The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 140 The Formula to Build Your Practice Session - Gear Up for Fall 22 Part 5

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Welcome to Gear Up for Fall 22, a special series of five episodes that brings you everything you need to gear up for an amazing new season of music-making! We cover everything from setting goals to getting you set up for success by helping build your amazing practice regimen.   PART 5 - Practice Session Formula In this episode, I talk about the about how to create a efficient practice session breakdown You will hear about the three basic qualities you want in a practice session, the mindsets to nurture to be productive in your work, and the general sections to include in a solid musical progression. >> DOWNLOAD THE RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE HERE

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast. This episode is part of Gear Up for Fall 22, a special five-episode series that brings you everything you need to gear up for an amazing new season of music making. Let's go. 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! I hope that this episode finds you doing amazingly well. welcome to gear up for fall 22 a special series of five episodes to help you gear up for an amazing new season of music making it's hard to believe but it's already september and that means that

season five of the mind over finger podcast is starting soon i'm so excited we begin september 9th and i have so much great content ahead for you this season wonderful guests lots of tips and tricks and tools to help you with everything related to your music making experience and a special workshop on October 14th. It's going to be an incredible journey together. So thank you for being here. And as I prepare for the 22-23 season as a podcast host, as a coach, and as a performer, I'm setting goals and getting organized. And I'm guessing that you might be in the same boat. You're getting ready to tackle all sorts of new projects and dreaming big for the months ahead. So I thought it would be great for us to revisit some of your favorite past episodes of

the podcast, where I discuss important foundational concepts, and I give you everything you need to get ready for an awesome season. So I've selected five episodes from the spring of 2021 that cover everything from setting goals to getting you set up for success by helping you build your amazing practice regimen. In the first episode of this Gear Up for Fall 22 series, we're going to get epically aligned for the months ahead. You're going to walk away with a renewed vision for the future, clear goals and specific strategies to implement, and the motivation to get started, and most importantly, to keep going. The second episode is all about planning and scheduling efficiently for better results. I share strategies on how to plan for productive practice and how to

schedule it in a way that maximizes your time so you can operate at the highest level possible. In the third episode, I share my favorite tips about a powerful ritual that can transform the results you get in the practice room priming. In the fourth episode, I share my favorite tips on how to create an effective warm-up regimen. And in the fifth and last episode of this series, I teach you how to create an efficient practice session breakdown. You're going to hear about the three basic qualities you want in a practice session, the mindsets to nurture to be productive in your work and the general sections to include in a solid musical progression. So get comfortable, grab what you need to take some notes, and make sure to visit mindoverfinger.com

slash resources to download the various resources that come with the episodes, grab the episode transcripts, and to join the waitlist for the free fall workshop. All those links are also going to be in the show notes. All right, are you ready? Let's gear up for fall 22. Finally, today, we talk about practice session breakdown. And I'm going to let you in on a big secret. There's no perfect way to structure a practice session. If you're mindful about it. You can't mess it up. So go without fear. It's all about nurturing presence in the moment, curiosity, patience, and trust in the process. It's about paying attention to what your needs are, both urgent needs and important needs. And I'll make that distinction between the

two in a minute. But seriously, this could be the shortest episode in the history of this podcast, with me only telling you this. Make a plan, any plan. Implement it. Look at what you liked, what worked, what didn't work, and what you want to change. And do the same thing the next day. Make a plan, any plan. Implement it. Look at what you liked, what worked, what didn't. and adjust and repeat. Simple, but maybe not so much. Maybe there are some tips I could give you today, some elements that can be helpful to include in the practice. And I'll start by saying that some of the biggest obstacles to a productive practice are mindlessness and doubt. Let's talk about doubt for a second. I think that sometimes we're so fearful and hesitant about the way we

build a practice session. We want to, quote, do the right thing, end quote. We worry about missing something, about messing it up. And those are the feelings and the doubts that hold you back in the practice room. It brings a rigidity to the process that affects your mindset and your attitude in the practice room. If you can go about it with a perspective of practicing being an exploration of you trying things, experimenting, not being afraid of failure, of staying flexible, of being committed to the process, of being patient, practicing can become more efficient and way more enjoyable. All right, let's get into more tangible things. If you haven't already, I recommend going back and listening to the three previous episodes

