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A Study of the Process: A Guide for Aspiring Orchestral Violinists

A DMA Document submitted to

The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in Violin Performance

in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music

2019

by Sophia Lim Arriaga

B.M., Vanderbilt University, 2008 M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2010

Committee Chair: Dr. Catharine Carroll Lees

Abstract

This document provides a guide that studies the process of preparing for orchestral violin auditions. For this subject, there are many emerging resources, with a breadth of related material ranging from personal accounts to scientific studies in the sports field and brain imaging. Today, these resources take on accessible forms such as blogs, podcasts, and online courses and schools, in addition to books and in-person instruction. Much of this material is scattered across disciplines and not within common knowledge of auditionees. This lack of education may contribute to the reporting that only a third of those who show up to auditions are “seriously eligible candidates.”1

Modern sources can fill in holes that are still found in a typical musical education, including topics related to violin playing, expert performance, orchestral auditions, scientific research related to learning and practicing, performance psychology, and injury prevention. Much of traditional violin pedagogy focuses on physical technique or performance traditions of the violin cannon. Today, studies make it possible to explore, not only physical mechanics, but also the mechanics of the mind as a combination of technique, musicality, mind, and wellness2 are all necessary for a resilient audition preparation. This guide is drawn from dozens of lessons with orchestral musicians of major orchestras, as well as the afformentioned modern resources.

The first part of this guide provides an overview of the challenges presented by orchestral auditions as well as a literature review of sources available to violinists today. I, then, proceed to discuss expert performance and mindset in order to provide a framework for the main body of the undertakings involved in the process that is discussed. Injury prevention and self-care are also discussed as these topics are crucial for any long career in music but are not typically addressed in schools. I discuss the process of

1 Niles, Laurie. "Interview with LA Phil Assistant Concertmaster Nathan Cole: Online Teaching and Preparing for Auditions." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20136/14750/.

2 Jenkins, Rachelle. "The Four Pillars of Audition Preparation." Audition Playbook. August 25, 2018. Accessed February 20, 2019. https://www.auditionplaybook.com/blog/four-pillars.

ii research and organization as it pertains to violinists preparing for auditions, compiling views from various professional orchestral musicians. The next portion of my document is devoted to note learning, which I explore in relation to theories of motor learning. A discourse on the explicit phase of learning and refining of excerpts follows. The next portion of this document is dedicated to the topic of mock auditions. I also address psychological elements of performance that may prove useful in the audition preparation process.

Research for this document involved compiling and synthesizing information from various courses, books, blogs, podcasts, and violin lessons. I experimented with ideas from this array of sources and documented the results in audio recordings in order to vet their effectiveness in both the practice room and on stage in live auditions.

iii

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii Table of Contents ...... v Table of Figures ...... viii Introduction: The Importance of a Process ...... 1 Chapter 1 ...... 5 The Audition ...... 5 A Literature Review: The Emergence of New Ways of Coping ...... 11 Methodology ...... 21 Chapter 2: The Science of Expertise ...... 22 Introduction ...... 22 Talent ...... 23 Hours of Practice: A Study of Berlin Violinists ...... 27 Mental Representations: The Case Study Pianist Gabriel Imreh ...... 31 The Brain ...... 34 The Practice Model ...... 35 Further Thoughts About Practice ...... 41 Implications for Auditionees ...... 43 Chapter 3: Mindset ...... 44 Overview ...... 44 Fixed vs. Growth Mindset ...... 45 Mindset Research ...... 49 Teaching Students About Their Brains Can Enhance Performance ...... 51 Everyone Has a Combination of Fixed and Growth Mindsets ...... 52 Journey to a Growth Mindset ...... 53 Chapter 4: Injury prevention ...... 55 The Problem ...... 55 Contributing Factors ...... 57 Prevention ...... 60 Set-Up ...... 64 Chapter 5: Self-Care ...... 72 Overview ...... 72 Sleep ...... 73

Exercise...... 77 Burn out ...... 78 Chapter 6: Organization and Research ...... 80 Overview ...... 80 A Healthy Schedule ...... 80 The Calendar ...... 82 For Those Who Hate Planning ...... 84 Other Practice Routine Tricks: Interleaved Practice...... 87 Other Practice Routine Tricks: Spaced Practice ...... 90 Research ...... 91 Creating an Excerpt Book ...... 94 Make a Playlist ...... 94 Chapter 7: Learning the Notes ...... 98 Overview ...... 98 Motor Learning ...... 99 OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning ...... 101 Implicit and Explicit Memory ...... 103 Implicit Learning: Errorless Learning ...... 106 Implicit Learning Using Analogies ...... 107 Implicit Learning: External Focus ...... 108 Implicit Learning: Marginal Perception and Change Blindness...... 109 Overlearning...... 110 Variable Learning ...... 112 Practice Methods for Note Learning...... 114 Chapter 8: Refining ...... 122 Overview ...... 122 Self-Recording ...... 124 Visualization ...... 130 Solving Common Problems: The Basics ...... 136 Rhythm ...... 136 Solving Common Problems: Intonation...... 139 Chapter 9: Mock Auditions and Teacher Feedback ...... 141 Overview ...... 141 Mock Auditions ...... 141 Teacher Feedback ...... 144

Chapter 10: Psychological Considerations ...... 145 Overview ...... 145 Beta Blockers ...... 146 Centering ...... 148 Conclusion ...... 155 Select Bibliography ...... 158 Appendices...... 165 Appendix A: A Calendar ...... 166 Appendix B: Research Document ...... 168 Appendix C: Organizing Excerpts into a Booklet ...... 177 Appendix D: Self-Recording/Problem Solving ...... 178

vii

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Rob Knopper's Audition Rubric ...... 9 Figure 2: Blocked Practice vs. Interleaved Practice ...... 88 Figure 3: Smetana's Bartered Bride - Practicing with varying rhythms/groupings ...... 120 Figure 4: Cycling Through Implicit and Explicit "Phases" of Learning ...... 124

viii

Introduction: The Importance of a Process

“Attaching yourself and your life’s happiness to an outcome you cannot fully control is insane. We all do this to some extent. We’re only human. But the point is we don’t have to. It can be different. Here’s how it can be different: focus on process…practice with extreme methodical rigor.”3

--Jason Haaheim, principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera

In order to address all of the challenges presented by an audition – that of demonstrating musicality, technique, and an ability to perform under pressure – simply picking up the instrument and practicing is not enough. Horn player Rachelle Jenkins explains that she had “no business” taking many of the auditions that she attended: “This was not necessarily because of my playing ability, but rather because of my lack of preparation. My preparation was lacking even when I did not realize it was lacking.”4 When she went back to school (Colburn) in 2015, she realized, “There were so many moving parts that went into audition preparation that I hadn’t even considered yet. My practice was poorly organized, I never practiced performing, I didn’t have any strategy for mental preparation, I never committed to mock auditions…the list goes on and on. Essentially, I had no plan.”5

Rob Knopper, percussionist in the Metropolitan Opera, reports a similar experience: “I would go to the audition, and I would get cut every single time, because of a few reasons. One, I wasn’t noticing a lot of things in my excerpts that would have been noticed and solved through self-recording. I wasn’t bouncing excerpts off of other people to hear what their reactions were…I was only letting the excerpts

3 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/a-process-for-everyone-teachers-freelancers-and-big-job-auditioners/.

4 Jenkins, Rachelle. Audition Playbook. Self-published, iBook, 2018, 5.

5 Ibid., 6

improve based on direct practicing in the practice room, looking at my instrument live. I also wasn’t finding a way to get over nerves.”6

Many audition winners extoll the virtues of a good process. Jenkins reports that after not advancing in auditions for three years, she began “advancing regularly, even making finals and super finals” due to developing mental skills and having a plan: “For every audition, I was organized and had a plan. A plan for the weeks of preparation, a plan for the improvements to my technique, a plan for the moments on stage, a plan for how each excerpt would sound... everything.”7 Rob Knopper explains the need for a good plan: “I think of audition preparation – it’s kind of like a bridge. To get from the beginning to the end, you can’t have anything missing. Otherwise you’ll fall in the river. Along the way, there are a whole bunch of major processes that I have to go through, that I have to check off as being really effective in terms of auditioning. Without that, I can’t do well in an audition. My excerpts don’t end up sounding good.”8 To begin winning auditions, Knopper says, “It was just a matter of working all of those processes up and building that bridge so that all the stones were in place, then it was like nothing to could stop me…It became this point where I couldn’t get anywhere, and all of a sudden I was just unstoppable.”9

Audition winners have reported several ways that they learned how to prepare for auditions.

Many report dedicating themselves to growth and learning. Knopper learned from his failures, painstakingly solving one problem at a time in the most thorough way he could – from figuring out how to research excerpts in order to infuse his excerpts with musicality to creating a process for maximizing the benefits of mock auditions.10 Jennifer Montone reports that she began with an “‘imitation method’

6 Heath, Jason. Winning the Audition. Self-published, Kindle, 2016, 87

7 Jenkins, Rachelle. "Why I Created the Audition Playbook.” Audition Playbook. August 25, 2018. Accessed February 20, 2019. https://www.auditionplaybook.com/blog/2018/4/1/why-i-created-the-audition-playbook.

8 Ibid., 87.

9 Ibid., 88.

10 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “Audition Prep 101 With Rob and Noa.” Accessed February 17, 2019. https://academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/409301.

2 which shifted into an ‘imitation, plus [her] own style.’”11 Matthew Winter, prior to his winning audition with the Finnish Radio Symphony, emailed Mark Inouye (principal trumpet of San Francisco Symphony) to ask how he prepared for auditions.12 Nathan Cole (Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles

Philharmonic) reports that he watched how others prepared: “I did what I’d seen some other people do: prepare the excerpts, practice a lot, of course, and play some mock auditions.” However, he found during his first audition for the Philadelphia Orchestra that he needed a more thorough plan.13 Jason Haaheim

(principal timpani, Metropolitan Opera) reports that reading Colvin’s Talent is Overrated and other books about expertise helped him shift his mentality to come up with a rigorous process for audition preparation.14

A good process for preparing for auditions has been reported by many audition winners as crucial for success. By now, there is not a lack of information regarding auditions and that can be applied to them. However, much of this material is scattered across disciplines and not within common knowledge of auditionees. This may contribute to a lack of preparedness among them. In fact, Nathan Cole reports that only a third of those who show up to auditions are “seriously eligible candidates.”15 From compilation of material from various sources, we can gain a general overview of what an audition preparation entails. Thus, the rest of this documents aims to aid readers in an understanding of what a good audition preparation process entails.

11 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

12 "Interview With Bass Trombonist of the Finnish Radio Symphony." Audition Cafe. August 09, 2017. Accessed February 17, 2019.https://auditioncafe.com/article/interview-with-bass-trombonist-of-the-finnish-radio-symphony/.

13 Niles, Laurie. "Interview with LA Phil Assistant Concertmaster Nathan Cole: Online Teaching and Preparing for Auditions." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20136/14750/.

14 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/a-process-for-everyone-teachers-freelancers-and-big-job-auditioners/.

15 Niles, Laurie. "Interview with LA Phil Assistant Concertmaster Nathan Cole: Online Teaching and Preparing for Auditions." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20136/14750/.

The content of this document is divided into ten chapters. The first few chapters aim to give readers an orientation as to the tasks involved and a conceptual framework for understanding the general process of preparing for auditions. These chapters also aim to prepare auditionees physically and mentally for the ensuing work involved. Chapter one provides an overview of the audition, as well as a literature review and methodology for creating this document. The science of expertise, the framework of understanding that enabled Jason Haaheim to figure out his process will be discussed in Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 will discuss Carol Dweck’s research on mindset, as a growth mindset is crucial for being able to come up with good strategies to overcome challenges and persevere through the process. Injury prevention, a crucial part of maintaining a career in music will be discussed in Chapter 4. Self-care, important for performance and the long game involved in audition preparation will be discussed in

Chapter 5.

The next part of this document aims to give readers a more detailed framework of the process of music learning and performance preparation. Chapter 6 discusses organization and research, a crucial pillar of audition preparation as reported by many winners. Chapter 7 discusses note learning and the science involved in order for auditionees to ascertain efficient ways to practice. Chapter 8 discusses refining excerpts as auditionees must present polished pieces that remain resilient under pressure. Mock auditions and feedback, crucial to performance preparation, will be discussed in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 sums up psychological elements that are important for a resilient performance.

Chapter 1

The Audition

That the audition is a difficult undertaking is emphasized by many reports. “The classical audition ranks among the world’s toughest job interviews,” the Boston Magazine describes in an expose.16

In a Cincinnati Enquirer article, Christian Colberg, principal violist of the Cincinnati Symphony is quoted, “From a statistical chance, it’s probably easier to get into the NBA…It’s a very tough process, a process that sends people to therapists, and that truly changes your life. It’s almost barbaric, but it is absolutely fair.”17 The Boston Magazine article explains the challenge, “Each applicant has 10 minutes at most to play in a way so memorably that (s/)he stands out among a lineup of other world-class musicians.”18 The same article explains the substantial undertaking: “[Auditionees] practice endlessly for months, sacrificing family and personal time. They have to.”19

The Boston article also describes why many musicians are willing to go through this endeavor:

“Musicians the world over will drop everything to scramble for a job” because it provides musicians a chance to lead stable lives.20 The article describes Michael Tetreault’s experience: “If he can win a spot with the BSO, his very existence will be transformed…The orchestra is a godsend for the very few who

16 Jennie Dorris, "The Audition: Mike Tetreault's Audition for the BSO," Boston Magazine, February 07, 2016, accessed February 16, 2019, https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/06/26/boston-symphony-orchestra-audition/.

17 Gelfand, Janelle. “Inside a Symphony Audition.” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 Dec. 2015, www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/11/24/inside-symphony-audition/75478764/.

