounds like the right thing to do, and we've always done it that way?

A 2012 study provides some answers - and additional insights on different types of listening: passive listening and distracted listening.

 How Important is Listening to Recordings, Really?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Stress and nerves have a tendency to disrupt our memory, but a 2016 study suggests that this isn't inevitable. And that if we integrate a particular kind of practice into the learning and memorization process, we can make our memory more "bulletproof" under pressure.

 The Practice Strategy That Could “Bulletproof” Your Memory Under Pressure

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Most musicians (and athletes) have heard of mental practice, and have probably been encouraged to do it. But have you ever been taught *how* to do mental practice?

Most research centers on whether mental practice works, or what type is best, but today's study looks at a strategy for learning how to do mental practice. And it describes a technique for how to get better at mental practice - and see changes in performance - even if you've never been very good at imagery in the past.

 A Better Way to Do Mental Practice

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

As common as it is to create practice goals centered around time or repetition (e.g. practice scales for 10 minutes every day), a 2012 study suggests that there could be a better way to set practice goals, that could lead to significantly greater improvements in the same amount of practice time.

 The Problem With Time and Repetition-Based Practice Goals (And What to Do Instead)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

We all know how valuable practice performances and mock auditions can be - but I think it's probably human nature to wait until everything is "ready" before we start recording and playing for others.

Of course, how far in advance of an audition or performance should we be playing for others? Is it important that we wait until things are pretty close to being performance-ready? Or should we be aiming to play for others much sooner than we might otherwise assume?

 When is the Optimal Time to Start Doing Performance Practice?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder what role praise and criticism plays in learning? Like, is there an optimal ratio of positive to negative that seems to work best?

A 1976 analysis of legendary basketball coach John Wooden's coaching provides some surprising insights into what might actually work best.

 What Is More Effective for Learning - Praise or Criticism?

Also, if you've been wanting to feel more comfortable performing, but aren't sure how to go about it, you might be interested in the live online 4-week class starting in October. Get all the details here:

 Performance Psych Essentials (for Musicians)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wish there were a way to be less affected by nerves under pressure. Like, if there could be a flu shot equivalent for nerves to help "inoculate" you to pressure?

Researchers have wondered this as well, and a pair of studies suggest that we totally can!

 Is It Possible to Increase Your “Immunity” to Nerves? The Research Suggests Yes - And Here’s How to Do It.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Fear of memory slips is a common issue for many musicians. But I don't know that many of us have ever been taught specifically how to memorize either...

Turns out there's a relatively simple strategy we can use to significantly improve how much of the new music we're learning "sticks" in our memory.

 Wish You Could Memorize Better? Why a Little Bit of "Verbalization" Might Be the Missing Ingredient.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Eliminating nerves, or staying positive and turning your inner critic into an optimist can be difficult, frustrating, and exhausting.

But what if we didn't have to? What if there were another way, another path to performing optimally where we didn't have to fight our nerves quite so much?

Today's guests share insights into a relatively new approach to managing nerves and performance stress that is gaining increasing interest in both sport and music circles - ACT.

 David Juncos & Elvire de Paiva e Pona: On ACT and a New Approach to Overcoming Performance Anxiety

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

There are quite a few studies that have looked at the practice habits of top performers, but there are few that have looked at the practice habits of the top performers who also improve at the greatest rate.

Today's study does just that and identifies one key practice process that's associated with the most growth and improvement.

 Optimizing Practice: 2 Things That the Best Performers Do & 1 Thing That the Best “Improvers” Do

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder why ear training is such an emphasis in the standard music curriculum? How important is it that we be good at it? What does it actually help us with?

A 2004 study of pianists provides some answers!

 Why Ear Training Might Matter More Than You Think

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Turns out what we think about right before we start playing can have a significant effect on how well we perform! So if your brain tends to suddenly imagine worst-case scenarios, or blank out, or get distracted, a recent tennis study provides some clues on what would be more helpful to keep our mind focused on instead.

 Two Helpful Things to Think About on Stage, Right Before You Start Playing

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Could clutter be affecting your ability to focus in the practice room? Research suggests that it could - and potentially affecting your learning as well!

 If You Have Difficulty Staying Focused While Practicing, Could Clutter Be a Factor?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself reacting negatively to certain pieces or orchestral excerpts, not because you can't play it, but because there's still some mental or emotional "baggage" lingering in the background from previous negative experiences?

Recent research suggests that it may be possible to "edit" or update these memories so that they don't carry so much weight.

 Memory Reconsolidation: A Way to Dump Your Negative Audition and Performance Baggage?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself struggling to help a student play more expressively. With so many different approaches to choose from - e.g. imagery/metaphors to instructions to demonstrations/listening assignments, is there one that works best?

 Three Ways to Teach Students How to Play More Expressively (Is There a “Best” Way?)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever worry that the mistakes you inadvertently make in the practice room could come back to bite you in the butt in performance?

Turns out you may not have to worry as much as you'd think - as long as you're making mistakes the right way.

Wait...what does that even mean?!

More details in today's episode. =)

 How Making Mistakes Can Accelerate Learning

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

I think we've all wondered what the most effective strategies for memorization might be. But have you ever wondered what the most efficient strategy might be? The one that gets you the furthest in the least amount of time?

In today's episode, we'll explore four strategies for memorizing - all of which work, but two of which get you to the same place in much less time than the others.

 The Two Most Efficient (and Two Least Efficient) Memorization Strategies

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Did you enjoy music theory in school? Or did it just make your head hurt and wish you could be almost anywhere else instead?

