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What Do I Call My Teacher?

11/13/2017

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to read this post using your best old curmudgeon voice, please go ahead and do so. I can take it.

I've noticed something in the last decade or two.

I cannot tell you how many texts and emails I get from students that start with either nothing or with the word "Hey." I think sometimes students don't know what to call their teacher.

I've even had students come to me from another teacher who couldn't remember the name of their previous teacher! I can't imagine how my students would feel if I didn't know any of their names. Knowing someone's name and using it strengthens our personal connection. It also is a sign of respect.

So, what do I call my teacher?

Go by the most formal title you can think of for that person. Mr., Ms., or Mrs. are good places to start. If your teacher doesn't like that formality, he or she will let you know. In college, Doctor or Professor are important titles to use where appropriate although some faculty go by Mr. or Mrs. (ask around, look them up, find it out). Always defer to the most formal title that fits unless told otherwise.

Another way to figure this out is to just...ask!

It's easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Just be sure to call your teacher something by way of greeting, especially when texting or emailing. It's the polite thing to do!

PS. What do I wish to be called? It's morphed over the years. When I was young, I wanted to be called by my first name. Now that I'm older and have kids, I prefer to go by Mrs. Collins with my school-aged students. Parents and adult students, please call me Kim. There you have it. Now you know.

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Tips for Surviving Regional and All State Auditions

11/6/2017

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It's that time of year for Connecticut's high school and middle school instrumentalists: festival auditions are here! Hopefully all the work is now done, and it's time to get ready to take the audition. Here are some tips I share with my own students regarding navigating the actual auditions:

The Week of the Audition:

Accept that most of the work you can do has been done and work only on maintaining what you have already done. This means lots of slow practice of sections that are of concern, mixed with some run-throughs. Don't go for any major changes. Just maintain what you know already.
Play for others. Schedule a few "performances" of your piece for your friends, family, or your band members. Playing in front of everyone you know in the band is way more intimidating than playing for a judge or two at auditions, so enjoy the experience of that once. That will make the audition feel so much more intimate and fun.
Avoid what I call the "vortex of despair." Remember, what's done is done. You are now ready for the audition step. If for some reason you feel you don't know your piece well enough, take note of that for a future audition and let the chips fall where they may this time around. You cannot change the past, but you can change how you react today (and for future preparation). Go into this with a feeling of acceptance. Accept where you are and how far you have come. Save the "could have/should have" stuff for helping you to decide what to do better the next time around.
Play other music to keep your mind fresh. Enjoy yourself a little. Distract yourself a little. You deserve it.

Audition Day:

Eat breakfast, bring a snack, and hydrate. Be sure to drink lots of water. It's OK to bring a water bottle into your audition too if you need a sip to wet your mouth before you play.
Treat yourself to a thorough warm-up. If you play anything on audition day, this is the top priority! Be sure to warm up slowly, completely and thoroughly. Play down into the low register. Play slowly up into the high register. Play octaves. Work at finding the beauty of your tone. They usually put students into a large auditorium or cafeteria to warm up at these events, and this can be total mayhem as people frantically (and loudly) play their scales and their piece. Ignore this and quietly stand facing directly into a wall or a corner of the room where your sound can be reflected back to you, and do a pre-flight check on your tone, tonguing, embouchure, vibrato, and anything else that you usually work to maintain. That you find the sound (and control) that you know and love is more important than anything else.
If you can stand it, don't play your piece at all in the warm up room! You will hear lots of people playing fast and loud. Most people play the parts they know best over and over in these rooms. Don't fall into this trap. Either don't play your piece at all, or if you must, practice starting and ending it, and play slowly and carefully through any passages that require extra concentration. Save the "performing" for the performance. The goal here is to leave your mind with the feeling that you are ready, and that the last memory you have of playing before you walk into the room is of being in control of what you are doing.
If socializing makes you nervous, then...don't! Bring earbuds or headphones. Listen to music. Read a book in a corner. Keep to yourself if you must. Just politely tell people you need to de-stress. You can socialize afterwards.
While waiting outside the audition room, remember that everyone sounds better through the door. Really. It's true. Make no comparisons. Close your eyes, ignore it, and accept who you are.