18 Jennie Dorris, "The Audition: Mike Tetreault's Audition for the BSO," Boston Magazine, February 07, 2016, accessed February 16, 2019, https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/06/26/boston-symphony-orchestra-audition/.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

5 make it. The positions pay more than $100,000 a year. You get health benefits. You get vacation. You get to lead a normal life.”21

Prior to the 1950s, the orchestra world was predominantly male; the players in orchestras were hand selected by music directions. To promote fairness, the multiple round audition was instated, but it was found that males still had a significant advantage. In the 1970s, orchestras began to put up screens in order to promote gender equality, and this is the model for auditions that we have today.22 In short, this audition format is relatively new, and thus the need to find and teach ways to cope is something that is still being addressed today.

Each audition follows a similar process. Mark Nuccio, principal clarinetist of the Houston

Symphony describes, “The process begins with the orchestra announcing a vacancy. These days, the official notification comes both in the musician’s union paper as well as on the given orchestra’s website.”23 The Metropolitan Opera Musicians writes, “all interested musicians submit a resume. A committee of orchestra members reviews the resumes to determine which applicants will be invited directly to the live audition and which individuals will be asked to submit a preliminary recording.”24

“It’s not unusual for us to have 200 to 400 resumes, depending on the instrument,” says personnel manager Kelvin Hill of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He reports that the PSO has “had over 400 inquiries before” for a single opening.25

21 Ibid.

22 Goldin, Claudia and Cecilia Rouse. "Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact Of 'Blind' Auditions On Female Musicians," American Economic Review, 2000, v90(4,Sep), 715-741.

23 Mark Nuccio, "Orchestral Preparation in 10 Steps," Audition Cafe, June 26, 2017, accessed February 16, 2019, https://auditioncafe.com/article/orchestral-preparation-in-10-steps/.

24 William Short, "Auditioning for the MET Orchestra," MET Orchestra Musicians, April 17, 2014, accessed February 16, 2019, http://www.metorchestramusicians.org/blog/2014/4/16/auditioning-for-the-met-orchestra.

25 Abels, Caroline. “Symphony Auditions: Where Only the Strong Survive.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 30 May 1999, old.post-gazette.com/magazine/19990530auditions1.asp.

After being invited to an audition, a candidate will typically have several weeks to prepare a varied list of excerpts. This list usually encompasses both technical and musical challenges, including some of the most difficult passages in the orchestral repertoire. Jorja Fleezanis, former concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra describes the test of style by comparing it to the offerings of multiple restaurants’ menus, “Every excerpt list has a wide range of stylistic demands from Mozart to

Rachmaninoff to Stravinksy through Tchaikovsky through Brahms, Strauss…This is like a gigantic menu of a great restaurant or maybe of 10 great restaurants that serve very different food and you have to understand the taste and the feel of these styles.”26 David Allan Moore reflects upon the reduced ability to hide any weaknesses by describing the audition as “the most poorly programmed unaccompanied blank recital, and you don’t get to choose the order. You don’t get to sort of balance it in a way that works for you…None of this repertoire is meant to be heard by one person playing it alone.”27

Auditionees must undergo strategic and rigorous preparation in order to have a chance at winning a job. Many auditionees must audition dozens of times before winning a spot in a well-paying orchestra.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describes, “It’s a long, competitive and, for most musicians, unsuccessful process.”28 Personal accounts provide a glimpse of the stamina involved. Juilliard trained Rob Knopper, percussionist of the Metropolitan Opera reports taking forty auditions and refining his process over the course of ten years to win his job.29 After already being established as a violin professor, Gabriel Pegis, principal 2nd violin of the Cincinnati Symphony took nineteen auditions over the course of two years in order to win his first major orchestra job. Jason Haaheim, principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera,

26 Jorja Fleezanis, "Audition Tips," MUSAIC - New World Symphony, , accessed February 16, 2019, https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

27 "Audition Panel Discussion," MUSAIC - New World Symphony, , accessed February 16, 2019, https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-panel-discussion.

28 Ibid.

29 Knopper, Rob. LetterSophia Arriaga to . 2018. "Winter Bootcamp Enrollment Is Open". Email, 2018.

7 spent ten years refining his process before winning his dream job.30 The stories are nothing short of inspiring with regards to the persistence and grit involved but also illustrate that many musicians have many elements to figure out even after robust musical training from top teachers and conservatories. In the documentary Composed, Joann Falletta, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia

Symphony explains, “Conservatories are just beginning to scratch the surface of preparing musicians for the real world of music. It’s been very slow, and sometimes conservatories have been very reticent to do anything other than train musicians to be the greatest technicians on their instrument and then toss them out into the world and hope for the best.”31

As auditionees prepare, they may consider the audition rubric, what the auditionee is “graded” on;

It contains items similar to any great musical performance, but playing orchestral tutti string parts in an audition setting requires some translation. Trombonist of the Finnish Radio Symphony, Matthew Winter reports that his colleague, Darren Accosta, had good way of explaining what judges are listening for:

“He said there are three different levels of playing in an audition. No. 1 is having the basic fundamentals such as sound, pitch, rhythm etc. No. 2 is the basic sense of style for each excerpt. In other words playing with appropriate dynamics, and articulations. No. 3 is being able to communicate emotionally with your listener, which is very rare to hear in an audition. But if you can achieve that you can really set yourself apart from everyone else. I think the candidate who can let go of the technique to a degree and really take a risk musically is at an advantage.”32

30 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/.

31 Composed. Directed by John Beder. Bed Rock Productions, 2016. Accessed February 16, 2019.

32"Interview with Bass Trombonist of the Finnish Radio Symphony," Audition Cafe, August 03, 2017, accessed February 16, 2019, https://auditioncafe.com/article/interview-with-bass-trombonist-of-the-finnish-radio-symphony/.

Rob Knopper provides readers with a similar rubric on his website:

Figure 1: Rob Knopper's Audition Rubric

Although a few mistakes will not necessarily preclude an auditionee from winning, consistent mistakes in elements denoted in these rubrics increase his/her chances of being cut.

With regard to training to land a job in a well-paying professional orchestra, learning how to play in an orchestra is a different skill. Former dean of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Peter

Landgren (also a former member of the Baltimore Symphony) is quoted: “The skill of winning an audition is something that top conservatories are taking seriously. We prepare students to play in an orchestra, but it’s very different to teach them to play an audition.”34 For violinists, the way that one plays in an audition is often different from how one would need play in an orchestra section. David Allan

Moore of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Bass section explains what kind of translation may be needed for a performance of orchestral excerpts in an audition setting:

33 Rob Knopper, "How an Audition Is Won," ROB KNOPPER, May 23, 2016, accessed February 16, 2019, https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2016/5/23/how-principal-2nd-violin-was-won.

34 Gelfand, Janelle. “Inside a Symphony Audition.” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 Dec. 2015, www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/11/24/inside-symphony-audition/75478764/.

“Play things, at least as a string player, slightly broader in the sense that there’s more of a sense of…a section sound…I think players with a lot of professional experience are sometimes at a disadvantage…because they scare the crap out of the committee because there’s too much and there’s the string player things that happen normally that you can’t do in an audition…You do have to polish and prepare in a slightly different way than you would if we took you out of the orchestra playing exactly the way in the orchestra…I’m playing a lot more attention to things like the ends of notes, vibrato…details that maybe get covered up in the larger context.”35

After a thorough preparation, auditionees show up to the preliminary round of the audition;

Candidates typically have between twenty minutes and one hour to warm up for an audition before they are called one by one to audition behind a screen. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describes a Pittsburgh

Symphony Orchestra audition preliminary:

“This time around, candidates in the preliminary round were required to play part of the first movement of any concerto chosen from a list of six. The committee listened to these selections as long it wanted, though Cardenes usually cut off players after a minute with a terse ‘thank you.’ The candidate had to then play measures from Mozart's Symphony No. 39, Tchaikovsky's ‘Nutcracker’ Suite and Richard Strauss' ‘Don Juan.’…After hearing the preliminaries, committee members vote on who should advance to the semifinals, often held the same day.”36 In many auditions, a majority of auditionees are cut during the preliminary round.

The day is also not easy for judges on the other side of the screen. Post-Gazette reports of the

Pittsburgh Symphony audition, “Some days, the committee hears dozens of candidates. The finals alone this year lasted seven hours. With each candidate playing the same music, members can begin to feel dazed. They report having to force themselves to approach each candidate with fresh ears.”37

Those who advance from the preliminary round proceed to the semifinal round, which is sometimes programmed for later in the same day but can also be held within the next few days, depending

35 "Audition Panel Discussion," MUSAIC - New World Symphony, , accessed February 16, 2019, https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-panel-discussion.

36 Gelfand, Janelle. “Inside a Symphony Audition.” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 Dec. 2015, www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/11/24/inside-symphony-audition/75478764/.

37 Ibid.

10 on the number of candidates and the number of time (sometimes days) needed to hear all of them. The

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sums up the events of the semifinal round:

“The semifinal round this year required the concerto excerpt from the list, the second movement of any Mozart concerto and measures from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Prokofiev's ‘Death of Tybalt’ (from the ballet ‘Romeo and Juliet’), Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Brahms' Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven's ‘Leonore’ Overture…Following the semifinals, the committee votes on who should advance to the finals, which is the only round attended by Jansons.”38 The winner(s) may be chosen during a final round but sometimes there are super-finals. In the

Pittsburgh audition, Mariss Janson’s (the music director at the time) is delegated the task of choosing among the finalists:

“Though Jansons has the ultimate say on who is chosen from among the finalists, he must trust that the committee has selected the best people from the preliminary and semifinal rounds. This year, the committee sent him 11 finalists for four positions.”39

Most auditionees will go home with a learning experience that the growth-oriented will reflect upon in strategizing for the next audition.

A Literature Review: The Emergence of New Ways of Coping

Writing this document involved a compilation and synthesis of a wide range of literature. As mentioned in the introduction, the main body will curate and organize this material into the various steps and topics found in the process of preparation. This section will function as a more formal literature review, categorized by type of material.

The relatively new-ness of the blind, multiple-round audition is something that many of those who have achieve success in the process have begun to address. The internet has erupted with many resources for auditionees, making accessible the vulnerable experiences of audition winners, and

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

11 demystifying the process. Top orchestral musicians are now emboldened to share their experiences through blogs, podcasts, and online courses. A wide range of information is now accessible to just about anyone with modern technology. Scientific research over the past thirty years can now inform the process of gaining expertise on anything, including the violin. The research for this multifaceted topic is influenced by years of lessons with top orchestral violinists, as well as an array of websites, books, blogs, articles, podcasts, and online courses. This includes material related to playing the violin, auditions, brain research related to performance, and performance psychology. The relative newness of aforementioned courses, blogs, and podcasts means that there are not many publications written about them. Thus, I have chosen to gather information about the process of preparing violin auditions and present them in this document.

Notable websites providing valuable insight into audition preparation include Los Angeles

Philharmonic Associate Concertmaster Nathan Cole’s website, NatesViolin.com. Here, one can find all things violin related - writings of Cole’s experiences related to violin, videos demonstrating violin technique, a podcast co-hosted by his wife, LA Philharmonic Assistant Concertmaster Akiko Tarumoto, and two courses that were intended as guides leading to two separate New York Philharmonic Violin

Auditions, one created in 2015 and the other in September 2018.40 His guides provide week to week goal posts for violinist preparing for those particular auditions, bowings and fingerings, and videos demonstrating ways to overcome the main challenges of particular excerpts.

Rob Knopper’s course can provide additional step-by-step guidance. His course called “the

Audition Hacker Formula,”41 provides an option for additional material and support from former Juilliard violinist and performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama. As a team, they present eight weeks of modules and live sessions with a seven-week practice break in the middle. Throughout, they assign

40 Cole, Nathan. "There Is Method to the Mastery." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/.

41 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

12 homework, offer feedback on assignments, and welcome questions. Knopper’s course can be applied to any instrument and provides detailed instructions and demonstrations of these instructions from the day one receives an excerpt list to the day of the audition. Included in this course are videos of Knopper modeling practice techniques; That is, he shows students videos of himself learning an excerpt that he has never learned before. This is unconventional vulnerability is of great value as students are able, not just to receive advice, but to see and relate to Knopper’s honest preparation.

Kageyama also has his own course, “Beyond Practicing,”42 which addresses topics related to performance psychology, including activation strategies, practicing efficiently, confidence, courage, the inner critic, focus, and resilience. This modular course, mostly in the form of videos, includes advice received from his former music teachers, studies related to the concepts he presents, as well as techniques that students have shared with him. Performance psychologist Dr. Don Greene (previously Kageyama’s instructor at Juilliard) has a similar course that covers similar topics. His course promises to help performers “channel nervous energy, build confidence, strengthen courage, intensify focus, and develop resilience”43

Other valuable sources now found on the web that provide insight into audition preparation include Artistworks,44Musaic,45 the documentary Composed: Overcoming Performance Anxiety,46and

Audition Cafe.47 Artistworks is a platform through which students can enroll for semesters of instruction

42 Kageyama, Noa. "Beyond Practicing 2nd Edition (Lifetime)." The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://members.bulletproofmusician.com/courses/beyond-practicing-v2-5-lifetime/

43 Greene, Don. "Peak Performance Training School." Peak Performance Training School. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://peak-performance-training-school.teachable.com/. https://portal.winningonstage.com/products:classes

44 "Beginner to Advanced Music Lessons Online." ArtistWorks. Accessed September 22, 2018. https://artistworks.com/.

45 "MUSAIC - New World Symphony." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/.

46 Composed. Directed by John Beder. Bed Rock Productions, 2016. Accessed February 16, 2019..

47 "The World's Audition Platform." Audition Cafe. Accessed September 24, 2018. https://auditioncafe.com/.

