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 if I just put in the time, the nerves would eventually 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 bad performance experiences!

Eventually, I discovered that elite athletes are successful in shrinking the gap between practice and performance, because their practice looks fundamentally different. Specifically, their practice is not just about skill development – it’s about skill retrieval too.

This was a very different approach to practice, that not only made performing more fun (and successful), but practicing a more satisfying and positive experience too.

If you’ve been wanting to become more “bulletproof” on stage and get more out of your daily practice too, 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 how to start making every day a good practice day. 😁

Comments

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You'll also receive other insider resources like the weekly newsletter and a special 6-day series on essential research-based practice strategies that will help you get more out of your daily practice and perform more optimally on stage. (You can unsubscribe anytime.)

Download a

PDF version

Enter your email below to download this article as a PDF

Click the link below to convert this article to a PDF and download to your device.

Download a

PDF version

All set!

Discover your mental strengths and weaknesses

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.

Share138
Email