The Confident Musicianing Podcast
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I’m Eleanor, and together we dive into concrete strategies for the before, during, and after of your audition process so that you can be better prepared and crush that performance! If you’re a music student ready to revolutionize your auditioning, let’s jump in. Tune in every Tuesday for another insight-filled episode; see you there!
The Confident Musicianing Podcast
Setting up for back to school: Lessons from moving for music college
Join me for a cozy chat as we get ready for the school year and with some behind the scenes for setting up my space in the UK, as I prepare to start my studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Being a musician can mean a lot of things, but it also means preparing for your growth. Today we talk about how we can make space in our life for that musical growth.
If you want to read about this (and see fun pictures!), click here.
Click here for how you can get into the zone for auditions.
Let me know how you are going to prepare for your growth! Comment if you can, otherwise email me (eleanor@confidentmusicianing.com), or DM on insta @eleanor.oboe! I'd love to hear from you.
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Our dream lives might look like the highlight reel, but also part of the dream life is cleaning cleaning the space, preparing the space, and I think that that is perfectly normal and perfectly amazing to be able to prepare your space. Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. My name is Eleanor and I am a British-American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Literally my dream school and it took me a long way to get there. I applied and auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries. It was a lot of hard work but, oh my gosh, so worth it. I want you to have the confidence to work hard in achieving your goals, so come with me as we go on this journey together. So sit down, pull up a chair, take a seat or, if you're on the go, welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode.
Speaker 1:I am currently in my new flat in the UK and I have a cup of tea in my hand right now and it is really rainy, like I just went for a walk and it was so, so, so rainy that I, when I came back, I had to get in like a new outfit and I've made myself a cup of tea and we're recording an episode of the podcast and it's just rainy outside, which makes it even cozier, which is just amazing vibes, you know what I mean. Like just so cozy, and I am so happy that you have joined me. Oh and, by the way, this is editor Eleanor here, as I am editing this episode and I realized that there's some sounds of the city behind me. This is something that I'm going to have to learn how to edit out. When I did my episodes before, it was in a quieter space, but now that I have a flat in the city, there might be traffic or seagulls behind me as well. There are so many cool seagulls, but I'm grateful for your patience. Thank you for your patience as I figure out how to navigate the sounds of the city behind me. Okay, now back to the episode.
Speaker 1:So the reason why I have moved to the UK from the US it's like a big, big life change is to continue my Oboe studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland literally my dream school. And if you had told me two years ago that this is my life, I would feel so surprised and so excited because, let's be honest, we all have dreams and we all have goals, and as I am living out this dream and creating this dream life of mine. I encourage you to create yours. So let's go on this journey together, encouraging each other. I think that sounds like a really good plan, because in order to create these dream lives, these goals, all of this is we need to keep accountable, stay accountable and keep working at it. So if we keep each other accountable, we can both create this dream life that we have for ourselves. So if we keep each other accountable, we can both create this dream life that we have for ourselves. So let's keep each other accountable.
Speaker 1:Today I want to take you behind the scenes and tell you all about the move to the UK and specifically setting things up. So we're going to do an episode later about kind of the music side of things, about my very first oboe lesson in the UK, about practicing in my flat, because that's been very interesting. But today we are going to be talking about setting things up in the flat and just setting my life up here. It has been so incredibly hectic and so much fun. Let tell you about right now.
Speaker 1:I flew to the UK almost two weeks ago, by the time this episode comes out, and I'll be honest, it wasn't the best flight. As soon as I got on the plane, I got a migraine. If you don't know this about me, I often get migraines and I got a migraine on the plane and it was not fun at all. But, to be honest, a migraine is expected. I was really nervous. I was really scared about all of this stuff, which I think is normal. This is a huge transition. But I was also excited and I think those two things can happen simultaneously, simultaneously the first night in Glasgow, number one, I was so excited to have a bed to sleep in and not sleep on the plane with a migraine. Um, but it really hit me that night that I am here living my dream. I made it happen and all of those days of hard work, of practice, nerves, that all paid off because I'm here in my flat and this episode is the first episode that I am recording in my flat. So it's amazing. Welcome, welcome to the flat, come sit down. We're hanging out here.
Speaker 1:Now I bring the fact that I am creating this life and I am going on this adventure. I bring it up because it's exciting and to also show you that your dreams are possible, because if you are nervous about achieving something. If you have nerves, if you are scared, if you don't know what's gonna happen maybe you're feeling a bit anxious doing it even though you're anxious is so magical. I'll tell you that right now it's so magical because everything that I have done, I have done a little bit scared. All of those auditions, packing, finding a flat, moving to the flat, having my first oboe lesson which we will talk about in another episode all of that stuff I did a little scared. I'm not going to lie, these are all new things. I did a little scared but I still did them right. I was like this is normal feeling scared but I still did them. And I encourage you, whatever your dreams are, because if I ask you, you know what you want to achieve. I'm sure there's something in your head, big or small something, and you might be feeling a little scared, a little nervous about it, but the thing about that is that you can do it scared. Oh, we got a notification. The thing about that is that you can do it scared. You can do it scared. You know the nerves and the feeling scared do not hinder you from achieving things. Things do it scared right. Do that audition scared. Do that music lesson scared, apply for that program scared. And if you are a bit nervous about auditions, maybe you have auditions coming up or something and you want to get into the zone for that, because we can still get into the zone even though we're nervous. There is a podcast episode just for you. It is titled how to Get Into the Zone for Auditions and it will be linked below in the show notes.
Speaker 1:The day after I landed, I got the keys to my flat and I began cleaning it, and by cleaning it I mean really cleaning the heck out of it for two days straight. And I was thinking before. You know, I knew I was going to clean it and I was like, oh gosh, I'm going to clean it. That's going to be a lot of cleaning and I was really nervous, but in the moment, to be honest, it was really calming. This is my new space to learn and grow and it felt like an honor to be able to prepare it. Do you know what I mean Like? I feel like being a musician is many things it is practicing, it is auditioning, it is performing, it is all of those things, but it's also making sure that you have the space and the energy to learn and grow as a musician, and that's exactly what I was doing with cleaning this flat. I was making this space clean and ready for me to grow in it.
Speaker 1:So I challenge you to consider how you can prepare something to grow. So, whether that is tidying your practice space, organizing your days more, or even just like digital cleaning as well, I dare you in some way to prepare for your growth, create that space, whether that's physically, mentally or digitally or any other way, creating that space for you to grow, and let's keep each other accountable. I clean the flats, but if you have something that you want to clean or prepare for your musical growth, let me know. If you're listening on youtube, you can comment below. I think also on spotify, you can comment below. Um, but if you can't for some reason, comment, send me an email, eleanor, at confidentmusicianingcom, or dm me on instagram at eleanorobo. Those will be in the show notes as well, and I'd love to hear how are you preparing for your growth?
Speaker 1:This goes on to the next exciting step, which was going to Ikea, and I have pictures of this and basically everything in the blog. So if you want to check that out and look at pictures and videos of all of the things I'm talking about. Feel free, it is in the show notes and I just cultivated this little blog post just for you so that you can see all the exciting things with pictures and videos. Shops, like favorite shops in the whole wide world. And maybe it's for the same reason the idea of preparing your space for growth. But Ikea really calms me down. I know I've heard a lot of people say that Ikea stresses them out. I don't know how you are, but Ikea really, really, really calms me down. So being able to go to Ikea was so amazing, like I just I loved it. I actually went twice. I went twice because I forgot things the first time, but it was just. It was so relaxing and exciting, like I am preparing this amazing space for my growth.
Speaker 1:I think the idea of living your dream life can come in many forms. We might think of playing our instruments, performing, moving to a new city, getting that new opportunity, getting our dream job. But I think tidying and preparing my space is just as magical in this transition of my life, setting up that next chapter. Our dream lives might look like the highlight reel, but also part of the dream life is cleaning cleaning the space, preparing the space and I think that that is perfectly normal and perfectly amazing to be able to prepare your space. This episode did not have much to do with practicing and auditioning as much. It was just a little cozy sit down episode. Building your dream life has many looks, and today we explored the preparation side of it. Now I am in my flat, I made myself coffee this morning, I have tea, I have some furniture. I don't have all the furniture that I need. I need to get some more furniture but I have this beautiful, beautiful, amazing space and I cannot wait to grow in it and to really really just grow, not only as a musician but also as a person. And if you want to come along this amazing journey with me because we will be talking about practicing in the flat my first lesson as well, because that has happened and I cannot wait to tell you all about it but if you want to come more on this journey with me, sign up for the email list. I share more behind the scenes snapshots of this adventure and you will get just fun, cozy emails from me. I would love to have you come along on this journey with me. So that link is also in the show notes.
Speaker 1:We usually do a recap in our episodes. To be honest, I don't really think that this needs a recap. Basically, just the main takeaway is that our dream lives number one are achievable, are attainable if we really put that focus and that work in, and I trust that you can do that. Whatever your life, you know, whatever your goals, whatever your dream life, whatever you want to achieve, I trust that you can do that and then second the life. The dream life can look like a highlight reel, but it is also preparing the space and being calm and being mindful as you do. So that's kind of just the recap.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me. As always, all the things to do with this episode will be in the show notes from the blog post that goes with this episode, with all the fun pictures and videos just for you, because I did not have wi-fi for the past week and just recently I finally was able to get wi-fi in the flat. So during that time without wi-fi, I've been taking pictures and videos for you and now I can finally put them in a blog post. So that is in the show notes. There's also the episode about how to get into the zone for auditions in the show notes, as well, as well as ways to contact me to tell me how you are going to prepare for your growth. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you give it a follow and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.