as they are going to help you set goals, plan your practice, and get in the right mindset for efficient work. And in the coming few minutes, I'll share the three qualities of a healthy practice routine, some habits and mindsets that should be nurtured in the practice room. I'll talk about elements to include in your practice, and I'll finish up with another guided visualization exercise. So there are three basic qualities you want in a practice routine. Sustainability, balance, and adaptability. Sustainable. You want everything about your practice routine to be set in a way that is sustainable. When, how often, where, and how it happens. You want to have clear goals, an idea of how long and how often you want to practice, a suitable space to practice in,

and you want this to fit into your life in the way that you know you're going to be able to be consistent. And you want to show up rested and ready. Scheduling is going to be your friend when it comes to sustainability. Balance. You want your practice to address your many needs and support your many goals. There are the long-term goals like learning new repertoire and developing new skills, the short-term goals like tomorrow's gig, and everything in between. Make sure that the important things like refining your skills and maintaining peak shape are not neglected in favor of the urgent things and vice versa. You're also going to need to use many different types of practice in one session.

Warming up, learning repertoire, performance practice, playing for fun, etc. And we're going to cover this very soon. A useful tool to monitor the balance you achieve in your practice is a practice journal or a tracking system of some sort. Anything that fits your style and helps you keep an eye on how things are going is going to work perfectly. Adaptable. Believe me, you want your practice to be adaptable. Different seasons of life and different seasons of the year will require different types of practice.

There are times when we feel like we're at the beginning of a long marathon or at the end of a big sprint. and your practice regimen can assume many identities so be flexible and ready to change gear when needed. Also this is an area where you can get really creative depending on the needs you have that week or that month or that quarter. How resourceful can you get into using every element of your practice to your advantage? For example you might have a big recital coming up with a lot of difficult repertoire, and you have that big gig in two days with tons of notes to learn. Are there ways that you can combine elements so one helps the other progress and maintain balance in your practice? Can you use your repertoire and your warm-up and technique

regimen to save some time? When you take that time to be very methodical and thoughtful about how you approach practicing, there are ways to make many projects move forward at the same time. Another way you're going to want to be adaptable is in how to fit your practice in your lifestyle depending on what's happening. Are you going to need to change your schedule? Do you need to develop a new system so you can practice on the fly wherever you are? Do you need to block off portions of your days more intentionally? Start looking into all of those things. Now let's look at some of the mindsets and habits that can be beneficial to productive practice. An efficient practice will require you to have solid focus, active listening,

physical awareness, and critical thinking. So start to come up with ways that are going to help you nurture presence and intentionality in your practice. Of course, the previous three episodes of this series are intended to help you with that. Setting goals, scheduling purposefully, and priming before practice can definitely set you up for success. But also think of the habits to develop in your life that would help with that. Sufficient sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, time for family, friends, and nature, and adopting a mindfulness practice like yoga, meditation, tai chi. Also look into modalities like the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais method, or body mapping, and anything that contributes to making you healthy, happy, strong, and productive.

also remember the followings spend most of your practice time playing really well pay attention to your form to the quality of your sound and always bring lots of care to everything you play learn to love technique work deep work and technique work build the foundations for the musician you will become in the future. Constantly raise your baseline and have high standard for yourself, but prioritize patience, self-compassion, and self-respect in the process. Now let's talk about the general sections of a practice session. In the warm-up regimen episode, I talked about how I like to construct my warm-up using a modular concept. I think the same is true for the overall arc of my practice sessions. Thinking of it as different modules or blocks that I put together

based on their urgent and important needs helps me keep my practice sustainable, well-balanced, and adaptable. Using those blocks also keeps it engaging and interesting for me because it offers variety within the same session. Here are some of those modules or blocks. Following my priming, I'll have, of course, my warm-up and technique regimen, which are themselves built of many different elements. And I'll let you go back to this episode instead of listing them all here again. In my sessions, there's often what I call reconnaissance work. This is where I'll play through a piece or a movement or a portion of a work when I'm at the very first stages of learning it to assess the state of affairs. It helps me make an estimate of how much work and time I'm

