Ever get that overwhelmed feeling in the practice room? Where you know there’s a ton of work to be done, but you’re not quite sure where to start or what exactly to do?

Maybe you’re not happy with your sound, or your intonation is sketchy, or perhaps it’s one of those days when it feels like everything needs attention?

We only have so much time and energy, so what are we to do?

Flutist Linda Chesis is a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and festival director. She was a student of Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatory, a top prizewinner at the Paris and Barcelona International Competitions, and has been a longtime faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music and Chair of the Woodwind Department.

In this episode, Linda shares insights on how to cultivate a more beautiful sound, walks us through a checklist for what exactly to listen and look for when listening back to recordings of ourselves, and how to manage and organize our practice time when we have too much music to learn and not quite enough time:

Get all the nerdy details and connect with Linda here:

Linda Chesis: On Cultivating a More Beautiful Sound and Becoming a Better Practicer

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Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Even from a young age, I was always confused by the relationship between nerves and performance. There were times, for instance, when I’d be nervous and sound pretty terrible. But then there were other times when I’d be nervous and play better than ever. And then there were times when I’d be calm and sound very uninspired and mediocre.

It all felt like a crapshoot, and none of it ever made sense. Like, why were nerves sometimes helpful and sometimes not helpful? Should I be trying harder to calm down? And even if I could, given some of my subpar calm performances, was that even the answer?

If you’ve ever had questions like this, today’s article has some answers!

Get all the nerdy details and learn where the optimal anxiety level might be:

Finding Your Optimal Anxiety Level: Why Calm Isn’t Always Better

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Somewhere along the line we learn that mistakes are bad, and perfect is good - but what if this is actually not true when it comes to learning?

What if mistakes are actually an essential part of learning? And what if we actually learn faster when we're in a challenge "sweet spot" and playing nowhere near perfectly?

If that were true...where might this sweet spot be?

Get all the nerdy details and learn why you don't want practicing to feel too easy right here:

The 70% Rule: Why Practicing Shouldn’t Be Too Easy

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

When you're practicing sight-reading, how difficult should the music be?

Should it be easy enough that you can read it more or less perfectly, without any mistakes?

Should it be difficult enough that you're making lots of mistakes, and feeling really challenged?

Could there a specific "sweet spot" or Goldilocks zone where your sight-reading skills improve at the fastest possible rate?

Get all the nerdy details here:

Sight Reading: The Ideal Error Rate for Optimal Learning

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Have you ever found yourself getting irritated or see your performance get derailed by distractions on stage? Maybe it was noises backstage, or movement in the audience, or people coughing and loudly unwrapping candy in the quiet moments?

These distractions often seem like such trivial things, but sometimes, they can take up more space in our thoughts than they ought to, and lead to little slip-ups. Which can be pretty frustrating, lead to more little mistakes, and then begin to send the whole performance into a downward spiral.

Is there any way to become more distraction-proof on stage? And perform better even when surrounded by unanticipated distractions of various sorts?

Get all the nerdy details here: 

Why Practicing While Distracted Is Actually Very Important

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

A one-hour lesson can often go by really quickly, but also be packed with lots and lots to remember.

Have you ever found yourself repeating yourself from one week to the next? Having to remind students about things you've already talked about in previous lessons?

If you'd like to help students remember more from their lessons (and other classes too), I think you'll be intrigued by the finding of a 2014 study which compared two approaches to learning, and found one that significantly enhanced students' recall.

Get all the nerdy details here: 

How to Help Students Remember More From Each Lesson

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

It's human nature to want to be liked and accepted by others. But while some seem to have a knack for it, for many of us, fear of rejection or fear of negative evaluation can get in the way.

Whether it's walking into a room for a job interview or college/grad school audition, playing in a new ensemble for the first time, or meeting your partner's family for the first time, how can we increase our chances of being liked and accepted?

A 2009 study suggests that our mindset could play a role in this.

Get all the nerdy details here:

How to Increase the Likelihood of Being Accepted by Others

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Have you ever had one of those "aha" moments when a solution to a problem spontaneously popped into your head?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have those moments more often? 

Well, a 2012 study suggests that you may be able to cultivate these kinds of moments and increase your creative problem-solving abilities by taking a short break from the task. But not any old break will do - it has to be a specific type of break!

Get all the nerdy details here:

Stumped by a Problem in the Practice Room? Try an “Incubation” Break 

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Ever notice how some folks seem to learn faster than others? What’s their secret? Is it just natural ability? Sure, maybe there’s some of that.

But could it also be that they’re doing something different in the practice room? Like is there some sort of newfangled cutting-edge practice strategy they’re using that you’re not?

Well, these faster learners may be doing something quite different than what you’d expect. As a 2014 Harvard study found when they tested a strategy utilized by…birds. 🤔

Get all the nerdy details here:

Perfect Shmerfect. Could More “Mistakes” Accelerate Learning?

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa

Ever notice how mean the voice in your head can become on stage? Where it generates YouTube comment section-like levels of criticism and abuse?

Or maybe you haven’t even gotten on stage yet. But as you’re waiting your turn, you overhear the person playing right before you, who sounds amazing? And then the voice suddenly makes you question and doubt everything?

Yeah, the voice that lives in our head is not always such a good friend. But what can we do about it? How can we turn that off when it’s not helping us?

In this month’s episode, flutist Carolyn Christie explains how she overcame her own experience with “terrifying” nerves when she was a member of the Montreal Symphony, and shares other insights on practice planning, how to avoid overthinking, and staying in a more positive headspace with “clinical” self-evaluation.

Get all the nerdy details and learn how to cultivate these essential mental skills for performance:
Carolyn Christie: On Overcoming Nerves With Healthier Internal Dialogue - and Phrasing!

* * *
Have you ever wondered why it is exactly that things often sound better at home than they do on stage?

If you’ve been confused (and frustrated) by the inconsistency of your performances, I put together a FREE 4-minute quiz called the Mental Skills Audit, which will help you pinpoint your mental strengths and weaknesses, and figure out what exactly to adjust and tweak in your preparation for more consistently optimal performances.

It’s 100% free, takes only 4 minutes, and you’ll get a downloadable PDF with a personalized breakdown of where you stand in six key mental skill areas. You'll also get the Pressure Proof Practice Challenge, a free 7-day email course where you'll learn specific practice strategies that will help you perform your best, even under pressure.

Take the quiz here: bulletproofmusician.com/msa