The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 120 Plan Your Practice – Try it at Home with Dr. Gauthier

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Rachel Barton Pine's advice on how to efficiently plan for practicing. "Write down what you plan to do, but don't judge yourself!  Write down what you actually did, and that will help you refine as you go... so the next week you can have a plan that you want, but also closer to reality."  - Rachel Barton Pine, Mind Over Finger Podcast Episode 119 This week in the Try it at Home series we unpack the wisdom of Rachel Barton Pine together and apply it in our lives.  And: just for you, I've created a free resource that has all the steps I'm about to share.  Download it here to follow along and continue the reflection after the episode.  You can also find the link in www.mindroverfinger.com/resources.   SIGN UP FOR THE JOYFUL PRACTICE CHALLENGE AT WWW.MINDOVERFINGER.COM   Catch Rachel's conversation with me in its entirety on the Mind Over Finger Podcast in episode #119

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast, episode number 120. This is a Try It At Home short. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now, your host, violinist, teacher, and high performance coach for musicians, Dr. Renée-Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Try It At Home series. In this series, I offer some suggestions on how you can take the actionable tip from the latest interview of the Mind Over Finger podcast, Try It At Home, and Make It Your Own. We're

going to unpack my guest's awesome wisdom together and apply it in our lives. Today, we are revisiting the fantastic actionable tip from the amazing violinist Rachel Barton Pine. And if you haven't had a chance yet, make sure to catch our conversation in episode 119. It is packed with so much applicable information and great wisdom. So let's begin by listening to what Rachel recommends we try at home this week. Okay, well, I think, you know, for anyone who isn't already doing this, you know, the idea of planning. And I'm not talking about that crazy six-month planning for me with my crazy concert schedule. I'm talking about the normal planning, which is weekly, right? So you look at what you have going on that week. Okay, Friday,

I've got chamber music rehearsal. Saturday, I've got an orchestra concert. You know, I have this other piece I need to have ready in three months, so I need to make a certain amount of progress on it. And you just look at what you want to accomplish that week, and you parse it out like, okay, I can't do everything every day. So Tuesday and Thursday, I'm going to do my chamber piece. Wednesday and Friday, I'm going to do my orchestra piece because you don't want to get to Friday and go, oh shoot, I forgot to do whatever all week and now it's too late and I have to cram and it won't be as good. So you plan in advance to make sure it's all kind of spaced out evenly. And then you take the day to day and you say, okay, I'm going to spend an hour on this, but what am I

going to do during that hour? Am I working on intonation? Am I working on interpretation? Am I working on bow distribution? Am I just working on page one or am I going to try to get through all four pages. So you kind of make a micro plan after you've made the macro plan. But don't forget to also include things like reading about music. Maybe you don't really know much about that composer whose work you're playing. So, you know, read their biography. It's so easy these days with the internet, though sometimes not everything is on the internet and physical books still have stuff that you can't find elsewhere. But read about your composer, listen to recordings if you're learning a piece by so-and-so, listen to not just other people playing that piece and other

movements of that piece that you might be doing only one movement of. Listen to other works by that same composer, chamber, symphonic, etc. Listen to other music from that time and place. Listen to random other music that's unrelated to anything. That's not just, you know, the pop music or whatever you might put on in the background of your life. It'd be like, I've always been curious to hear a few more medieval whatevers. Let's listen to some medieval music for 20 minutes and expand my musical horizons. So, you know, build in some listening

as part of your continuing musical journey. It's not just all about having your instrument in your hands. Sit down and look at the printed music without the instrument in your hands, not listening to recordings, not playing it yourself. Just look at the music and see what you can glean without being distracted by executing it. all those kinds of things and kind of plan it out and write down what you plan to do,

but don't judge yourself, right? Don't be like, oh, I was going to do 20 minutes of Shraddick and I only got in five. Well, hey, great. That's better than zero. And, you know, write down what you actually did and that'll help you refine as you go so that you can say, okay, realistically, I shouldn't have planned to do 20 in the first place because there was actually no way that would have happened. I was being, you know, kind of unrealistic. so then the next week you can have a plan that's what you want but is also closer to reality and then you'll become ever more exact at prediction but then also seeing okay i didn't get a lot of open string practice in this week let's make sure i prioritize that next week just because it kind