In the Audition Room:

Don't expect miracles. One reason why people sometimes get nervous is because they are hoping that they will miraculously play better than how they usually play. Let go of this thought in your mind. Expect to play how you usually play, and it will free you from the burden of hoping to produce a miraculous performance. This leads me to #2:
Be YOURSELF. Don't try to be what anyone might want you to be. Don't try to be some other flutist you just heard. There's no point in trying to guess what might impress the judges. Impress yourself! Be your truest self and you will play your best when it's coming from your heart.
Take your time. There is no need to rush. Take a moment to breathe deeply, maybe 3-5 deep slow breaths, before playing. You don't need to launch into anything immediately. Clear your thoughts. Hear the tempo in your head before you play. Be in position for a moment and feel what it feels like in your mind to start well before your start. Imagining the feeling of it being right and trusting that will happen goes a long way.
Use keywords. This should be figured out in advance but have one or two special words you use to remind yourself of the general feeling you want to have or convey with each selection you play.
Live in the moment. Nothing can be done about what happened in the past, so allow any mistakes to slide away without judgement. Nothing can really be done about that tricky part halfway down the page either (until you get there) so pool all of your mental resources into thinking about what you are doing now. Just keep thinking, now, now, now. Bring your mind back to now.
Find something to love. This one is probably the most important aspect of performing for others. Go within the protective shell of your own self, and find what you love about your playing or the piece. The biggest gift a listener can receive is feeling your own love, joy and enthusiasm coming out in your playing. Mistakes dim in comparison to playing with feeling and conviction.
Slow down. Often, we play a bit too fast in exciting situations like auditions. Better to play more slowly and well in control than to take off like a shot and realize you are too fast. I personally would rather have a slight deduction for tempo but get full credit for every other factor.
For sight reading, take your time. Really scan the music before playing. Look at the key signature and time signature first, and then scan with your eyes for anything that looks tricky (rhythms, technical passages, notes) and spend a moment reviewing those parts in your mind. If you are taking too long, they'll let you know it's time to play. My personal order of priorities that I teach my students for sight reading is: rhythm first (even if you play made up notes during certain passages), notes second, and then all the rest (articulation/phrasing/dynamics/expression). Playing in rhythm proves you won't get lost in a group, so be sure that is your focus. Be ok with faking it and have fun releasing yourself from the obligation of perfection! This release will actually allow you to be more musical.
Smile and thank the audition committee. They have to sit there all day listening to people play. A little thanks goes a long way.

Important to Remember:

The result of an audition can be a bit subjective. You cannot control the mood of the judges, their personal preferences, or anything else. All you can be is your own awesome self and see what happens. When it's over, no matter how it goes, you will still be the same amazing person you were before. The result of one audition has no bearing on who you are as a person and a player. The effort you put into your playing, and the love that you show for your music is more important than where you rank.

Happy Auditioning!!! If you have any suggestions to add, or a question to ask, please comment below.

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How to Get Closer to Your Goals and Dreams

9/22/2017

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I recently posted a short Facebook video tutorial on ways to document the PATH to your goals and dreams so that they become a reality. Goals without a plan of action are your dreams, but listing the exact steps needed to get there empowers you to reach your dreams. I hope these tips are helpful. Enjoy!

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Goal Setting

6/17/2017

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We all know the power of having a plan, right? Plans are the road maps that get us where we want to go. Of course, where we want to go (our "destination" or "goal") is crucial to the plan. Goals are important because they give us direction, and even more importantly, because achieving them empowers us toward higher levels of progress.

Today's post will discuss some ideas on how and why to set goals. Goals can be simple or complicated, and long or short-term. It's important to consider the type of goal you are setting when you choose goals for yourself.

I'm going to break this down into a suggestion for several types of goals that people typically make. It is up to you which categories you choose! You do not have to choose them all. Start with #4 and work your way backward. If you are playing at an advanced level, be sure to choose all of them.

