Resilience

4 Signs You May Be Practicing Too Hard

I was talking to a cellist the other day who complained of a history of feeling apathetic in the days before an audition. Specifically, he noticed becoming crankier, less motivated, and struggling to play well. I know sometimes musicians try to convince themselves they don’t want to win the audition in an attempt to reduce [...]

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Why Do Our Buts Carry So Much Weight?

I happened to hear a talk this week by a gentleman who is presently in charge of one of the premier performing arts institutions in the world. His words and vision for the future of both this organization and the classical music industry were inspiring on many levels, but what resonated with me most were [...]

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Thoughts on Thriving as a Musician in 2012 and Beyond (What Does it Take?)

Recently, I was asked to write a guest post on a relatively new music site. As I did some browsing through the archives to learn more about the folks behind this venture, I found some noteworthy articles that I thought would be of interest to the readers of this blog. String-heavy emphasis, but still very [...]

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Why Me? (Or, How to Stop Feeling Sorry for Yourself)

Murphy’s Law states that if anything could possibly go wrong, it probably will – and often at the worst possible time. As cheerily optimistic a world-view as this may be, we can usually recall enough examples of such times that it feels true. Such as, showing up for an audition, thinking you have plenty of [...]

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Mental Toughness Quick Tip #1

In a previous post, I suggested that mental toughness is just as relevant to musicians as it is to athletes. I promised to revisit the topic in subsequent weeks, so here is the first in a series of short posts which will outline some of the ways in which one can develop greater mental toughness [...]

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