music student tips
when you get a new piece, always listen to recordings of it. find your favourites. make a playlist. it will inspire you, and prevent you from accidentally misreading your sheet music.
if your instrument is not in good shape, your music will not be in good shape (hey, fellow strings players, when did you last change the strings?).
always have a pencil. always. have lots of them and people will love you.
annonate and highlight your sheet music. these things are not reserved for notes and textbooks, you know? mark down sections, highlight the key change you keep forgetting about. hell, you can even colour-code it! mark down everything you can.
the back of your sheet music is a good place to write miscellaneous instructions such as "memorise by monday".
keep a semblance of order in your sheet music.
think while you're practicing. music practice is an endless cycle of problem solving, and while mechanical repetition is an integral part of it, you need to re-evaluate constantly if you're repeating the right thing.
metronome! enough said.
if you keep on attacking the problem, it will eventually give. or, at least, significantly improve. there is no improvement in giving up on something because it was too difficult.
it will never be perfect, and that's okay.
no decently challenging piece can be learned in a day, no matter how long you spend on it that day—if it can, it's too easy for you, or you're on a professional level. you have to whittle it down day by day, little by little. when it comes to music practice, consistency beats intensity.
track you practice time. i use the forest app for it, and it has worked marvelously so far. if you can, keep a practice journal as well (i'm awfully inconsistent with that).
you are still allowed to have fun and play silly stuff, even if you're a "serious" musician. you can play both a wienavski concerto and the good omens theme, you know?
even if you are less than stellar at your instrument, just put in decent effort, show up to rehearsals, and be polite and honest with your co-musicians (that way, you are much more likely to be liked—and invited to a post-concert bar crawl). you're still learning. most classmates are fine with bit of incompetence, but nobody likes a person who's full of shit.
being a music student is hard. take care of yourself, physically and mentally, and do not listen to assholes who do not understand how difficult your workload is.
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2/25/2023
life has been good! this past week felt mostly like school -> homework -> eat -> sleep -> repeat. and sometimes, im ok with that! i don't need excitement every day. i was able to get my junior recital moved to a different day, later in the semester, which is a HUGE relief. i would have felt so stressed if i had to do my recital at the beginning of april. anywho, i've been preparing for that, and am starting to feel good about my pieces. i'm really hoping to use my practice time mindfully, and have productive sessions.
my flute teacher has assigned us to read atomic habits! i know there was a lot of hype about it (still is kind of) so i was excited to read it! she also bought the book for us, so that was a plus. it's really good! there are some good concepts in it, and i like getting up early to read it at starbucks hehe.
this sweater is so cute, and it's the kind of subtle merch that only the real ones would get (ifykyk right?) plus it's just a high quality piece of clothing. also i loved my necklace pairing!
practice room thingsssss, i was working on an excerpt that we had talked about it in studio class. i think it's so beautiful, and i think the way i play it has come a long way! one of the few things i feel i really can play with musicality and expressiveness.
the sky was so pretty, especially with how much rain we've been having, i took so many photos of it lol. clouds have always been my favorite, so it tends to be what i take the most photos of.
hope you're all doing well !! <3
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wanting to absolutely rip my hair out as a music performance major but also excited for what the future holds as a music performance major is a constant war within my own mind
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march 8th, friday | (2–)5/100 days of productivity
As it turns out, the hardest part of this productivity challenge is finding photos to post. That, and going to sleep on time. I've been kind of failing at that. But! This week has been noticeably better than usual.
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i complain and i stress and i collapse under my school work until i take a moment, a step back, and realize that i'm studying everything i ever wanted to. i taking classes on auditioning, on women through the history of music, on 18th century literature while taking masterclasses on shakespeare and musical theatre and watching my friends do recitals, watching free concerts, living backstage at the theatre. i'm just so surrounded by art and other people's love for it that i'm just so- filled by it.
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