Today's episode features Professor David Rowland, Professor of Music at the Open University and Director of Music at Christ's College, Cambridge University.

If you're not a musician, you might like to skip straight to 13.27 for an interesting 10-minute chat about performance anxiety and strategies for shining under pressure in exams, interviews and high-pressure situations of all kinds, drawing on best practice from the worlds of sport and music.

If you are a musician or have music exams of any kind, listen from the beginning for a fascinating conversation covering:
- The art of practice, and why people sometimes mistook Rachmaninov for a beginner
- The value of going for a walk, and a trick for high performance borrowed from the world of sport
- Minimising surprises on the day, and adding up the marginal gains
- Getting comfortable in the exam / audition / recital, and staying focused
- Tips for academic music exams and dissertations: answering the question, reading more widely, and good exam technique for written papers

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

For more information on the choir at Christ's College, Cambridge: https://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/join-christs-choir

For more information about studying music at the Open University: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/find/music

For more on exam stress and anxiety generally, check out our recent blog article on the subject at https://examstudyexpert.com/student-exam-stress/

Download Exam Study Expert’s guide to using learning science to learn faster and remember more than ever before, at  https://examstudyexpert.com/freetips

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