13 with top musicians. For violin, Nathan Cole was a previous instructor and currently, Richard Amoroso of the Philadelphia Orchestra is the teacher for classical violin. Students who enroll have access to dozens of instructional videos by previously, Nathan Cole and currently, Richard Amoroso. This includes instructional videos about dozens of orchestral excerpts and performances of them by these two aforementioned violinists. Students are able to submit videos to the current instructor and then receive videos in return with feedback from the instructor. Students are also able to watch other students’ exchanges. Watching and participating in these exchanges can enhance an auditionee’s understanding of the common pitfalls of students with regards to orchestral excerpts and gain additional approaches to each excerpt. Musaic boasts an archive of masterclasses featuring New World Symphony fellows being coached by top orchestral musicians and soloists. These videos provide valuable advice from highly sought out orchestral musicians and teachers. From these, an auditionee can form an understanding of the common mistakes made by students and enrich his/her understanding of an ideal performance of orchestral excerpts. Composed is a documentary that features interviews of orchestral musicians regarding their struggles to overcome performance anxiety. This documentary can provide insight into struggles common to auditionees. Audition Café features interviews from both seasoned orchestral players, as well as new audition winners, that answer questions about audition preparation.

Blogs now provide an invaluable source of insight into the hard work that top orchestral musicians have put into winning their jobs. Nathan Cole’s blog articles48 share personal moments and insights like the doubts he experienced in his youth and advice based on his lifelong journey of continuing to improve as a violinist. Dr. Noa Kageyama’s blog49 addresses a variety of psychological topics related to practicing, mental tools for compelling performances, overcoming and accepting nerves, as well as the

48 Cole, Nathan, and Akiko Tarumoto. "There Is Method to the Mastery." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/.

49 Kageyama, Noa. The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.bulletproofmusician.com/.

14 mind’s connection to injury. Rob Knopper’s blog articles50 shed light on his own struggles with failure during the audition process and how he used disappointment to fuel improvement during his ten-year journey. Jason Haaheim’s blog provides insight into his journey which started from practicing inefficiently to being completely transformed by Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated,51 which dramatically changed the way he approached audition preparation such that he improved at a much faster rate in the three years prior to winning his MET Opera job than during his previous long musical history as he became more rigorous in his approach to practicing. 52

Blogs also discuss the latest findings in neuroscience and how this research can be applied to the field of music. Professor Emerita of Bucknell University Dr. Lois Svard, “known for her work in applying current neuroscience research to the study and performance of music”53 writes The Musician’s

Brain,54 in which she discusses the latest research and theories of learning and practice. Degreed in both music and neuroscience, as well as an instructor of neuroscience at the University of British Columbia for the past ten years,55 Dr. Tara Gaerter writes Training the Musical Brain.56 Gaertner’s blog provides insight into the ways that she applies her training in neuroscience to her piano playing and pedagogy.

These blogs can provide valuable insight for auditionees to understand the brain mechanics of various practice methods. Strategic practicing is crucial to a preparation as auditionees have the same amount of time to prepare and may be of similar skill level.

50 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/.

51 Colvin, Geoffrey. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-class Performers from Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio, 2018.

52 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/.

53 Svard, Lois. "Bio." Lois Svard. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://loissvard.com/bio-2/.

54 Svard, Lois. The Musician's Brain. 2019. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/.

55 Gaertner, Tara. "Biography." Tara Gaertner: Neuroscientist, Music Educator, Writer, Speaker. Accessed February 27, 2019. http://taragaertner.com/.

56 Gaertner, Tara. Training the Musical Brain. 2019. Accessed February 17, 2019.

Research from the past thirty to forty years on the topic of expertise is published in several books.

Among these are books and articles relating to scientific studies on expert performance. Dr. Anders

Ericsson’s book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, explains the research he has undertaken during the past 30 years to understand what sets experts apart from others. His findings show that hours of deliberate practice, more than genetically inherited talent, determined the achievements of experts.57 The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance58 compiles a survey of historical and latest research in the subject. Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated presents much of the same research as Ericsson’s book.59 Dan Coyle’s Talent Code also talks about the development of expert skill by way of mindful repetition that results in the production of myelin in the brain.60 These books all serve to provide a scientific understanding of the process of becoming an expert, as a professional orchestral musician may be considered to be. Psychologist Carol Dweck’s Mindset61 details the discoveries from thirty years of research on how beliefs about oneself can “profoundly [affect] the way

[one] leads [his/her] life.”62 This is important to auditionees as a growth mindset can be crucial to having the ability to respond to setbacks, like being cut from auditions, by developing strategies that lead to improvement while a fixed mindset can be self-limiting.

Dr. Don Greene (in addition to his aforementioned course) has written several books to help musicians and other performers execute their skills under pressure, and Dr Julie Nagel has also written a book about managing stage fright. Greene’s book, Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under

57 Ericsson, Anders. Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Mariner Books, 2017.

58 Ericsson, K. Anders, Robert R. Hoffman, Aaron Kozbelt, and Credo Reference (Firm). The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Enhanc Cr;Second; ed. New York, NY, USA;Boston, Massachusetts;Cambridge, United Kingdom;: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

59 Colvin, Geoffrey. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-class Performers from Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio, 2018.

60 Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown. London: Arrow, 2010.

61 Dweck, Carol S. Mindset. London: Robinson, 2017.

62 Ibid., 151.

Pressure includes assessments for musicians to gauge what psychological skills they will need to strengthen and exercises to help strengthen those skills.63 Another of book of Greene’s, Fight Your Fear and Win: Seven Skills for Performing Your Best Under Pressure at Work, in Sports, on Stage64 includes many of the strategies found in Performance Success for application in other fields and provides anecdotal background about these strategies. Dr. Julie Nagel’s book, Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers,65 discusses performance anxiety as related to performance and pedagogy.

Other notable books for a potential orchestral violinist include Janet Horvath’s Playing (Less)

Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians,66 Gerald Klickstein’s The Musicians Way: A Guide to

Practice, Performance, and Wellness,67 and Susan William’s Quality Practice: A Musician’s Guide.68

Horvath, a cellist in the Minnesota Orchestra, presents studies related to injury in musicians and has compiled ways to prevent injury for a variety of instrumentalists. Klickstein has written a guide with topics similar to those that I plan to address; He takes a wholistic approach to the work and life of musicians, informed by years of experience teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts. William’s

Quality Practice, provides a useful starting point for any research that attempts to reconcile science and music, as it outlines the latest science that musicians can apply to their teaching, learning, practice, and performance.

63 Greene, Don. Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002.

64 Greene, Don. Fight Your Fear and Win: Seven Skills for Performing Your Best under Pressure--at Work, in Sports, on Stage. London: Ebury Digital, 2010.

65 Nagel, Julie Jaffee. Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

66 Horvath, Janet. Playing (less) Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians. New York: Hal Leonard Books, 2010.

67 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009.

68 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017.

Self-published books relevant to auditionees include Jason Heath’s Winning the Audition69 and

Rachelle Jenkin’s Audition Playbook.70 Heath’s Winning the Audition compiles what has learned from prior years of struggles with auditions with the insight he gain after starting a podcast (Contrabass

Conversations,71 in which he interviews many bass players). Jenkin’s Audition Playbook provides workbooks to aid auditionees in the creation of a plans for their audition preparations. She compares her playbook to sports playbooks which lay out a game plan.

Podcasts provide an invaluable source of insight as musicians have interviewed one another about various topics surrounding orchestral playing, auditions, injury prevention, and practicing. Notable podcasts contributing to this research include that of Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto,72 in which they candidly discuss their own experiences with various topics relating to the world of orchestra playing and auditions. Noa Kageyama interviews various musicians on his blog “Bulletproof Musician”73 on topics like injury prevention, practicing, and what goes on in their minds as they are performing. “Per

Service,”74 co-hosted by four freelance musicians, shares the perspective of those aspiring in their careers as they interview those who have achieved dream orchestral jobs. Renee-Paule Gauthier’s website,

MindOverFinger.com,75 also features podcasts interviewing various orchestral musicians on the ideas related to deliberate practice. These interviews, conducted themselves by those with considerable

69 Heath, Jason. Winning the Audition. Self-published, Kindle, 2016

70 Jenkins, Rachelle. Audition Playbook. Self-published, iBook, 2018

71 Heath, Jason. Contrabass Conversations. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://contrabassconversations.com/.

72 Cole, Nathan, and Akiko Tarumoto. "Stand Partners for Life." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/the-stand-partners-for-life-podcast/.

73 Kageyama, Noa. “Bulletproof Musician" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/.

74 OGibbles, Michael. "Per Service." Orchestra Excerpts. October 30, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://orchestraexcerpts.com/perservice/.

75 Gauthier, Renee Paule. "Mind Over Finger." Mind Over Finger. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.mindoverfinger.com/.

18 experience and knowledge of topics discussed, provide understanding of the struggles and ways of coping with the process of taking auditions.

Pedagogy courses informed by physiologists and other body experts are now available to the aspiring violinist and contribute to this document. These courses include those by Mimi Zweig76 and Paul

Rolland experts.77 These pedagogy courses share an emphasis on setting students up physically for healthy violin playing and injury prevention. This can be helpful for any violinist aiming to stay injury free for a long performance career.

This guide is also created with awareness of several doctoral documents related to violin orchestral auditions. Dr. Jun Kim wrote a “A performer's guide to violin orchestral excerpts from baroque to the twentieth century compositions.”78 Kim’s guide examines the scores of a few excerpts, discusses technique, and talks about performance practice as informed by four Ohio orchestras. J.

Livermore’s “Preparing violin excerpts for an orchestral audition”79 examines a few excerpts and discusses the violin parts’ connection to other instruments in the score, bow strokes, and practice methods for specific passages in each excerpt. A. Chang’s “Utilizing standard violin orchestral excerpts as a pedagogical tool: An analytical study guide with functional exercises” contains fifty four functional exercises to serve as a pedagogical tool and aid violinists in practicing effectively.80 L.A. Brandolino’s

76 Zweig, Mimi, and Brenda Brenner. "2017 Violin and Viola Retreat." Lecture, 2017 Violin and Viola Retreat, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, July 2017.

77 Rolland, Paul, Lucy Manning, Lynn Denig, Nancy Kredel, Joanne May, Abigail Albaugh, Gerald Fischbach, and Michael Finelli. "Paul Rolland Workshop." Lecture, 2018 Paul Rolland Workshop, University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, July 2018.

78 Kim, Jun Y., “A performer's guide to violin orchestral excerpts from baroque to the twentieth century compositions.” DMA Document, University of Cincinnati, 2013. Available from OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center

79 Livermore, J. “Preparing violin excerpts for an orchestral audition” (Order No. 10196561). DMA Thesis, 2016. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1860893592). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/1860893592?accountid=2909

80 Chang, A. “Utilizing standard violin orchestral excerpts as a pedagogical tool: An analytical study guide with functional exercises” (Order No. 3727143). DMA Thesis, 2014. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1724063319). Retrieved from https://search-proquest- com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/1724063319?accountid=2909

“A study of orchestral audition repertoire for violin” provides scores marked with bowings and fingerings and metronome markings informed by a survey of forty five professional orchestras.81 J. Griffin’s

“Audition procedures and advice from concertmasters of american orchestras” draws its material from interviews of nine concertmasters to provide a comparison of views.82 These documents provide advice on technical and musical execution but discuss audition preparation only briefly; These documents were also written before many blogs, websites, courses, and podcasts became available.

DMA documents written about audition preparation for other instruments provide useful information for any auditionee as audition committees usually consist of varied instrumentalists. These documents include that of Elizabeth Buck pertaining to flute auditions. Her research interviewed orchestral flute players around the country and in one portion of her document, she provides insights from her interviews regarding audition preparation.83 Golden A. Lund interviews three prominent tuba teachers known for their pedagogical ideas pertaining to audition preparation, including Michael Royland, who has codified an audition preparation process for his students.84 Heather Rodabaugh examines the perspectives of three prominent trumpet players on preparing for auditions. Her findings have much in common with preparation for other instruments.85 These documents share common themes that are applicable for any

81 Brandolino, L. A. “A study of orchestral audition repertoire for violin” (Order No. 9804192). DMA Thesis, 1997. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304356143). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/304356143?accountid=2909

82 Griffing, J. “Audition procedures and advice from concertmasters of american orchestras” (Order No. 9427653). DMA Thesis, 1994. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304117331). Retrieved from https://search-proquest- com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/304117331?accountid=2909

83 Buck, Elizabeth Y. "The Orchestral Flute Audition: An Examination of Preparation Methods and Techniques."ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003.

84 Lund, Golden. "Orchestral Tuba Audition Preparation: The Perspective of Three Successful Teachers."ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013.

85 Rodabaugh, Heather Victoria. "Preparation for Orchestral Trumpet Auditions: The Perspectives of Three Prominent Orchestra Players."ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2008.

20 instrumentalist such as “the importance of attentive practice, mental preparation and focus, personal health, and focus on musicality of the performances.”86

Methodology

The formation of this guide entailed a combination of multiple methodologies. A compilation and synthesis of various courses related to orchestral excerpt preparation, information from books, blog and podcast insights, as well as advice from years of violin lessons with orchestral musicians was used to write this document. A deeper understanding of the materials entailed experimentation with ideas found in online courses, violin lessons, and other content found in my literature review. I served as my own case study for this research and my journey was documented in audio, video, and in writing. Other methodologies used were dictated by each phase of the audition preparation process. For example, the research phase, as will be included in my guide, required a comparison of ideally ten recordings for each excerpt in order to gain awareness of a variety of interpretations and determine a performance tradition.

An analysis of dozens of scores was also conducted in order to understand the harmonies and musical form and how the violin part fit with other instruments in each excerpt.