Long Term Goals. These are your hopes and dreams. Your "reach" goals. What they may be depends upon where you are in your studies, but in general these are goals for the far future: goals for one, five, 10, or 20 years from now. Think big. If you are just starting out, go with a one or two year goal. If you are already pretty invested in your studies, think bigger and go for 5 years. If you're in college or have graduated, peek into the future and imagine where you'd like to find yourself 10 to 20 years from now.
Mid-Range Goals. These are your "achievable goals." These are not just dreams; you can feel that these goals can really be a reality if you work toward them. Some examples might be: learn all the notes on the flute (beginners), learn all your scales, make first chair in band or youth symphony (middle and high schoolers), get into music school (dedicated high-schoolers) and whatever goal works for the college player (competitions, placements, repertoire and technique advancement, juries goals, grad school auditions, etc).
Short-Term (Weekly or Monthly) Goals. These are your "deadline" goals, or your "current project" goals. Goals like this are usually related to your upcoming lessons, learning a new skill, recital preparation, or audition preparation. They can also be related to how often you will practice in a week (including a plan on how to achieve that).
Every Day Goals. These are things you need to do every day to succeed. You should probably have a short to medium list of these. These should be the most realistic and easiest goals to tick off your list. They should be super-achievable. For procrastinators, the goals might be centered around the improvement of your practice habits. The goal list can be as simple as: remember to bring your flute home, or practice before going out today. For regular practicers, these goals will relate to fixing problem spots, giving attention to areas we've been neglecting, being sure to work out passages until we truly know them, reaching a certain metronome marking, or just remembering to work on something that really needs work. These types of goals change at each practice depending upon what you need. These are the most important goals of all, because without them, we cannot get to our longer-term goals.

Some more goal-setting tips:

Very important: not everyone needs to set ALL of these categories of goals (at least not at first). If you are new to goal-setting, it's more important than anything else to start slow and set yourself up for success. As I mentioned above, our every day and short-term goals are the building blocks to all future success, so it's perfect to start there, and depending upon your level of drive, it's OK to not have any goals other than that. No reason to overwhelm yourself. The most important thing to do is to pick a goal.
Make lists under each goal ("the plan!"). For each set of goals we create, it's important to also consider (or better yet, list) what needs to happen in order for them to come true. "Make All State Band" is a great goal. Just remember to ask yourself what you need to do or learn to get there. Everyone's list will be different! List whatever it is that you know you need to get there. If your goal for today's practice is: "learn the G Major scale," then you need to create a list of what needs to be done in order for that to happen. Plan how you will achieve this.
Consider your personality: If you are really new to this idea, and you are constantly feeling like you need to be more organized or more driven, then it's important to take small bites. No one enjoys the feeling of failure that results in not doing what we set out to do, so pick something that is very achievable, like "practice one extra day this week," or "repeat tricky passages slowly today" or "check my hand position before starting each piece." If you have been at this for a while, or you are a very driven person, then your goals might be a bit more intense. You have the power to decide. The important thing is to pick something!
Be realistic. Choose goals you know you can check off. Think about whether these goals will actually work for you. It's a disappointing feeling to make a to-do list that is too long, and to discover that we couldn't nearly complete it all. It can make us feel bad about ourselves. We might need to make our lists a bit shorter, and whittle them down to the very most important one to three items we might want to achieve for that practice or week.
Don't worry if you are "not very good at this." You just haven't set yourself up for success in the past! It's the ability to check things off that gives us a feeling of accomplishment. Short-term goals need to be "check-off-able!" The feeling of accomplishment we get when we've checked off everything on our list feels so good that it encourages us to keep doing it. This encouraging feeling turns into what I call "drive." You don't have to be naturally driven; you can teach yourself to be this way by being careful to choose goals that will actually work.
Once you create your goals (and your plan), be careful not to skip too far ahead. If you get so excited about what you want to do several years from now that you skip straight to it, you might be neglecting important skills that you will need to be successful. A great teacher can help keep you on track and to be sure your basics are well-covered before jumping too far ahead. You'll get there!

Remember: one of the reasons many of us (me included) avoid making lists is because we make lists that we can't possibly achieve because there are too many things on them. Choose smaller lists. Start with just one thing! Just start. Because once you do it, and check it off, you have achieved something. And then you can move on to the next thing. Each item you check off moves you a step further toward one of your goals. It's a good feeling.

Good luck! Please contact me with any questions or comments!

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