going to need to put into it, what kind of skills I might want to start developing even more to be able to play this piece, all those types of things. This helps me plan the practice for the coming days, weeks, and months. I also use reconnaissance work throughout the entire process of learning a piece so I can keep track of where I am throughout the many stages of learning. Then there is the learning portion of the practice session. This is where I'm learning material or developing, reinforcing, and anchoring material. This is where I'm strategizing, problem solving, and using my deep practice model to learn repertoire fully and deeply. In this section, I use all of the different drills I know to learn and memorize repertoire.

Then we have the performance practice module or block. This is where I elevate the repertoire from the state of being learned to the state of being alive and ready for performance. I'll be recording myself a lot using all sorts of techniques. I'll be performing a lot too, either doing spotlight work where I perform small segments of a piece, run-throughs of longer sections or movements or entire pieces and mock performances of entire programs. Another block or module that I really like is the light playing module where I'll be

playing for my own pleasure where I play through something for fun simply because I feel like it and that doesn't have to be limited to classical music. It can be any style or genre. It could be improvisation, bluegrass, but I feel like keeping some time in my practice session for myself to treat myself has an incredibly positive impact on the entire session because it helps me reconnect with my why, why I love what I do, and what it brings to my life. Now, of course, we can get into more details and even more specificities, but these are the main areas that I feel are important to cover in a practice session or in balance over several practice sessions. Like I said, having a good plan and keeping track of things will help you keep things balanced.

For example, on one given day, you might not be able to do both deep work and performance work on all your pieces. So assess what would be the most beneficial that day, what would keep you engage and motivate it and what would be the most effective that day. And like I said at the beginning, don't get caught up in building the perfect practice session. This will only cause hesitation, mind drama, and doubt. Establish a good enough plan, get to work, and see how that worked for you and redirect if needed the next day. You can't mess it up. If you're present, mindful, and you're nurturing positive mindsets, your work will yield results. Now, if necessary, go back and listen to episodes 88, 91, and 94. Identify your goals.

Think of what would further all of them with a good balance, the short-term goals and long-term goals. Things that are urgent, like tomorrow's gig, and things that are important, like building the skills to take your playing to the next level, make priming a habit, build a warm-up regimen that works for you, and get to work. And now I have one more guided visualization exercise for you. This is an exercise you can use before any practice session. It's influenced heavily by the structure that my own meditation teacher, Emily Fletcher, uses in her Ziva meditation method. and I'll put a link to that in the show notes and I find it particularly effective in establishing a really strong mind-body connection and getting us centered, relaxed and ready for work. If you

like this meditation, you'll be able to download it for easy access using the link in the show notes which you can also find on my resources page by going to mindoverfinger.com resources. I also recommend you visit Emily's website to get you on your way to use the Ziva method. So I'm going to invite you to settle in for a few moments. We're going to take some time to get grounded, get aligned. We're going to start with a breathing exercise to regulate our nervous system. Then we'll get into a mindful state by paying attention to our senses. We'll combine this with concentration. and have a short meditation and we're going to end with a quick visualization

so please come to a seated position with your back supported and your head free closing your eyes and take a few seconds to really come to a state of effortless comfort letting your body soften and surrender

turn your awareness to the flow of your breath and start noticing it notice the inhales the exhales feel the air going in and out of your nostrils feel your rib cage expanding and contracting over each breath cycle

and just stay with this for a few seconds finding your comfort and your ease we're going to use this flow of breath to make this connection between our mind and our body very vivid. Let's make our breathing even more intentional and move into an exercise Emily Fletcher calls the 2X breath. Start by inhaling through the nose for two and exhale through the mouth for 4

and again through the nose for 2 exhaling through the mouth for 4 3, 2, 1 let's repeat this for a few more times out for 4 3, 2, 1 in for 2 1, out for 4

3, 2, 1. In for 2, out for 4, 3. In for 2, out for 4. Next cycle, let's expand this a little bit. Inhaling for 3, 2, 1. Exhaling for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In through the nose for 3, 2, 1. Out through the mouth for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In for three. Out for six. In for three. Out for six. And stay with this. Or if you're up for it, Expand even further, inhaling for 4, 3, 2, 1, exhaling for 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In for four, three, out for eight, letting the muscles surrender.

