The Bulletproof Musician

Latest Episodes:

An “Awkward” Way to Increase Motivation and Make More Progress Towards Your Goals May 29, 2022

Show notes

Ever find yourself wishing you could get better at something, but getting stuck somewhere along the way? And facing a lot of internal resistance to doing the uncomfortable, awkward things that you know would help you get there?

A recent study provides some insights on why this is, and what we can do about it.

An “Awkward” Way to Increase Motivation and Make More Progress Towards Your Goals.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

How to Clear Your Mind of Worries Before a Big Performance (revisited) May 22, 2022

Show notes

Ever notice how mean and distracting (and unhelpful) your inner critic can be on stage?

Previous research has found that writing out our worries right before a test (as counterintuitive as that sounds) can help to improve test performance. But would something like this work with musical performance as well?

How to Clear Your Mind of Worries Before a Big Performance (revisited)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Evidence That Performing From Memory May Be More Challenging for Pianists Than Others (What?!) May 15, 2022

Show notes

Anecdotally at least, fear of memory slips seems to come up more often for pianists than for some other instruments. Is this because of how many notes they have? Or is there something else about the instrument itself that contributes to an increased risk of memory slips in performance (unless one adjusts their practice habits to account for this)?

Evidence That Performing From Memory May Be More Challenging for Pianists Than Others (What?!)

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Do You Struggle With Unreliable Memory on Stage? Perhaps Your Memorization Strategy is Missing This Key ingredient... May 08, 2022

Show notes

Memory slips can be a scary thing and a major cause of anxiety on stage. But it's not a skill that we tend to think of much in our daily practice...

We know from previous research that mental practice plus physical practice leads to better learning than physical practice alone.

Could the same thing be true for memory too? Like, could substituting a bit of mental practice for physical practice lead to more reliable memory than physical practice alone?

Do You Struggle With Unreliable Memory on Stage? Perhaps Your Memorization Strategy is Missing This Key ingredient...

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Keith Underwood (Part 2): On Breathing and the Problem With Thinking of Air as the Solution to Everything. May 01, 2022

Show notes

As instinctive and natural a process as breathing is in our moment-to-moment existence, breathing efficiently and effectively so as to produce a beautiful sound that projects, clear articulation, smooth, connected phrases, etc. can be a real challenge (or so I hear)!

In Part 2 of my chat with flutist Keith Underwood, we get into the topic of breathing, and Keith explains and demonstrates a whole range of concepts that will help you play more effortlessly, and better understand how to "play on the breath, not with the breath."

Keith Underwood (Part 2): On Breathing and the Problem With Thinking of Air as the Solution to Everything.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Keith Underwood (Part 1): On the Art of Imitation, and How to Glean Transformative Insights From Great Musicians to Level Up Your Playing. Apr 24, 2022

Show notes

Flutist and educator Keith Underwood shares insights on what (and how) we can learn from our favorite musicians so as to level up our playing in some pretty transformative ways. And how doing so can potentially make practicing and recording way more fun as well!

Keith Underwood (Part 1): On the Art of Imitation, and How to Glean Insights From Great Musicians to Level Up Your Playing.

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

How Mental Imagery Can Help You Become a Better (Or More "Psychic") Chamber Music Partner Apr 17, 2022

Show notes

You know how some musicians seem to be almost "psychic" in their ability to play together and be totally in sync with one another? Ever wonder how they do this? Is it just experience, or something else?

A couple imagery studies provide some intriguing clues on what they might be doing, that facilitates next-level ensemble coordination.

How Mental Imagery Can Help You Become a Better (Or More "Psychic") Chamber Music Partner

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

How Does One Learn to Play More Musically? Apr 10, 2022

Show notes

How much emotion should we be feeling internally for a musically effective performance? Is there such a thing as feeling too much emotion when performing? And is playing more musically something we can learn, or is it something innate?

How Does One Learn to Play More Musically?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Do We Really Sound as Terrible on Stage as We Sometimes Think We Do? Apr 03, 2022

Show notes

Ever notice how after performances, your family, friends, and teachers seem to think that the performance went better than you thought it went? Is this just because they're being nice, or is this a real thing? As in, is there something about being on stage that makes us perceive our own playing differently than how others perceive our playing?

Do We Really Sound as Terrible on Stage as We Sometimes Think We Do?

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

"Quiet Eye": A Technique to Enhance Performance When You're Nervous Mar 27, 2022

Show notes

Ever notice how nerves can make us feel pressure to rush into the opening of a performance, and start before we feel truly settled and ready?

Turns out that one of the keys to starting off more effectively may have to do with our eyes, and what we look at or focus on in the moments right before beginning.

How so? A 2014 study gives us some intriguing clues...

"Quiet Eye": A Technique to Enhance Performance When You're Nervous

More from The Bulletproof Musician

Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
Live and self-paced courses

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Bulletproof Musician

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6