of got neglected this week and you know so you're kind of keeping this journal i know there are different apps i'm not i have no idea if any of them are good or not um you can do it in a word doc. You can do it in a cool old-fashioned notebook, but something so that you're planning, you're chronicling, and you're fine-tuning, and you're making sure that whatever you do, you absolutely don't judge, with the exception of positive. You know, congratulate yourself if you're really happy with what you did, but don't be down on yourself if you're unhappy with what happened. Just be very, very forgiving. Ask yourself, if I was my own student, how would I respond to this. And don't be any harder on yourself than you would be on that other person.

How great and complete is this? Rachel is making my job really easy this week. So let's try this in the practice room and in our lives. I've created a companion guide for you that has all the steps Rachel talks about ready to go. You can download it to follow along and to continue the reflection after the episode. And the link is in the show notes or at mindoverfinger.com slash resources. So here are again, the different strategies she recommends. First, look at what you have going on that week. Take the time to identify what you want to accomplish and parse it out throughout the days. That's your macro plan. Then look at every day and break it down or micro plan how much time you're going to spend on each element every day.

So for example, how much time do you want to spend on your warm-up and your technical work or your etudes and pieces? Also, how much time do you want to allocate for performance work or recording yourself. Don't forget fun. Can you carve out some time just for your own pleasure in there? And I think that Rachel's suggestion to include satellite activities to expand your musical horizon is really important. So do plan some time to listen to music, to read about composers, learn more about genres in general, or maybe you want some videos on some techniques you're working on. Whatever it is you think could complement your physical work. Then at the end of the practice session, write down what you actually did. That's going to help you refine your plan

and tweak what needs to be done in the coming days. And when you do that, it's really helpful to notice what worked, what didn't work, or what might take more or less time. And to that, I would add to do this in a way that really works well for you. Whether that's to use a notebook or take notes on the computer or in an app, just make it easy for you to do right and hard to go wrong by choosing a method of journaling that's really suited for your own style. Finally, don't forget what Rachel says about not judging yourself. Self-compassion is at the core of the mind over finger philosophy and what I teach with the deep practice model for a very good reason. It's scientifically proven that having a very healthy inner dialogue enhances problem solving

and skill acquisition. So make it your goal to be objective and to use productive language with yourself in the practice room. And if you want more specifics on how I recommend planning, which is very similar to what Rachel shares, check out episode 88 of the Mind Over Finger podcast titled, of course, Efficient Practice Planning. That's an episode all about planning and scheduling in a way that will maximize your time so you'll be able to operate at the highest level possible. Also, I'm really excited to tell you that the Joyful Practice Challenge is coming back. Head over to mindoverfinger.com to sign up and get access to all of the details and the free handouts. From March 7 to 18, we're going to reclaim our creative power and find even more

joy and meaning in our music making. Every weekday, you're going to get the secrets of the Mind Over Finger podcast guests to help you infuse your practice with more mindfulness, more joy and efficiency. You're going to hear from Rachel Barton Pine, Mimi Zweig, Brian Lewis, Lori Niles, Vijay Gupta, Kim Kashkasyan, Tom Hooten, Elizabeth Rowe, Jennifer Montone, Mary Elizabeth Bowden, and Ralph Schiano. That's going to be 10 days, 10 joyful practice tips, and you're going to have worksheets, accountability and support, and some really great prizes. I can't wait to experience this Joyful Practice Challenge with you. As always, you can find all the information related to this episode in the show notes or at mindoverfinger.com slash resources. And that

includes the PDF companion to this episode and the link to sign up for the Joyful Practice Challenge. Don't forget to share today's episode with everyone you think might benefit from this insight and pop up on social media and tag Rachel and I so we can say hi. She's RBP Violin and I'm mind over finger everywhere. That's all I have for you today. Be well, my friends. Thank you so much for listening and à bientôt. Thank you.