86 Lund, Golden. "Orchestral Tuba Audition Preparation: The Perspective of Three Successful Teachers."ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013.

Chapter 2: The Science of Expertise

Introduction

“Once we know how experts organize their knowledge and their performance, is it possible to improve the efficiency of learning to reach higher levels of expert performance in these domains? …Would it even be possible to facilitate the development of those rare individuals who make major creative contributions to their respective domains?”87 --Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance

These are questions that the study of expertise and expert performance have been seeking to answer, with an increase of research over the past thirty years. As mentioned in the literature review, sources like Ericsson’s Peak: The Science of Expertise,88 Colvin’s Talent is Overrated,89 The Cambridge

Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, and Susan William’s Quality Practice: A Musician’s

Guide90 can provide insight into the science of expert performance and the type of practice that leads to it.

Jason Haaheim reports that the first two texts greatly influenced his audition preparation and understanding of the concept of ‘deliberate practice.’91 This chapter will explore the notable findings of this literature that can inform an auditionee’s concept of what it takes to attain expert performance.

87 Ericsson, K. Anders. "An Introduction to the Second Edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance: Its Development, Organization, and Content." In Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by K. Anders Ericsson, Robert R. Hoffman, and Aaron Kozbelt. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2018. https://search-credoreference- com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/content/entry/cupexpert/an_introduction_to_the_second_edition_of_the_cambridge_han dbook_of_expertise_and_expert_performance_its_development_organization_and_content/0

88 Ericsson, Anders. Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Mariner Books, 2017.

89 Colvin, Geoffrey. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-class Performers from Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio, 2018.

90 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017.

91 Jason Haaheim. "The Deliberate Practice Book Club." Jason Haaheim. January 26, 2019. Accessed February 16, 2019. https://jasonhaaheim.com/the-deliberate-practice-book-club/.

Talent

A previous widely accepted theory that still prevails in much of the culture even today was proposed by Galton in the book Hereditary Genius (1869/1979); he believed that one’s potential is fixed and limited by genetics: “Innate mental capacities mediate the attainment of exceptional performance in most domains of expertise.”92 He believed that individuals should discover what their limitations are and learn to accept and function within those limitations. Not only does this belief foster a “fixed” mindset than has been shown to create a self-fulfilling prophecy,93 but Galton’s theory has been proven to be faulty.

In the twentieth century, scientific research measuring groups of experts’ mental speed, memory, and intelligence with psychometric tests in comparison to control groups of comparable education found no evidence supporting Galton’s hypothesis:

“The demonstrated superiority of experts was found to be specific to certain aspects related to the particular domain of expertise. For example, the superiority of the chess expert’s memory was constrained to regular chess positions and did not generalize to other types of materials (Djakow, Petrowski, & Rudik, 1927). Not even IQ could distinguish the best among chess players (Doll and Mayr, 1987) nor the most successful and creative among artists and scientists (Taylor, 1975).”94

Furthermore, Ericsson and Lehmann, in a 1996 article in the Annual Review of Psychology reported that

1) IQ could not predict attainment of expert performance “in a domain.” 2) Superior performance was

92 Ericsson, K. Anders. "An Introduction to the Second Edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance: Its Development, Organization, and Content." In Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by K. Anders Ericsson, Robert R. Hoffman, and Aaron Kozbelt. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2018. https://search-credoreference- com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/content/entry/cupexpert/an_introduction_to_the_second_edition_of_the_cambridge_han dbook_of_expertise_and_expert_performance_its_development_organization_and_content/0

93 Dweck, Carol S. Mindset. London: Robinson, 2017.

94 Ericsson, K. Anders. "An Introduction to the Second Edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance: Its Development, Organization, and Content." In Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by K. Anders Ericsson, Robert R. Hoffman, and Aaron Kozbelt. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

23 often very limited to a narrow area of expertise. 3) In addition, “systematic differences between experts and less proficient individuals nearly always reflect attributes acquired by the experts during their lengthy training.”95

Many studies, searching for clues as to the ingredients that generate expertise, found no correlation to IQ or any other kind of “talent.” Among findings include some chess grand masters who have IQs that are below normal and top Scrabble players with below average scores on test of verbal ability.96 Colvin explains, “IQ is a decent predictor of performance on an unfamiliar task, but once a person has been at a job for a few years, IQ predicts little or nothing about performance.”97 Even among scientists, Ericsson points out, “there is no correlation between IQ and scientific productivity.”98 He notes that a number of Nobel Prize winning scientists had IQs that “would not even qualify them for

Mensa…whose members must have a measured IQ of at least 132…the upper 2 percentile of the population.”99 Ericsson reports that the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman had a IQ of a 126, co- discovered of the structure of DNA James Watson had an IQ of 124, Nobel Prize winner William

Shockley had an IQ of 125.”100

This is all not to claim that talent does not exist. Ericsson addresses that individuals may have innate characteristics that enable some to initially acquire skills faster than others, but research suggest that as practice increases, this advantage becomes smaller until it has no effect. He points out, “While people with certain innate characteristics…may have an advantage when first learning a skill, that

95 Ibid.

96 Colvin, Geoffrey. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-class Performers from Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio, 2018, 43-44.

97 Colvin, 44.

98 Ericsson, 234.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

24 advantage gets smaller over time, and eventually the amount and the quality of practice take on a much larger role in determining how skilled a person becomes.”101 For example, in a study of expertise in oral surgery, the performance of dental students was found to be correlated to their performance on tests of visuospatial ability: “The students who scored higher on those tests also performed better on surgical simulations.”102 This test performed on dental residents and surgeons yielded a contrasting finding in which “no such correlation was found.”103 Ericsson explains: “The initial influence of visuospatial ability on surgical performance disappears over time as the dental students practice their skills…the differences in “talent”…no longer have a noticeable effect.104 Ericsson sums up musical findings: “In music, as in chess, there is an early correlation between IQ and performance…a study of ninety-one fifth grade students who were given piano instruction for six months found that, on average, the students with higher

IQs performed better at the end of those six months than those with lower IQs.”105 Ericsson explains that findings suggest that this advantage does not prevail: “However, the measured correlation between IQ and music performance gets smaller as the years of music study increase, and tests have found no relationship between IQ and music performance among music majors or in college or among professional musicians.”106

Ericsson also observes that the initially talented may be at risk for lacking motivation to develop the skill of deliberate practice and in effect, preclude them from developing past a certain point. In a study of young chess players, for example, those who demonstrated initial talent were surpassed by children with lesser IQs. The “talented” children spent less time practicing than students with lesser IQs:

101 Ibid., 233.

102 Ericsson, Anders. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Mariner Books, 2017, 233.

103 Ibid.

104 Ibid.

105 Ibid.

106 Ibid.

“Of course, the abilities measured by IQ tests do seem to play a role early one, and it seems that children with higher IQs will play chess more capably in the beginning.”107 However, Ericsson points to findings that suggest that the IQ disadvantaged children worked harder: “What Bialic and his colleagues found was that among the children who played in chess tournaments – that is, the chess players who were devoted enough to the game to take it to a level beyond playing in their school chess club – thee was a tendency for the ones with lower IQs to have engaged in more practice.108 Ericsson speculates that those who had initial “talent” “didn’t feel the same pressure to keep up…while the others, in an effort to keep up, practiced more.”109 The resulting “habit of practicing more” resulted in the players with lesser IQs becoming “better players than the ones with higher IQs.”110 Ericsson sums up the findings: “In the long run it is the ones who practice more who prevail, not the ones who had some initial advantage in intelligence or some other talent.”111

Ericsson also determined that it is not experience that determines expertise. Initially, “individuals who start as active professionals or as beginners in a domain change their behavior and increase their performance.”112 After an “acceptable level” of performance is achieved, “further improvements appear to be unpredictable and the number of years of work and leisure experience in a domain is a poor predictor of attained performance.”113 Ericsson, Krampe, an Tesch-Romer note that “continued

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid., 232.

112 Ericsson, K. Anders. "An Introduction to the Second Edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance: Its Development, Organization, and Content." In Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by K. Anders Ericsson, Robert R. Hoffman, and Aaron Kozbelt. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

113 Ibid.

26 improvements (changes) in achievement are not automatic consequences of more experience.”114 Rather than experience alone, the role of deliberate practice was found to a key ingredient in acquiring expertise:

“Aspiring experts seek out particular kinds of training tasks designed for the particular performers by their teachers and coaches (deliberate practice).”115

In the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Ericsson and science writer Robert

Pool make the case that deliberate practice is the determining factor in the attainment of expert performance:

“With the exception of height and body size, the idea that we are limited by genetic factors— innate talent—is a pernicious myth. ‘The belief that one’s abilities are limited by one’s genetically prescribed characteristics...manifests itself in all sorts of ‘I can’t’ or ‘I’m not’ statements,’ Ericsson and Pool write. The key to extraordinary performance, they argue, is ‘thousands and thousands of hours of hard, focused work.’”116 The role of this type of practice is crucial to the development of expert performance such as is required in a violin orchestral audition. Thus, this topic is expounded upon in this chapter as the concept of

“deliberate practice” permeates every step of the process of preparing for auditions.

Hours of Practice: A Study of Berlin Violinists

According to Ericsson, no field adheres more strongly to the principles of deliberate practice than

“musical training, particularly on the violin and the piano.”117 Ericsson also points out that the violinists and pianists have been shown to rack up the most practice hours among all instruments, and the pedagogical traditions for these instruments span hundreds of years.118 Ericsson believes that musical

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid.

116Hambrick, David Z. "Is Innate Talent a Myth?" Scientific American. September 20, 2016. Accessed February 16, 2019. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-innate-talent-a-myth/.

117 Ericsson, 86.

118 Ibid.

27 performance is “quite likely the very best field – to study for anyone wishing to understand expert performance.”119 He goes on to explain: “This is a competitive field and one in which the development of the requisite skills and training methods has been going on for several hundred years. Furthermore, it is an area that, at least in the case of the violin and piano, generally requires twenty or more years of steady practice if you are to take your place among the best in the world.”120

One of Ericssons’ studies was conducted during his post at the Max Planck Institute in 1987.121

Ericsson studied thirty violinists at the nearby Universitat der Kunste Berlin. He describes the music academy as “highly regarded for both its teaching and its student body. Its alumni include conductors

Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter, two giants of twentieth-century conducting, and the composer Kurt

Weill. Year after year the academy turns out pianists, violinist, composers, conductors, and other musicians who go on to take their places among Germany’s- and the world’s – elite artists.”122

The thirty violinists he studied were of different skill levels and he sought to figure out the elements that accounted for this variation. A group of violinists were identified by professors as “students who had the potential to have careers as international soloists.”123 The professors also identified violin students were “very good but not superstar-good.”124 A less-skilled group of violinists was chosen from the music-education department; many had unsuccessfully auditioned for the soloist program but were admitted to the music education department instead.125 In summary, Ericsson’s study consisted of three tiers of violinists, with ten violinists selected for the study from each tier. He designated these groups as

119 Ibid.

120 Ibid.

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid., 88

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid.

“good, better, and best.”126 Ericsson also “recruited ten middle-aged violinists from the Berlin

Philharmonic Orchestra (now the Berlin Philharmonic) and the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, two orchestras with international reputations.”127 The best violin students at the Academy, according to their professors, would likely end up performing in one of these orchestras or of similar quality. According to

Ericsson, the purpose for studying these seasoned professionals in conjunction with the students “served as a look to the future- a glimpse of what the best violinists at the music academy were likely to be in another twenty or thirty years.”128

The students in Ericsson’s study had much in common. All of the violin students had all been playing for at least a decade with the average starting age of eight years old. They also had taken the standard path of “systematic focused lessons...visiting music teacher usually once a week.”129 All the students also agreed that solitary practice was the most crucial factor in improving performance.

Everyone was also in agreement that achieving improvement was hard, and they unanimously reported that they did not enjoy the work they did to improve: “In short, there were no students who just loved to practice and thus needed less motivation than the others.”130 Solo practice was ranked harder than even the most effortful everyday activity: child care.131

In fact, the only significant differences between the groups were seen in the amount of practice, the amount of sleep, and when they practiced. Interview results revealed that the “best” violin students had on average spent significantly more time in solitary practice by the age of 18 than the better violin students and the “better” violinists had spent more time than the “good” violinists. The “good” group had

126 Ibid.

127 Ibid.

128 Ibid.

129 Ibid., 91.

130 Ibid., 93

131 Colvin, 58.

29 reported an average of 3,420 hours of solitary practice by the age of 18, while the “better” group averaged

5,301 hours, and the “best” group had accumulated on average 7,410 hours. The largest differences in practice time had come in the preteen and teenage years.132 Ericsson reports, “We found no shortcuts and no “prodigies” who reach an expert level with relatively little practice.”133 At the time of the study, the

“better” and “best” groups were practicing the same amount of time – twenty four hours a week – while the “good” group averaged only nine hours.134 The top two groups did most of their practicing in the late morning or early afternoon while the third group practiced mostly in the late afternoon when they more likely to be tired.135 The two best groups also slept an average of 8.6 hours, “reliably longer than 7.8 hours of sleep for the music teachers.”136 Among Ericsson’s studies include those of ballet dancers and his findings from the these dancers were similar to that found of the violinists. He reports, “As with the violinists, the only significant factor determining an individual ballet dancer’s ultimate skill was the total number of hours devoted to practice.”137

Ericsson emphasizes that Malcolm Gladwell misinterpreted his study of violinists when he touted the “ten-thousand-hour rule” based on the average number of hours the violinist had accrued by age twenty. Ericsson is clear that all that his study of violinists demonstrated was that the amount practiced correlated with their skill level. After ten thousand hours, Ericsson points out, the violinists still had a long way to go.138 He also points out that ten thousand hours was an average and half of the best

132 Ericsson, 94.

133 Ibid.

134 Colvin, 58

135 Ibid.

136 Ericsson, K. Anders, Ralf Th Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer. "The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance." Psychological Review 100, no. 3 (1993): 363-406.

137 Ericsson, Anders. Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Mariner Books, 2017, 95.

138 Ibid., 109.

30 violinists had not yet accumulated ten-thousand hours by age twenty.139 Another item Gladwell got wrong was in not distinguishing between practice and deliberate practice as “not every type of practice leads to improved ability.”140 Ericsson also does not say that talent does not exist or that a certain number of hours results in expertise, but considers deliberate practice to be the key ingredient of attaining expertise, as with practice individuals have an ability to from advanced mental representations.

Mental Representations: The Case Study Pianist Gabriel Imreh

The salient feature of expert minds, according to Ericsson, is advanced mental representations.

He explains, “A mental representation is a mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about.” These representations are “domain specific…they apply only to the skill for which they were developed.”141 For example a diver forms a “clear mental picture of what the dive should look like at every moment and more importantly, what it should feel like in terms of body positioning and momentum.”142 London taxi drivers develop “increasingly sophisticated mental maps of the city.”143 In chess, the master has learned approximately fifty thousand patterns of chess pieces – “not just their positions, but the interactions among them.”144 An important characteristic of these mental representations is that they are “held in long-term memory and can be used to respond quickly and effectively in certain types of situations.”145

These representations also “make it possible to process large amounts of information quickly, despite the

139 Ibid., 110.

140 Ibid., 111.

141 Ibid., 59.

142 Ibid.

143 Ibid.

144 Ibid., 56.

145 Ibid., 61

31 limitations of short-term memory. Indeed, one could define a mental representation as a conceptual structure designed to sidestep the usual restrictions that short-term memory places on mental processing.”146

Ericsson cites several studies that examine what differentiates the best musicians from the rest.

These studies suggest that “one of the major differences lies in the quality of the mental representations the best ones create. When practicing a new piece, beginning and intermediate musicians generally lack a good, clear idea of how the music should sound, while advanced musicians have a very detailed mental representation of the music they use to guide their practice and, ultimately, their performance of a piece.”147 Ericsson explains that these mental representations are used by musicians to “provide their own feedback so that they know how close they are to getting the piece right and what they need to do differently to improve.”148 These representations include “not just the pitch and the length of the notes to be played, but their volume, rise and fall, intonation, vibrato, tremolo, and harmonic relationship with other notes, including notes played on other instruments by other musicians.”149 Good representations are not limited just to sound but aid musicians in knowing how to produce these sounds on their instruments,

“an understanding that requires its own sort of mental representation, which is in turn quite closely tied to the mental representations of the sounds themselves.”150 He explains that beginning and intermediate students who lack detailed representations to discern wrong notes, for example, “must rely on feedback from their teachers to identify the more subtle mistakes and weaknesses.”151

146 Ibid., 60.

147 Ibid., 77

148 Ibid., 76.

149 Ibid., 78

150 Ibid.

151 Ibid., 76.

One study of mental representations involved the internationally known pianist Gabriel Imreh.

University of Connecticut psychologist Roger Chaffin observed Imreh as she learned a new piece of music and vocalized her thought processes. Imreh was scheduled to play the third movement of the

Italian Concerto by J.S Bach, a piece that she had not learned before.152 Thus, she spent more than thirty hours practicing this.153 Her first step, as “she sight-read the pieces was to develop…an ‘artistic image’ – a representation of what the piece should sound like when she performed it.”154 Notable was that Imreh had already heard the piece many times.155 Ericsson comments that where the layman would see musical symbols on a page, “she heard the music in her head.”156 After this, “much of what Imreh did...was figuring out how to perform the piece so that it matched her artistic image…she would try out different options, decide on one, and note it on the score…She formed an image of what the whole piece should sound like, while also giving herself clear images of the details she needed to pay close attention to as she was playing.”157 Ericsson explains that “her mental representations also allowed Imreh to deal with a fundamental dilemma facing any classical pianist learning to play a piece.”158 This dilemma involves

“that the musician practice and memorize the piece in such a way that the performance can be done almost automatically, with the fingers of each hand playing the proper notes with little or no conscious direction…in this way the piece can be performed flawlessly on stage in front of an audience even if the pianist is nervous or excited.”159 The other side to the dilemma is that performance requires a “certain

152 Ibid., 80

153 Ibid.

154 Ibid.

155 Ibid.

156 Ibid.

157 Ibid.

158 Ibid., 81

159 Ibid.

33 amount of spontaneity in order to connect and communicate with the audience.”160 Ericsson explains that she achieved this by playing much of the piece: “Just as she always practiced it, with her fingers going thorough well-rehearsed motions.”161 In addition to these automated motions, “She’d identified various points that served as landmarks. Some of these were performance landmarks that would signal to Imreh that, for example, a change in fingering was approaching, while other were… ‘expressive landmarks’…where she could vary her playing to capture a particular emotion, depending on how she felt and how the audience was responding.”162 With the combination of procedural memory and explicit cues, she was able to “maintain spontaneity within the demanding constrains of performing a complicated piece before a live audience.”163

The Brain

All of this deliberate practice, when carried out for a long term is shown by brain imaging to change the structure of the brain. Myelin, a protein formed through deliberate practice “around nerve fibers and neurons” helps electrical impulses in the brain travel faster and more reliably.164 According to

Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code, deliberate practice sends “precise impulses along wires that give the signal to myelinate that wire.”165 Experts end up “after all the training, with a super-duper wire — lots of bandwidth, high-speed T-1 line. That’s what makes them different from the rest of us.”166

Neurologist Douglas Fields, explains the slow process: “Every skill exists as a circuit, and that circuit has

160 Ibid.

161 Ibid., 81.

162 Ibid., 82.

163 Ibid.

164 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/the-diminishing-returns-of-practicing-on-empty/.

165 Ibid.

166 Ibid.

34 to be formed and optimized. [But myelination] is one of the most intricate and exquisite cell-cell interactions there is. And it’s slow. Each one of these wraps can go around a nerve fiber 40 or 50 times, and that can take days or weeks. Imagine doing that to an entire neuron, then an entire circuit with thousands of nerves.”167 Metropolitan Opera Principal Timpanist, Jason Haaheim, deeply affected by research on expert performance, explains for the layperson:

“Here’s a simple model: your nervous system is circuitry, with nerve fibers being the wires, and myelin being the insulation on those wires. Like any electrical signaling, the signal will be faster and more accurate if the wire is well-insulated. From a neurological perspective, deliberate practice is the physical process of forming the correct pathways – new connections between existing neurons — and then insulating them over and over again until your brain/body only knows how to do the right thing.”168

The Practice Model

The process through which a potential expert can change his/her brain occurs through a specific type of practice. A notable case study for deliberate practice is Jason Haaheim who reports that the discovery of deliberate practice led to an accelerated improvement in three years of practice compared to all previous years. Haaheim, a former scientist – turned Metropolitan Opera’s principal timpanists, did not follow the typical path of an orchestral musician. Instead he graduated with “B.A. in physics, and an

M.S. in electrical engineering.” He explains, “I did not attend a conservatory, nor do I hold a graduate degree in music. Now I’m principal timpanist of the MET Orchestra. How did I do that? I attribute it to two main things — two major changes I made roughly ten years ago: First, I decided I wasn’t going to have any attachment to an outcome. Second, instead of chasing specific outcomes, I embraced a process of continual refinement.”169 He credits his study with John Tafoya and discovery of Colvin’s book Talent is Overrated for the life-changing trajectory that his skills took. After reading Colvin’s book,

167 Ibid.

168 Ibid.

169 Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/a-process-for-everyone-teachers-freelancers-and-big-job-auditioners/.

Haaheim reports, “I embraced the tenets of deliberate practice, taking my arsenal of scientific process understanding and aiming it squarely at my musical self-improvement...I started recording myself obsessively. I created a sophisticated archive system for logging my practice notes, recordings, and musical decisions. And I started getting much better much more quickly.”170 He further explains that he had “accumulating practice hours for a long time, but practice time from [his] early years in no way resembled ‘deliberate practice.’ It was casual, uncommitted ‘vanilla practice.’ It barely counted. It wasn’t effective.”171 He reports that it took him years to “figure out what practicing really meant.”172 Once he did, he says, “My trajectory improved dramatically. Specifically, the efficacy of those practice hours made them truly count…The massive upswing of my trajectory — tells the most important story, and testifies to the power of deliberate practice.”173

Practice that leads to expert performance is specific in a number of ways; It has been demonstrated that not all practice may lead to improvement.174 Ericsson suggests a model, compiled from his various studies, to define “deliberate practice.” He suggests that “levels of performance are directly related to the accumulated time spent on ‘deliberate practice.’”175 To Bandura (1986), Schunk and

Zimmerman (2008) self-regulation is “considered an important part of academic success across all disciplines, including music.”176 In the field of music, “a consensus has emerged to the effect that only the cumulative amount of formal practice time – as opposed to informal practice time – predicts higher

170 Ibid.

171 Ibid.

172 Ibid.

173 Ibid.

174 Bonneville-Roussy, Arielle, and Thérèse Bouffard. “When Quantity Is Not Enough: Disentangling the Roles of Practice Time, Self-Regulation and Deliberate Practice in Musical Achievement.” Psychology of Music 43, no. 5 (September 2015): 686–704. doi:10.1177/0305735614534910.

175 Ibid.

176 Ibid.

36 levels of performance.”177 The formal practice model, as described by Bonneville-Roussy and Bouffard

(2015), incorporates both self-regulation and deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice is defined by a few elements. It both depends on and improves the quality of mental representations – “much of [it] involves developing ever more efficient mental representations that you can use in whatever activity you are practicing.”178 Deliberate practice consists of a specific set of elements:

1. “It is an activity designed specifically to improve performance.”179 It requires that one

identify and (a) isolate specific element(s) of performance that need to be improved and then

one must work in a specific manner to address just this/these issue(s). (Nathan Cole writes

that solving more than one issue at a time is “usually one too many!”)180

2. This is often aided by the help of a teacher. Colvin points out the best golfers still go to

teachers and further suggests, “Anyone who thinks they’ve outgrown teachers should at least

question that view.” He points out that it is extremely difficult to see yourself in the way that

a teacher can as “very few of us can make a clear, honest assessment of our own

performance.” 181

3. Deliberate practice occurs in the “learning zone” (a term coined by Noel Tichy, professor at

University of Michigan), as opposed the “comfort zone” or the “panic zone.” It is important

to note that the learning zone is continually changing and deliberate practice aims to stay in

this zone.182

177 Ibid.

178 Ericsson, Anders. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Mariner Books, 2017, 59.

179 Colvin, 66.

180 Cole, Nathan. Eight Practice Mistakes You're Making Right Now. PDF.

181 Colvin, 66-67.

182 Ibid., 67-68.

4. It can be repeated a lot. However, this repetition cannot be “mindless.” This repetition is for

the purpose of accomplishing or automating a particular skill and throughout these

repetitions, the activity stays in the learning zone. Colvin points out that “top performers

repeat their practice activities to stultifying extent.”183

5. “Feedback on results is continuously available.” Colvin points out that working on

technique without determining whether or not one’s efforts are paying off results two things:

“You won’t get any better, and you’ll stop caring.”184

6. It is highly demanding mentally. Colvin emphasizes that it is “an effort of focus and

concentration”185 as opposed to mindless playing. He explains that “continually seeking

exactly those elements of performance that are unsatisfactory and then trying one’s hardest to

make them better places enormous strains on anyone’s mental abilities.”186 Furthermore,

humans cannot seem to sustain this type of work for very long. Four to five hours a day is

reported to be the limit for many top professional musicians.187 This work usually cannot be

sustained for more the sixty to ninety minutes at a time.188 The top violinists in the Berlin

study practiced on average three and a half hours a day in typically two or three sessions.189

Heifetz reported, “I do not think I could ever have made any progress if I had practiced six

183 Ibid., 68.

184 Ibid., 70.

185 Ibid.

186 Ibid.

187 Ibid.

188 Ibid.

189 Ibid.

hours a day…practicing too much, it is just as bad as practicing too little!...I hardly ever

practice more than three hours a day on average.”190

7. Deliberate practice is not much fun. Colvin explains: “Doing things we know how to do well

is enjoyable and that’s the opposite of what deliberate practice demands. Instead of doing

what we’re good at, we insistently seek out what we’re not good at.” Deliberate practice

entails that we seek out the “painful activities” that will lead to improvement and it requires a

mindboggling amount of repetition. After each repetition we have to “force ourselves to see

exactly what still isn’t right so that we can repeat the most painful and difficult parts of what

we’ve just done.”191

Colvin also points out the bright side to a willingness to engage in this activity: “If the activities that lead to greatness were easy and fun, then everyone would do them and they would not distinguish the best from the rest. The reality that deliberate practice is hard can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won’t do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more.”192

Self-regulated practice, as described by Zimmerman and McCormick entails “actively arranging thoughts, feelings, and actions in order to reach goals; involving being able to organize, understand one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when and where to seek help.”193 It can be summed up by three elements:

1. “Forethought and planning before playing

2. Self-control and self-awareness during playing

3. Reflection and evaluation after playing”194

190 Martens, Frederick Herman, 1874-1932. Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers. Project Gutenberg, 61

191 Colvin, 71.

192 Ibid.

193 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 20.

194 Ibid.

These concepts, in combination with the tenets of deliberate practice form the more complete formal practice model.

The formal practice model combines the elements of deliberate practice with that of self- regulated practice “and involves choosing activities (methods and exercises) according to specific learning goals, and during those activities, staying mentally focused on [the task].”195 In contrast, informal practice refers to “playing without goals or focus.” Bonneville-Roussy and Bouffard’s studies suggest that there is a “positive correlation between using formal practice and musical achievement.”196

The formal practice model is summed up by four elements:

1. Goal direction

2. Focused attention

3. Self-regulation strategies

4. Deliberate practice strategies

This conceptualization of “practice” allows for a more focused “formal” practice as well as a more

“mindless” one. Rob Knopper reports having two categories of practice which he denotes as “creative practice” and “mindless practice.”197 He reports being able to practice for a whopping 8-10 hours, which to him “is no big deal.”198 When he has reached a stage of “zombie brain,” he switches over to “mindless practice” so that he “can still be productive.”199

195 Ibid.

196 Ibid.

197 Knopper, Rob. “Day 6 – How Many Hours a Day Should You Practice.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2015/12/1/day-6-how-many-hours-a-day-should-you-practice.

198 Ibid.

199 Ibid.

Other musicians, like the formerly mentioned Heifetz, warn not to engage in too much practice.

For him, three hours was reasonable.200 Similarly, Itzhak Perlman, who also reports practicing an average of three hours a day, warns readers of the Strad magazine not to practice more than 5 hours maximum:

“After that, it can cause physical problems.”201 Thus, it may be imperative for string players to engage in mindful “formal” practice and keep any “informal” practice to a minimum. Auer advised his student

Nathan Milstein, “Practice with your fingers and you need all day, practice with your mind and you will do as much in one and half hours.”202

Further Thoughts About Practice

It is worth discussing the notion that deliberate practice is “not inherently enjoyable” or is

“painful”203 as these statements may not have enough nuance be entirely accurate. Kageyama points out that that “saying that deliberate practice ‘hurts’ and is ‘hard’ misrepresents what this kind of practice actually feels like when you care.”204 He cites Canadian research205 that demonstrates the important role of passion in attaining a high level of performance. Kageyama points out that individuals who have more passion for a subject tend to engage in more deliberate practice.206 He also quotes Wynston Marsalis:

200 Martens, Frederick Herman, 1874-1932. Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers. Project Gutenberg, 61

201 “Never Practise for More than Five Hours per Day, Says Violinist Itzhak Perlman." The Strad. July 17, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.thestrad.com/never-practise-for-more-than-five-hours-per-day-says- violinist-itzhak-perlman/4052.article.

202 Ibid., 70-71.

203 Colvin, 71.

204 Kageyama, Noa. "Why Trying to Make Practice Fun Might be the Wrong Approach.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-trying-to-make-practice- fun-might-be-the-wrong-approach/.

205 Vallerand, Robert J., Geneviève A. Mageau, Andrew J. Elliot, Alexandre Dumais, Marc-André Demers, and François Rousseau. "Passion and Performance Attainment in Sport." Psychology of Sport & Exercise 9, no. 3 (2008): 373-392.

206 Kageyama, Noa. "Why Trying to Make Practice Fun Might be the Wrong Approach.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-trying-to-make-practice- fun-might-be-the-wrong-approach/.

“How heavy something is depends on how you feel about carrying it.”207 Kageyama explains that what may look like “drudgery” to the onlooker can be a different experience for the subject who finds satisfaction in solving problems and growing through the experience:

“To an outsider, tuning a note with exacting detail, experimenting with every possible combination of bowings and fingerings, playing long tones, or spending an afternoon poring over manuscripts and comparing different editions of a score may seem painful…In reality, it’s the active, thoughtful, problem-solving variety of ‘practice’ – masquerading as painful drudgery to the uninitiated – that leads to a more engaging, engrossing, and gratifying experience in the practice room. Because then you’re thinking. And learning. Experiencing daily micro-epiphanies. And solving problems that mean something to you.”208

In line with aforementioned tenets of formal practice, which combines deliberate practice with self- regulation, Kageyama advises his readers to think of their practicing as akin to solving a puzzle with an objective to “leave the practice room having learned something you didn’t know before.” He suggests directing one’s efforts “around conducting experiments: to (1) clarify what you want, (2) figure out what’s holding you back, (3) brainstorm solutions that get you closer, and (4) test yourself to see if your solutions are sticking?”209

In a similar vein, Nathan Cole warns his readers not to work “too hard.”210 He explains: “The best kinds of practicing don’t take extreme mental effort or a sense of deprivation. A nice, relaxed focus is all that’s required. It’s neither hard nor easy, it’s just playing.”211 Similar to the expertise scientists, he warns, “Mental energy is a finite resource, and you can’t spend what you don’t have. When energy runs out, rather than doubling down and trying to ‘work harder’ what you need instead is a break!”212 He

207 Ibid.

208 Ibid.

209 Ibid.

210 Cole, Nathan. Eight Practice Mistakes You're Making Right Now. PDF.

211 Ibid.

212 Ibid.

42 likens the act of conceptualizing practice as either “hard” or “easy” to “eating at a diner where the only good dishes are fried food and desert. The vegetables are unappetizing, even though you know you should probably eat some…[So you] get the fried stuff, choke down some vegetables, then feel guilty and skip dessert. An unsatisfying meal all around.”213 He frames the idea of staying in the “learning zone” in a way that entails that it is interesting and centered around the idea of success: “When you stop making the distinction between hard work and rest, you realize that all of your playing falls into the same category and deserves the same focus. Warming up becomes more interesting and varies day to day.

Slow practice varies as well…depending on what success means at that moment.”214

Implications for Auditionees

Auditionees hoping to compete in auditions may find it helpful to conceptualize the process as that of acquiring “expertise.” As Ericsson puts it, “If you wish to become one of the best in the world in one of these highly competitive fields, you will need to put in thousands and thousands of hours of hard, focused work just to have a chance of equaling all of those others who have chosen to put in the same sort of work.”215 The tenets of deliberate practice, self-regulation, and formal practice can inform how auditionees practice and also aid in the understanding what all this practice is doing neurologically.

Personal accounts of audition winners reveal many variations but also commonalities that map onto Ericsson’s definitions. Of these commonalities is a stage of planning and research. That is, coming up with an initial “mental representation” or “artistic vision” for one’s excerpts. All auditionees must also go through a note learning stage which involves the creation of long-term memory that defines a mental representation. Audition winners also report going through a phase of refining excerpts via feedback

213 Ibid.

214 Ibid.

215 Ericsson, 113.

43 through self-recording, teachers, and mock auditions. Much like Imreh, auditionees must learn excerpts in a manner that automatizes the execution of notes and also work to develop enough explicit memory for spontaneity to occur. This process will be further explored in the main body of this document. Ericsson’s findings also support a growth mindset, which according to Carol Dweck, creates a “love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”216

Chapter 3: Mindset

Overview

Dweck, like Ericsson, points out the recent findings on intelligence and the resistance of culture to embrace these findings: “Malcom Gladwell…has suggested that as a society we value natural, effortless accomplishment over achievement through effort.”217 She explains, “Scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought. Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way.”218 An emphasis on the ability of the human mind to change beyond what was previously believed defines a growth mindset. This type of knowledge about the capabilities of the human mind can enhance auditionees’ experience of audition preparation. For example, Jason Haaheim, after learning what human beings could be capable of through deliberate practice found the mindset to engage in it.

216 Dweck, Carol. "MINDSET." Mindset | The Mindsets. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/index.html.

217 Ibid., 40.

218 Ibid., 5.

Ericsson’s findings provide compelling evidence for us to adopt what Carol Dweck calls a

“growth mindset.” According to Carol Dweck’s research, a growth mindset predisposes individuals to engage in deliberate practice. Describing those with growth mindsets she reports, “They looked directly at their mistakes, used the feedback, and altered their strategies accordingly…What’s more, throughout this rather grueling task, they maintained a healthy sense of confidence.”219 This description harkens back to aforementioned audition winners who responded to failures with perseverance, along with exhaustive lists of strategies to improve. Her studies reveal that “when students believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore, they put in extra time and effort, and this leads to higher achievement.”220 Like Ericsson, she points out, “Believing talents can be developed allows people to fulfill their potential.”221 Thus, having the right mindset may be a crucial part of cultivating the motivation to come up with new solutions in response to a challenge like an audition. Dweck’s book,

Mindset, offers useful insight for auditionees.

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

A growth mindset can frame the challenges in a very different way from a fixed mindset. Dweck

“coined the terms…to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence.”222

Dweck describes a fixed mindset as a belief that “intelligence is static.” This belief “leads to a desire to look smart therefore tendency to avoid challenge, get defensive or give up easily, see effort as fruitless or worse, ignore useful feedback, and feel threatened by the success of others.”223 In contrast, a “growth mindset believes that intelligence can be developed.”224 This belief “leads to a desire to learn and

219 Dweck, Carol S. Mindset. London: Robinson, 2017, 111.

220 Mindset Works. Accessed February 23, 2019. https://www.mindsetworks.com.

221 Dweck, 44.

222 Mindset Works. Accessed February 23, 2019. https://www.mindsetworks.com.

223 Dweck, 244.

224 Ibid., 244.

45 therefore a tendency to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, and find lessons inspiration in the success of others.”225 In her research,

Dweck found that the brains of those harboring these two very different belief systems were activated in different ways. Among those with a fixed mindset, “Their brain waves showed them paying close attention when they were told whether their answers were right or wrong. But when presented with information that could help them learn, there was no sign of interest.”226 In contrast, those with a growth mindset “paid close attention to information that could stretch their knowledge. Only for them was learning a priority.”227

Dweck describes of a fixed mindset, “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone – the fixed mindset – creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain amount of character – well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them.”228 In contrast, the attitude of those with grow mindsets leads to resilience:

“Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will always challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”229 For many auditionees, the process of taking multiple auditions constitutes an undisputedly challenging period in their careers. Auditionees can either attribute failures to a “lack of talent” or keep finding ways to improve.

225 Ibid.

226 Ibid., 18.

227 Ibid., 18.

228 Ibid., 5.

229 Ibid., 48.

A growth mindset, characterized by resilience can make the experience more bearable: “The growth mindset does allow people to love what they are doing – and to continue to love it in the face of difficulties.”230 In contrast, “the fixed mindset limits achievement. It fills people’s minds with interfering thoughts, it makes effort disagreeable, and it leads to inferior learning strategies. What’s more, it makes other people into judges instead of allies.”231 Gerald Klickstein reports that thinking that other people are judges can contribute to nerves: “I’ve noticed that the fixed mindset also contributes to stage fright.”232 In addition to this, a fixed mindset can also lead to the misery of deducing self-worth on the results of auditions; It can result in “beating up” oneself after failed auditions.

Instead, Kageyama advises adopting a growth mindset233 and strategizing for the next opportunity: “It’s more effective to think of each performance or audition as just another step in our ongoing development and growth…Using upcoming mocks and the next few auditions as an opportunity to work on bow distribution and bow arm control under pressure.”234 Dweck also points out, like

Ericsson, that strategic effort is needed to achieve great things: “Whether we’re talking about Darwin or college students, important achievements require clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning. This is what the growth mindset gives people, and that’s why it helps their abilities grow and bear fruit.”235 For auditionees, adopting of a growth mindset can lead to a more productive utilization of emotional resources by allowing for a responding to set-backs and challenge with

230 Ibid., 47-48.

231 Ibid., 66.

232 Klickstein, Gerald. "The Growth Mindset." Musicians Way. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.musiciansway.com/blog/2010/07/the-growth-mindset/.

233 Kageyama, Noa. “Two Ways to Repair Our Bruised Ego After Disappointing Setbacks.” The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/two-ways-to-repair- our-bruised-ego-after-disappointing-setbacks/

234 Kageyama, Noa. “The Performance Post-Mortem: A Review Process to Bounce Back Better and Faster.” The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/the-performance-post- mortem-a-review-process-to-bounce-back-better-and-faster/

235 Dweck, 66.

47 deliberate focus and practice. It can also inspire a healthy motivation, not just to prove oneself by winning, but instead to hone in a on a focus to refining one’s craft.

Resilience

Dweck explains that a growth mindset does not preclude individuals from pain or failure but can have a huge impact on how one responds to it: “In the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with and learned from.”236 She points out that one does not even always need confidence: “A remarkable thing I’ve learned from my research is that in the growth mindset, you don’t always need confidence…when you think you’re not good at something, you can still plunge into it wholeheartedly and stick to it.”237 Dweck, illustrating that a growth mindset is not always painless or easy, describes her experience writing her famous book: “This book is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I read endless books and articles. The information was overwhelming…It was intimidating. Does it seem easy for me? Way back when, that’s exactly what I would have wanted you to think. Now I want you to know the effort it took – and the joy it brought.”238

In a similar vein, Kageyama points out that cellist David Finckel “once told a young piano trio that despite how discouraged they were feeling at the moment, he and they were not all that different. He explained that both were on the same path to mastery; he was simply further along the path.”239

Kageyama advises: “The next time you experience a discouraging setback, take a moment to remind yourself that everyone who is at a higher level now, was once upon a time, in your shoes too. Then see if you can find out what that person did to take the next step forward. You might be surprised to find that

236 Ibid., 33.

237 Ibid., 52.

238 Ibid., 52.

239 Kageyama, Noa. “Two Ways to Repair Our Bruised Ego After Disappointing Setbacks.” The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/two-ways-to-repair- our-bruised-ego-after-disappointing-setbacks/

48 this not only raises your self-esteem, but gives you some new ideas on how to leapfrog the next speedbump too.”240 Auditionees can benefit from the resilience that a growth mindset brings. Many will begin an audition preparation process unsure about the ability to carry it through successfully, but a growth mindset allows one to attempt it anyway. In response to failure, auditionees can respond with focus and strategy, a hallmark in the reports of previous winners.