If you were never especially fond of music theory, this episode is for you. =) I'm joined by music theory professor Brian Alegant, and guest co-host violist Molly Gebrian (who taught music theory classes in her previous faculty position).

We won't talk about seventh chords or modes, but instead, have a chat about how we can make it feel more like MUSIC theory than music THEORY.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder why your playing or singing (or that of your students) tends to be less expressive under pressure?

A 2015 study provides some clues on what exactly happens to the expressiveness of our playing when we're on stage, and even some details on what exactly happens with a particular aspect of expressiveness - phrasing that makes it sound less musical.

Why Your Playing (or Singing) Tends to Become Less Musically Expressive on Stage

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Whether in music, sports, fitness, or in business, there’s often a tendency for us to assume that the best performers in any domain have the most valuable advice to offer.

Of course, there’s a common counter-narrative which suggests that sometimes the best athletes, the top performers at work, and the most shredded folks at the gym, don’t necessarily make the best teachers.

So…which is it? Is a person’s performance a pretty good predictor of the quality of their advice? Or are performance and advice-giving two very different things?

Do the Best Performers Also Provide the Best Advice?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself getting sucked into mindless repetitions, despite your best intentions to practice more thoughtfully and efficiently?

Research suggests that thinking out loud could enhance problem-solving, essentially making you a more efficient and effective practicer.

Why Thinking Out Loud Could Help You Become a More Efficient Practicer

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder what it is that makes for great ensemble "chemistry"? Like, what are the underlying skills that make some musicians especially easy and fun to play with?

Peter Keller is a trombonist/composer-turned-music psychologist, who studies the neural and behavioral bases underlying effective ensemble playing.

In this episode, he shares some insights from cognitive science that could enable us to be more effective musical collaborators, whether playing in a duo, quartet, or orchestra.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself wishing you could get better at something, but getting stuck somewhere along the way? And facing a lot of internal resistance to doing the uncomfortable, awkward things that you know would help you get there?

A recent study provides some insights on why this is, and what we can do about it.

An “Awkward” Way to Increase Motivation and Make More Progress Towards Your Goals.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever notice how mean and distracting (and unhelpful) your inner critic can be on stage?

Previous research has found that writing out our worries right before a test (as counterintuitive as that sounds) can help to improve test performance. But would something like this work with musical performance as well?

How to Clear Your Mind of Worries Before a Big Performance (revisited)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Anecdotally at least, fear of memory slips seems to come up more often for pianists than for some other instruments. Is this because of how many notes they have? Or is there something else about the instrument itself that contributes to an increased risk of memory slips in performance (unless one adjusts their practice habits to account for this)?

Evidence That Performing From Memory May Be More Challenging for Pianists Than Others (What?!)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Memory slips can be a scary thing and a major cause of anxiety on stage. But it's not a skill that we tend to think of much in our daily practice...

We know from previous research that mental practice plus physical practice leads to better learning than physical practice alone.

Could the same thing be true for memory too? Like, could substituting a bit of mental practice for physical practice lead to more reliable memory than physical practice alone?

Do You Struggle With Unreliable Memory on Stage? Perhaps Your Memorization Strategy is Missing This Key ingredient...

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

As instinctive and natural a process as breathing is in our moment-to-moment existence, breathing efficiently and effectively so as to produce a beautiful sound that projects, clear articulation, smooth, connected phrases, etc. can be a real challenge (or so I hear)!

In Part 2 of my chat with flutist Keith Underwood, we get into the topic of breathing, and Keith explains and demonstrates a whole range of concepts that will help you play more effortlessly, and better understand how to "play on the breath, not with the breath."

Keith Underwood (Part 2): On Breathing and the Problem With Thinking of Air as the Solution to Everything.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Flutist and educator Keith Underwood shares insights on what (and how) we can learn from our favorite musicians so as to level up our playing in some pretty transformative ways. And how doing so can potentially make practicing and recording way more fun as well!

Keith Underwood (Part 1): On the Art of Imitation, and How to Glean Insights From Great Musicians to Level Up Your Playing.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

You know how some musicians seem to be almost "psychic" in their ability to play together and be totally in sync with one another? Ever wonder how they do this? Is it just experience, or something else?

A couple imagery studies provide some intriguing clues on what they might be doing, that facilitates next-level ensemble coordination.

How Mental Imagery Can Help You Become a Better (Or More "Psychic") Chamber Music Partner

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

How much emotion should we be feeling internally for a musically effective performance? Is there such a thing as feeling too much emotion when performing? And is playing more musically something we can learn, or is it something innate?

How Does One Learn to Play More Musically?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever notice how after performances, your family, friends, and teachers seem to think that the performance went better than you thought it went? Is this just because they're being nice, or is this a real thing? As in, is there something about being on stage that makes us perceive our own playing differently than how others perceive our playing?

Do We Really Sound as Terrible on Stage as We Sometimes Think We Do?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever notice how nerves can make us feel pressure to rush into the opening of a performance, and start before we feel truly settled and ready?

Turns out that one of the keys to starting off more effectively may have to do with our eyes, and what we look at or focus on in the moments right before beginning.

How so? A 2014 study gives us some intriguing clues...

"Quiet Eye": A Technique to Enhance Performance When You're Nervous

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

When it comes to getting things done, do you find it helpful to set deadlines? And if so, do shorter deadlines work better, or longer ones?

Research suggests that in some cases, no deadline could be best (what?!). And at other times, the wrong kind of deadline can make us more, not less, likely to procrastinate.

Prone to Procrastinating? Why the Way You Set Deadlines Could Make Things Worse, Not Better.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses