Top 10 Posts of 2013

With 2014 just around the corner, I thought today would be a good day to close out the year with a Top 10 list of the most-read posts of 2013.

From ways of structuring practice time to make more progress in less time to strategies for building confidence and reducing frustration in the practice room, hopefully you’ll find something you can use to make 2014 a productive year.

Without further ado, here’s the list…

Top 10 posts of 2013

10. The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned From Isaac Stern

9. How to Compare Yourself to Others Without Getting Totally Depressed

8. Build Greater Confidence by Approaching Practice Like a Surgeon

7. Make Practicing Less Frustrating With the 5 Whys Technique

6. Why the Wrong Kind of Praise Can Undermine Our Students’ Confidence

5. David Kim: On Letting Go and Being Yourself

4. Perform Better Under Pressure by Tweaking This One Belief

3. Two Things Experts Do Differently Than Non-Experts When Practicing

2. The Importance of Writing Notes in Your Music

1. Why the Progress You Make in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight

Take action

Tempted to take something from one of these posts and make it into a New Year’s resolution?

Consider taking a break from New Year’s resolutions this year, and adopting a new habit instead. You might find it easier, more interesting (even fun?), and likelier to stick.

Best wishes in 2014!

Ack! After Countless Hours of Practice...
Why Are Performances Still So Hit or Miss?

For most of my life, I assumed that I wasn’t practicing enough. And that eventually, with time and performance experience, the nerves would just go away.

But in the same way that “practice, practice, practice” wasn’t the answer, “perform, perform, perform” wasn’t the answer either. In fact, simply performing more, without the tools to facilitate more positive performance experiences, just led to more negative performance experiences!

Eventually, I discovered that elite athletes are successful in shrinking this gap between practice and performance, because their training looks fundamentally different. In that it includes specialized mental and physical practice strategies that are oriented around the retrieval of skills under pressure.

It was a very different approach to practice, that not only made performing a more positive experience, but practicing a more enjoyable experience too (which I certainly didn’t expect!).

If you’ve been wanting to perform more consistently and get more out of your daily practice, I’d love to share these research-based skills and strategies that can help you beat nerves and play more like yourself when it counts.

Click below to learn more about Beyond Practicing, and start enjoying more satisfying practice days that also transfer to the stage.

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If performances have been frustratingly inconsistent, try the 4-min Mental Skills Audit. It won't tell you what Harry Potter character you are, but it will point you in the direction of some new practice methods that could help you level up in the practice room and on stage.

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