Mindset Research

“I have studied thousands of people from preschoolers on, and it’s breathtaking how many reject an opportunity to learn,” Dweck says of her research over the past thirty or so years.241 For example, in a study involving four-year-olds who were offered the choice to “redo an easy jigsaw puzzle” or to “try a harder one,” “children with the fixed mindset…stuck with the safe one.”242 In contrast, the children who had a growth mindset “thought it was a strange choice…they chose one hard one after another” with one little girl even exclaiming, “I’m dying to figure them out!”243

In other studies of hundreds of early adolescent students by Dweck and company, results suggest that a fixed mindset lead to deterioration of performance while a growth mindset, in effect, resulted in a growth of IQ. In these studies, subjects were given ten difficult problems from “a nonverbal IQ test.”244

Most of the students scored well: “Both groups were exactly equal to begin with.”245 However, when one group of students was praised for ability (“You must be smart at this”), while the other group of students

240 Ibid. 241 Dweck, 16.

242 Ibid.

243 Ibid., 16.

244 Ibid., 71.

245 Ibid.

49 was praised for effort (“You must have worked really hard”), “they began to differ.”246 Dweck reports,

“As we feared, the ability praise pushed students right into the fixed mindset…they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from. They didn’t want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent.”247 In contrast “when students were praised for effort, 90 percent of them wanted the challenging new task that they could learn from.”248

The study continued by giving all of the students a very difficult set of problems: “After success, everyone loved the problems, but after the difficult problems, the ability students said it wasn’t fun anymore. It can’t be fun when your claim to fame, your special talent, is in jeopardy.”249 This difficult experience resulted in “the performance of the ability praised students [plummeting], even when we gave them some more of the easier problems.” Furthermore, they lost “faith in their ability [and] were doing worse than when they started.250 The ability kids thought they were not smart after all. If success had meant they were intelligent, then less-than-success meant they were deficient.”251 In contrast, “The effort kids showed better and better performance. They had used the hard problems to sharpen their skills, so that when they returned to the easier ones, they were way ahead…Since this was a kind of IQ test, you might say that praising ability lowered the student’s IQs. And that praising their effort raised them.”252

The startling effects of differing types of praise and the resulting mindsets can inform auditionees’ thought processes and provide compelling reason to be mindful. The adoption of a growth mindset can allow for more problems in the audition preparation to be solved and more improvement through time.

246 Ibid.

247 Ibid.

248 Ibid., 72. 249 Ibid.

250 Ibid.

251 Ibid.

252 Ibid.

Teaching Students About Their Brains Can Enhance Performance

Dweck’s studies also suggest that growth mindset interventions, during which students are educated about growth mindset and the capabilities and mechanics of the brain, improve students’ performance. These workshops “[teach students] the growth mindset and how to apply it to their schoolwork”253 She explains that they are told:

“Many people think of the brain as a mystery. They don’t know how much about intelligence and how it works. When they do think about what intelligence is, many people believe that a person is born wither smart, average, or dumb- and stays that way for life. But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle- it changes and gets stronger when you use it. And scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn…When you learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more that you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Then, things that you once found very hard or even impossible- like speaking a foreign language or doing algebra – seem to become easy. The result is a stronger, smarter brain.”254 Students who attended an eight-session mindset workshop saw a jump in their grades while a control group who likewise had attended eight workshops sessions that taught study skills without mindset concepts did not improve. Dweck explains, “Despite their eight sessions of training in study skills and other good things, they showed no gains. Because they were not taught to think differently about their minds, they were not motivated to put the skills into practice”255

Dweck’s Brainology program teaches students “about the brain and the care and feeding of it…like sleeping enough, eating the right things, and good study strategies.”256 The workshop also teaches students how to “apply these lessons to their school work.”257 Dweck reports, “For example, they were taught that when they studied well and learned something, they transferred it from temporary storage

253 Ibid., 218.

254 Ibid., 219.

255 Ibid., 220-221.

256 Ibid., 222

257 Ibid.

(working memory) to more permanent storage (long-term memory).”258 After the Brainology workshop, students talked to each other differently: “Sorry that stuff is not in my long-term memory…I guess I was only using my working memory.”259 Teachers reported that “students were also offering to practice, study, take notes, or pay attention more to make sure that neural connections would be made.”260 Dweck reports, “In the end, almost all children reported meaningful benefits.”261 This type of fascinating information has not traversed into mainstream violin pedagogy but, as studies have shown, this information can enhance learning. For auditionees, learning about how the mind learns can be motivational and lead to better strategizing. Not only can auditionees understand, in a deeper way, how to practice more than just a mindless copying of methods, but diagnoses of problems can be traced in relation to the mind. Included later in this document are theories of learning that may prove useful in this endeavor.

Everyone Has a Combination of Fixed and Growth Mindsets

Dweck points out that everyone has a combination of fixed and growth mindset: “There’s no point denying it. Sometimes we’re in one mindset and sometimes we’re in the other. Our task then becomes to understand what triggers our fixed mindset.”262 She recalls that before her research, she had more of a fixed mindset: “I, too, thought of myself as more talented than others, maybe even more worthy than others because of my endowments. The scariest thought, which I rarely entertained, was the possibility of being ordinary. This kind of thinking led me to need constant validation. Every comment and every look was meaningful – it registered on my intelligence scorecard, my attractiveness scorecard,

258 Ibid., 223.

259 Ibid.

260 Ibid.

261 Ibid., 224.

262 Ibid., 211.

52 my likeability scorecard.”263 It is important for auditionees to note that having a combination of fixed and growth mindsets may be just human nature. Dweck reports that she has discovered that many people adopt a “false growth mindset” but the first step to cultivating a true growth mindset is acceptance of a fixed one.

Journey to a Growth Mindset

Dweck describes the acquisition of a growth mindset as a journey. She gives her readers the steps:

1) “Embrace your fixed mindset…It’s not a shameful admission. It’s more like, welcome to the human race.”264 2) “Become aware of your fixed mindset triggers...Failures? Criticism? Deadlines? Disagreements?”265 3) “Give your fixed mindset persona a name…Who is this persona? What’s its name? What does it make us think, feel, and do?”266 4) Educate your fixed-mindset persona and take it on the journey with you.267 “We can gradually learn to remain in a growth-mindset place despite the triggers.”268

Gerald Klickstein advises, “Given the anticreative force of the fixed mindset, let’s foster the growth mindset in each other. Let’s affirm that every one us has the potential to enjoy lifelong creative development.”269 He reports that if he hears “students in one of my classes using fixed-mindset language

263 Ibid., 32-33.

264 Ibid.

265 Ibid.

266 Ibid.

267 Ibid., 244.

268 Ibid.

269 Klickstein, Gerald. "The Growth Mindset." Musicians Way. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.musiciansway.com/blog/2010/07/the-growth-mindset/.

– perhaps labeling someone as more or less talented – I consider it a ‘mindset emergency.’”270 In response to this, he engages “the students in a discussion about the relationship between effort and attainment, pointing to models of renowned high-achievers, such as Mr. [Branford] Marsalis, and their years of intense practice.”271 For auditionees, a growth-mindset along with training in how the brain learns offers resilience, true curiosity, less neurosis in response to criticism, an excitement for learning, a motivation to engage in deliberate practice, and a path to shape one’s own potential. Despite any controversy surrounding the research (to which Dweck has responded with reasonable argument),272 it may be worth experimenting with.

270 Ibid.

271 Ibid. 272 Watson, Andrew. "The Mindset Controversy: Is It Time to Give Up?" Learning and the Brain. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/mindset-controversy/.

Chapter 4: Injury prevention

The Problem

A 2015 study by John’s Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine found that 4 in 5 professional musicians will experience injury with violinists and violists being the most prone. Furthermore, the study, as published by the Baltimore Sun states, “Two will continue to play but never fully recover. One will quit and do something else. Only one of those will recover quickly and completely enough to return to playing.”273 Dr. Kris Chesky of the Texas Center for Music and Medicine reported in a 2007 Wall

Street Journal article that “86 percent of piano majors who participated in a study at the University of

North Texas reported having pain associated with their playing.”274 He goes on to say in the article that at a recent Northwestern University conference, “100 percent of their entering music majors reported having some physical difficulty.”275 Janet Horvath, cellist in the Minnesota Orchestra and author of Playing Less

Hurt, says “The true extent of our problems may be surprising…I know only too well how many of my orchestral colleagues are suffering.”276 The risks are noteworthy as preparation for orchestral violin auditions entails many repetitive motions as one refines the same excerpts repeatedly. Gerald Klickstein comments that “Few seem to realize that practicing, performing, and teaching can trigger life-changing injury. Musicians themselves aren’t well informed about their occupational health risks.”277

273 Willoughby, Laura Jane. "Advances Help Musicians with Repetitive Stress Injuries Continue to Play." Baltimoresun.com. September 28, 2017. Accessed November 16, 2018. https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs- fe-musicians-health-20170825-story.html.

274 Horvath, Janet. Playing (less) Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians. New York: Hal Leonard Books, 2010, 8.

275 Ibid.

276 Ibid., 7-8.

277 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009, 230.

Musician’s health, still an emerging field as conversation about injury has been taboo among musicians, suffers from a lack of education about the matter. Klickstein comments that this lack of information “blocks musicians from adopting healthier habits.”278 Stefan Jackiw explains, “The stigma around injury among violinists, and in the classical music industry in general, is harmful and misguided.”

279 He describes,

“The majority of musicians I’ve spoken to who have dealt with an injury have felt pressured to keep their injury a secret. I find that it’s usually for one of two reasons. Either the injured musician fears that others will attribute their injury to ‘bad technique’ and therefore will hold them in lower esteem if word of the injury gets out, or the injured musician worries that employers – whether it’s a symphony orchestra looking to hire a soloist or a contractor looking to engage a string quartet for a wedding – will be reluctant to hire them if they learn that the musician is injured.”280

He explains that this fear of being judged negatively leads to secrecy and prevents problem solving for the matter:

“So, we keep quiet about the fact that we’re injured. We’re vague. We say that we have to cancel a gig because we’ve come down with a cold, rather than because we have tendonitis and might not be able to play for several weeks. Or worse, we force ourselves to play through the pain, thereby compounding the injury. This shame and secrecy prevents musicians from having a healthy, open dialogue about injury prevention and treatment.”281

Jackiw discovered that nearly all violinists that he spoke with at some “point in their career, struggled with aches and pains and physical issues caused by playing the violin, and have a massage therapist, or physical therapist, or acupuncturist on speed dial to help them deal with the injuries. It’s just part of the life of a violinist.”282 He worked with a physical therapist in New York City who told Jackiw that “he had a ‘wall of fame’ featuring nearly every top violinist from the last half century who had come to him

278 Ibid.

279 Jackiw, Stefan. "VC INSIGHT | VC Artist Stefan Jackiw – 'Physically & Mentally Recovering from an Injury' [ADVICE]." The Violin Channel. August 21, 2018. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://theviolinchannel.com/violinist-stefan-jackiw-physically-mentally-recovering-injury-insight-blog/.

280 Ibid.

281 Ibid.

282 Ibid.

56 looking for treatment and relief.”283 The topic of injury is important to this guide as it is not a subject discussed in typical musical education (at least in my experience), despite the prevalence of injury.

Moreover, a long career in music requires the prevention of disabling ailments.

Contributing Factors

Mental factors, as well as physical ones contribute to the risk for injury. One logical conclusion is that faulty violin technique may be to blame. However, the causes of physical injury may not be limited to violin technique as it is taught traditionally as seemingly distant parts of the body affect other seemingly unrelated parts of the body. According to Carol Porter McCullough, author of the book

Alexander Technique and the String Pedagogy of Paul Rolland, “The total pattern of coordination and use that a student possesses in daily living will show up in his string playing.”284 She goes points out that thoughtful violin instruction, like that of Paul Rolland, may be limited in scope to address all physical aspects that contribute to overall use of the body, and subsequently, violin playing: “While they are a major breakthrough in the teaching of string playing, Rolland’s action studies carry a student only as far as the student’s overall coordination and ‘use of themselves’ permit.”285 In a similar vein, Jorja Fleezanis, at a Starling-DeLay Symposium masterclass tells the audience about her experience of taking Alexander

Technique classes from non-musicians: “Since they did not play the violin themselves, they would question every physical thing she would do that didn't seem to make sense. It made her question how much of her playing was hindered by what we traditionally do, as violinists, with the body.”286 Misusing elements of the total body can cause inefficient violin technique that can lead injury, but it can also work

283 Ibid.

284 McCullough, Carol Porter. "The Alexander Technique and the String Pedagogy of Paul Rolland." The Life and Discovery of F.M. Alexander. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.alexandercenter.com/mobile/strings-1.html.

285 Ibid.

286 Niles, Laurie. "2013 Masterclass With Jorja Fleezanis." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20135/14688/.