In for four, three, out for eight. And last time, in for four. Out for eight. Now let the breath flow freely, letting go of any control. Simply noticing how comfortable you feel. and with continuing passive awareness that you're breathing start to bring your attention to your senses starting with what you're hearing obviously you're hearing the sound of my voice and notice the most obvious sounds around you

and as you take those in expand to the most subtle sounds anything your ear perceives close or far and as you're letting these sounds flow through you start noticing what you're seeing maybe it's tonal blackness or some lights filtering through your eyelids

maybe you see geometric shapes dancing in your eyes and now let your attention slide to what you're smelling maybe nothing maybe a candle or a cup of tea sitting next to you. And let's slide down to your sense of taste.

What are you tasting right now? Are you detecting coffee or some toothpaste taste or just a metallic taste in the mouth. And finally, turn your attention to your sense of touch, to what you're experiencing in your body right now, feeling your bum on the chair, your back leaning against the support, the air flowing in and out of your nostrils, the clothes moving on your skin as you're breathing. Now, experience all of it at once, vividly. Hear what you're hearing, see what you're seeing, smell what you're smelling, taste

what you're tasting and feel what you're feeling and be at home in yourself in this moment, here, now. To quote my meditation teacher, Emily Fletcher, it's through our five senses that we wake up our sixth sense. The more present we are in the right now, the higher quality seeds we plant for the future. The present moment is the future in the making, and our five senses are a doorway into the present moment. So again, hear what you're hearing, see what you're seeing, smell what you're smelling, taste what you're tasting, feel what you're feeling. knowing that your stress hangs out in the past and the future

and your bliss hangs out right here right now and in this state of presence bring your attention back to your breath let your mouth smile gently let your lungs fill up with air stay with your breath for a few moments let the natural unfolding

of the inhales and exhales happen I'm going to let you have a few breaths without guidance and as you do this simply remember to stay connected to your breath without controlling it only noticing it paying attention to it

and also remembering that thoughts are normal they will come and when they do you simply and gently acknowledge them and bring your attention back to your breath that's the practice that's meditation you and as we're moving out of this very short meditation let's take a couple of minutes to visualize a mindful playing experience

start visualizing yourself walking towards your instrument fully present picking it up holding it in your hand or sitting down at the keyboard and touching the keys feeling poised or happy or excited whatever you want to feel as you're about to start playing feel yourself getting ready and starting to play feeling wonderful imagine comfortable movements

and efficiency feel vitality spreading through you and imagine yourself enjoying immensely the experience of playing the instrument. And as you do that, be aware of your positive attitude, your curiosity,

and your ability to handle anything that comes your way. See yourself solving problems with clarity and patience. Take one deep inhale, feeling positive energy and enthusiasm flowing up your spine. And as you exhale fully,

come back to the present moment. feeling your body relaxed and energized. Take in the sensations and the thoughts and feelings you're having. Release expectations and welcome the musical experience you're about to have in its entirety. And as you're feeling clarity and energy flowing through you, gently open your eyes. and there you have it I hope this was helpful that's what I have for today

thank you guys for tuning in thank you guys so much for listening I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Gear Up for Fall 22 series If this content was helpful for you, please share with everyone you think could benefit from it. Catch all five episodes of this special series, take a screenshot, share on social media, and tag me so we can keep the conversation going. I'm Mind Over Finger everywhere. As always, I have all the information related to this episode in the show notes.

You can find them via your podcast app or by visiting mindoverfinger.com, where you can also find more free resources on efficient practice and performance preparation and information on how to work with me. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to receive your free guide to a productive, mindful practice using the metronome, transcripts from the Mind Over Finger podcast episodes delivered to your inbox, and much more. That's it for today. Again, thank you and à bientôt.