I recently did a competition, and it went SO WELL. How did I do well? I envisioned the success. In every little detail -- showing my brain I can do it. That is what we dive into today.
I recently did a competition, and it went SO WELL. How did I do well? I envisioned the success. In every little detail -- showing my brain I can do it. That is what we dive into today.
I was recently a winner of a music competition. My audition was at 9am and the night before, to be honest, I was nervous, but without realising it, I did something that completely changed the game for me and my nerves. I envisioned winning. I sat down and I imagined winning every single detail, and that is exactly what happened. Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I'm your host, eleanor, and, after countless practice sessions, a ton of broken reeds and seven different music school acceptances in three different countries, I have learned a thing or two about savoring your practicing, becoming your best practice companion and actively working towards your musical goals, and I want to share this with you because I want you to become your best musical self. Are you with me on this? Let's get started. Hey there and welcome.
Speaker 1:
I recently played an audition that I was absolutely blown away by. I played really well, I answered the interview questions really thoughtfully and I succeeded. One thing that I did really helped me to be more comfortable in that audition, and that is what we are going to dive into today. Now, the first thing to think about is this can't actually happen without preparing. We, in this episode, are going to be talking all about envisioning success and making sure your brain has a pathway forward for actually doing well. But obviously we can't actually do that unless we have prepared. So for this audition, I spent months preparing for it. I planned all the answers for the interview questions, even though I didn't know the questions. I just kind of thought what do I want to talk about, which is actually something that we dive right into in episode 19,? Want to capture the panel in that audition, share your story In that episode? We dive into all things sharing your story and telling the panel what you want them to know.
Speaker 1:
So if that sounds like a podcast episode for you, go check that out. It is in the show notes. So anyway, I practiced an absolute ton. So that is a given. We obviously need to practice. And if you want to learn all about the best ways of practicing, how to practice, but you don't want to scroll through a podcast episode after podcast episode to find the right ones for you, well, you're in luck, my friend, because there is a practice playlist just for you with the top practice episodes from the podcast. So sign up for that to get that right in your inbox so you don't have to scroll. They are ready to download right in your inbox so you can listen to them on the go. So make sure to go check that out. It is in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
So, after you have prepared and you are ready in that sense, the night before I sat down and I went through the audition in my head as vividly as possible. Now, this only took about 15 minutes, but it was absolute focus. Our mind is the powerhouse of all things we do and I wanted to make sure that it was on board with doing well in this audition. Luckily, I knew what the room looked like that I would be auditioning in and even if you don't know what the room looks like that you're going to be auditioning in, the feeling is the same how you want to feel, how you want to perform and how you want to share who you are and your story with the panel. So I sat down, I closed my eyes, I imagined walking in, playing, answering the questions, leaving and getting the call that I had won. I even put on the music that I would be playing and mentally went through playing it as well.
Speaker 1:
In every step of this I thought of a few things how will this feel, how will this sound, smell, look like, etc. I wanted my senses to be calm, so I envisioned how I wanted to feel. For instance, how am I going to feel when I play this piece? How am I going to feel when the judges are scribbling things down versus when they're just looking at me? How will maybe I'll be set up, you know, with a piano or things like that? Absolutely everything. How am I going be set up, you know, with a piano or things like that? Absolutely everything. How am I going to set up my oboe? How am I going to feel packing down after the audition? Now, in my head I saw the panel. I don't know what they would look like. To be honest, I didn't know how I was going to be set up in terms of where the piano was, and it was in a different spot than I envisioned. But that's okay. The fact that I had envisioned something and my brain had a pathway forward of like, yes, we can do that, because I just saw it, I just imagined it, and so I know that we can, that is what is important.
Speaker 1:
I imagined answering questions first, then playing, and then I switched it playing first, then answering questions because I didn't really know the order, but I really played around with it. This lasted about 15 minutes, but what counted was that I had seen it. I had seen my success. I had seen my audition. I had seen how I wanted to play and, even if it was imagined, my mind had seen it. That made it feel much more tangible and possible to do In the audition itself. Of course, it was a little different. The piano was in a different spot. There were, you know, I had never met the panel before, so it was a little different from how I imagined. But the feelings I had were there the feelings of confidence, the feelings of calm, the feelings of after I play my piece. I'm going to be really excited to answer the questions. All of that that I had thought of were out there. You know, as I have struggled and worked through audition seasons, I have tested out and collected strategies for all aspects of the auditioning process, including what to do right before. This is to go into a guidebook, especially for you. There's a link all about this in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
Now the last thing to kind of think about is how can this apply to you? It doesn't necessarily have to just be for auditions. It can be for a masterclass or a lesson that you want to go. Well, just sit down for maybe 15 minutes maybe even 10, and focus on your breath and think about how you want to feel, think about how you want to do in this situation, every possible detail of that experience. Now let's be real here. You're not going to win absolutely every audition. And if you do this for absolutely every audition, you're probably still not going to win every audition, and that is absolutely okay. The fact that you are envisioning the process with your mind will help your mind feel more calm in the auditions that you do. And if you don't succeed in every audition, or you don't succeed in this audition, that is absolutely fine. You tried your best and you use tactics that will help you succeed in the auditions that are coming up ahead. So just remember that every musician has failed in an audition before every single one of them, okay.
Speaker 1:
So let's do a bit of a recap. First thing, this can't happen without actually preparing. Make sure you actually practice that is kind of a given and also get your practice playlist If you want to learn about practicing. It is in the show notes, so make sure you sign up for that.
Speaker 1:
The night before, I sat down and went through all of the audition in my head as vividly as possible, absolutely every detail, and it's okay that the details changed in real life. The thing that was really important was the feeling of it, the feeling of calm, the feeling of confidence, the feeling of, yes, I have seen this in my head, that I can do this, so I'm actually going to do this in real life. Then remember, how can you apply this? It doesn't necessarily have to be for auditions. It could be for auditions, but it also could be for a masterclass or a lesson that you really want to go well, or anything. Really think about imagining it with your mind so that your mind can be like yeah, we can do this because we just saw it right. Your brain is such a powerhouse, so use it to your ability. Okay, all right, that's about it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. No-transcript.