57 the other way around, with violin playing causing one’s use of body to deteriorate.287 McCullough explains, “In some cases, students with good use and coordination intact will show a deterioration after taking up the study of a musical instrument. Violin and Viola are particularly perilous, as the instrument being tucked close to the next affords great opportunity for interference with the head-neck relationship and thus for interference of what F. Matthias Alexander termed ‘primary control.’”288

Mental factors are potent in contributors to injury. Horvath cites research that shows the correlation of emotional strain with physical injury and points out that musicians’ exposure to criticism may put them at additional risk: “Injury risk increases with emotional tension and current research indicates that the history of criticism is correlated to a higher risk of injury. The role of stress in setting the stage for injury cannot be overstated.”289 Alice Brandfonbrender Md., a leading expert in performance injury and treatment says, “There is a mind- body connection…Depression not only makes people more injury-prone, but also it increases with pain and if not recognized, tends to prolong illnesses, injuries and musculoskeletal pain syndromes.”290 Horvath also explains how tough auditions can be to navigate mentally: “The nature of our profession is to strive to excel, to compete, to win auditions. We may be unaware that as a byproduct, our lives are under constant scrutiny permeated with criticism, often negative, initially from our parents and teachers and later from colleagues, conductors, newspaper reviewers, and audiences.”291 She explains how this pressure can lead to unrealistic expectations that lead to self-blame: “We expect the highest of standards. We place demands and sometimes unrealistic expectations on ourselves and in so doing, get caught in the guilt and blame game. If something goes

287 Ibid.

288 Ibid.

289 Horvath, 8.

290 Ibid.

291 Ibid.

58 wrong ‘We didn’t practice enough!’ If we hurt, ‘We must be doing something wrong.’”292 Musicians between 35 and 45 were shown to be the most prone to injury, which Horvath speculates may be due to the many life stresses occurring in this stage of life:

“The highest rate of injury was found to be in musicians between the ages of 35 and 45. Musicians over the age of 45 were injured less often. This may be a reflection of the fact that during our twenties and thirties we encounter many life stresses as well as those of our musical work. We’re getting our first jobs, and trying to learn an immense amount of repertoire. Many of us are moving, trying to establish ourselves, and rearing young children. It’s a time in our lives when sleep deprivation is common, as are poor physical condition and inefficient warm up time before practicing, rehearsing, and performing. Freelance musicians may go weeks without a day off.”293 Self-care will be discussed in the next chapter, and this is all the more reason to do so. Reinjury is likely to occur as Summer Jones, creator of an original method for physical rehabilitation (Whose classes are frequented daily by many San Diego Symphony Musicians – One violinist, a daily regular of Jone’s studio, reports not being able to play when she does not attend.), points out: “After an injury, the body learns to repeat dysfunctional movement patterns for self-preservation.

These dysfunctional patterns are the source of most of our pain and repeat injuries.”294 This is all the more reason to take care not injure ourselves in the first place. Klickstein points out that “nearly all musicians’ injuries are preventable.”295 However, “most music students receive scant information about in occupational health, and workplaces often expose performers and teachers to long hours and extreme sound levels. Even when musicians recognize that music making can have adverse effects, many either feel powerless to take corrective action or are unaware of what to do.”296 Thus, the next section of this document will discuss preventative measures.

292 Ibid.

293 Ibid.

294 Jones, Summer. "SUJO." SUJO. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.sujomethod.com/.

295 Ibid.

296 Ibid.

Prevention

There are several ways to prevent injury. These include getting acquainted with violin pedagogy that has been influenced by experts of kinesiology, setting up the violin correctly, adopting healthy mindsets, and structuring practice time to include self-care.

Today, the pedagogical workshops offer to impart the knowledge of teachers who have done some legwork to further reconcile physiology with violin technique. The most prominent of these are that of Paul Rolland and Mimi Zweig. Rolland devoted much of his career to analyzing the movements of violinists. Rolland had studied with Imreh Wildbauer who had been heavily influenced by Friedrich

Adolf Steinhausens’ The Physiology of Bowing on Stringed Instruments; “Rolland was in turn convinced of the importance of freedom and ease in playing.”297 In 1966 he launched “the five-year government funded University of Illinois String Research Project, which was documented in his most famous text,

The Teaching of Action in String Playing. This was supplemented by a series of 17 educational films, which demonstrated his methods in practice.”298 This project’s aim was “to develop a course of study which will systematically present the requirements necessary to establish tension-free and a natural playing movements good tone production, a firm basic technique for the string student” Rolland examined every muscle and movement to “devised what he termed ‘good motion patterns’ and breaking down violin technique into separate gestures and games that emphasized healthy posture and comfortable instrument and bow hold.”299 Rolland’s students discovered ease when they studied with him.300 Former

297 Ibid., 32.

298 Ibid.

299 Ibid.

300 Smith, Charlotte. "Paul Rolland." The Strad, November 2018, 31.

60 student Nancy Kredel makes a common remark of his students, “I had no idea it could be so comfortable to play my instrument.”301

As discussed in the previous chapter, mental representations can aid in deliberate practice. Thus, filling in any “holes,” in one’s mental representations, which most students undoubtedly have, may be helpful in the endeavor of preparing for auditions in a physically healthy manner. Mimi Zweig (professor at Indiana University) reports that even after working as a professional violinist/violist (Indianapolis

Symphony) she still had many questions about violin technique. Though she never met Rolland in person, she was profoundly inspiring by his String Research Films in 1970: “I remember watching them over and over again because even though I had been playing professionally for a few years, I still had so any questions about technique…These tapes soon began to answer all of these questions in such an understanding way. Since then, I have shown the films to my pedagogy students and even today I pick up new things.”302 Mimi Zweig’s pedagogy courses are heavily influenced by Paul Rolland and other body experts to provide future teachers with the knowledge to establish “a healthy technical and musical foundation.”303 Even after countless years of violin lessons and conservatory training, these courses provide useful information for most violinists, even as performers.

How one goes about planning practice sessions can also significantly contribute to prevention of injury. Horvath advises, “warm up, take breaks, vary your repertoire, increase your practice load gradually, reduce your practice intensity prior to performance, avoid heavy practice on the day before and day of concert or audition.”304 For Horvath, allocating time wisely involves categorizing works according to their physical demands. For string players this involves placing “left hand—intensive pyrotechnical

301 Ibid., 32.

302 Ibid., 37

303 Ibid., 37.

304 Horvath, 180

61 works in Column I, and right-hand intensive works in Column II. If these are mutually inclusive, as they sometimes are, put slower, less challenging repertoire in Column I.”305 Works from each column are then paired “so that each practice will be sure to include contrasting types of repertoire.”306 She advises,

“budget your time to include the works you need to cover and alternate from column to column. By alternating different works with different challenges, you use different muscles and allow your body some respite. Alternate slow and fast passages and use variety in the passages you choose.”307

Horvath also advises musicians to practice intelligently to avoid ingraining any bad habits or doing more physical practice than one absolutely needs. Klickstein warns his readers to “limit repetition as overuse can spring not only from an escalation in the quantity of playing but also from too much repetition.”308 Horvath cites that studies are underway to “investigate whether all that repetition creates an ‘overdose’ of representation in the brain, or an overused series of pathways that doctors may be one of the underlying causes of focal dystonia.”309

For Horvath, recording oneself not only aids in solving problems efficiently, but it also gives one’s body a break. Video-taping can provide insight into one’s physical aspects of playing. Horvath also advises to take time to study the music away from the instrument.310 Avoiding “erratic fluctuations” in one’s practice schedule is also advisable. Consistently putting in a little practice time every day “is

305 Ibid., 181.

306 Ibid.

307 Ibid.

308 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009, 242.

309 Horvath, 181.

310 Ibid., 182.

62 more productive and safer for your body than skipping days at a time and then launching into a marathon sessions.” Most importantly, Horvath advises, “if something hurts, stop!”311

It may be of benefit for many violinists to visit specialists like those of Alexander Technique and

Feldenkreis to further understand what a “good posture” entails. Horvath advises, “keep your lower back in a natural curve (lordosis): neither exaggerated nor flat.”312 She mentions that “body awareness experts use imagery to help with correcting posture.”313 Andrew McCann, astounded by the amount of repertoire the Minnesota Orchestra “tore through,” asked Jorja Fleezanis “How are you not in pain? How do you avoid injury? Do you stretch? Yoga? Massage? What?”314 Fleezanis disclosed to him that “she had studied the Alexander Technique for six years and that she had learned to sit and to move in ways that didn’t wear on her body.”315 Similar to Horvath’s advice on finding the natural curve of one’s back,

McCann reports, “I have a memory of [Fleezanis] standing in the restaurant and putting her hands on her hips and talking about finding the connection from the back to the hips to the chair when she played.”316

Horvath also recommends other various activities during practice that can help violinist remain physically healthy. Horvath also points out that musicians should be mindful of how they sit: “When sitting, avoid twisting or learning to either side, backward or forward. Your center of gravity should be forward and your body weight should be on your sitting bones and your feet…To test your sitting posture, put your instrument aside and sit with your feet flat on the floor. Now try to get up. You weigh, if balanced far enough forward, will allow you to get up without any major re-shuffling in your position.”317

311 Ibid., 183.

312 Ibid., 34.

313 Ibid.

314 McCann, Andrew. "Part 1: A Problem with Pain: Why I Started Studying the Alexander Technique." Alexander &. November 12, 2014. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.alexanderand.com/blog/2014/11/12/a-problem- with-pain.

315 Ibid.

316 Ibid. 317 Ibid.

Most students who have been exposed to Alexander Technique also know: “Bring the instrument to you rather than compromising your posture to reach for your instrument.”318 Horvath also advises musicians to alternate between sitting and standing, if possible, during practice but warns, “Make sure while standing that you are maintaining a natural curve or lordosis by keeping your knees slightly bent instead of locked or hyperextended…when sitting, shift leg position frequently.”319 Violinists should also “be vigilant about…music stand placement…Place it directly in front of you at a height that allows you to keep your head level…Move your chair and body so that you do not have to turn your head or twist your torso to see your music.”320 Taking breaks is advisable for both the mind and body. Horvath points out that “even after arduous exercise, the metabolic recovery in muscles is ten to fifteen minutes. Research shows that there is an 80 percent recovery in your muscles even after one minute of rest when a muscle is not over-fatigued.”321 Horvath also recommends a variety of stretches.322

Set-Up

Proper set-up of one’s instrument can go a long way to easing physical strain. Brianna

Richardson, musician’s health expert, among her insights points out several elements of set-up to pay attention to.

1. “Bridge height: If the bridge is too high it will be harder to press down the strings, especially during fast passages. If you are having pain or fatigue from playing, or notice that you have to work really hard to depress the strings, have your local luthier look at your bridge height and check if it can be lowered. You can also have the fingerboard planed to lower the string height. 2. String length: A shorter string length can make it easier to play an instrument, even if two instruments are identical in every other dimension. This is an important feature to consider when deciding between instruments to purchase. If the distance between the peg box and the

318 Ibid.

319 Ibid.

320 Ibid.

321 Ibid., 36.

322 Ibid., 47.

bridge is longer, you will have to spread your fingers farther apart to play the same intervals. Even a few centimeters can make a difference.

3. Size & Shape of the bouts of the instrument: make sure you can move into higher positions on the instrument without too much difficulty. If the upper bouts are too wide, this will be much more challenging. Sometimes instruments can be made with proportionally larger lower bouts, so you can achieve the same rich tone without having wide upper bouts on the instrument that are hard to maneuver around.

4. Playability: If your instrument and bow make it easy to make music, you won’t have to work as hard to play. Sometimes a new bow, a fresh bow re-hair, or even a different type of rosin can make a big difference!

5. Bow weight: If you are using a heavy bow, especially one that has a heavy tip, it will be much more difficult to play for longer periods of time without fatiguing. A slightly lighter bow is much easier to use for fast passages and difficult bow strokes!”323

Klickstein also points out that performers put undue strain on their bodies when their instruments are not matched to their size and build: “When a mismatch occurs between player and instrument, misuse becomes more likely, and so does injury.”324 He suggests that string players seek out a well-fitting instrument: “Instruments come in assorted dimensions, and ergonomic devices such as shoulder rests are widely employed.”325

Set-up, as it pertains to the way the violin is situated in relation to the body can be affected by choice of shoulder rest and chin-rest. Ideally, one’s set-up would allow for a neutral position of the head.

Physiotherapist Grace Cheung, points out that non-neutral positions, such as the head and neck bent to the left can cause injury and that “a good music teacher would be fairly quick to correct this posture by bringing the head to as straight as a position as possible.”326 Horvath says likewise: “Alignment of the

323 Richardson, Brianna. "Finding the Perfect Setup, Part 2." String Visions | from Ovation Press. August 21, 2011. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://stringvisions.ovationpress.com/2011/06/finding-the-perfect-setup-part-2/.

324 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009, 235.

325 Ibid., 235.

326 Cheung, Grace. "Top Six Violin Postures That Cause Pain and Violin Injuries." Go! Physiotherapy. February 26, 2018. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.gophysiotherapy.ca/the-violinist-a-musician-injuries-case-study.

65 spine is of utmost importance… violinists and violinist need to make sure the fit of the chin-rest is correct. Ideally, we want our head and neck in neutral, or how we would hold our heads when stranding normally”327 She describes the ideal set up for violinists, “The violin, chin-rest, and shoulder rest must be adjusted so that the left shoulder is not raised or the head and chin are not lowered and bearing down to hold the instrument.”328 She advises violinists, “Examine your chin rest. Chin-rests have traditionally been of the one-size-fits-all type. When they were first designed by Louis Spohr in the 1820s, it is unlikely that any ergonomic considerations were kept in mind. Most commercially available chin rests are three-quarters of an inch in height. Some people may need the chin rest higher. When a chin rest doesn’t fit well, a violinist will tend to develop sores or a neck callus.”329

Apart from Jackiw, who was mentioned earlier, notable violinists who changed their set-up after years of playing include Nathan Cole and Jonathan Swartz. Cole started his journey to finding a more suitable set-up when he was preparing for a concertmaster audition: “I was becoming obsessed with my shifts. They didn’t feel natural, and they didn’t sound smooth, even in simple scales and arpeggios.

Intonation could have been better too. In short, my shifts were getting in my head.”330 After pulling out

Galamian’s Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching, Cole discovered that there were elements of left- hand thumb movement that he was unfamiliar with. To explore these motions, Cole removed his shoulder rest to see what his thumb was required to do without it.331 He experimented on and off with removing his shoulder rest for a few years. As of 2016, he reports that he ditched his shoulder rest three years prior and found a better way of relating to the instrument: “And just as I play better on an instrument that I like, I play more comfortably with a setup that fits me. I’ve arrived at a different vibrato

327 Horvath, 159.

328 Ibid.

329 Ibid.

330 Cole, Nathan. “Why I ditched my shoulder rest after 30 years." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ditched-shoulder-rest-30-years/.

331 Ibid.

66 and a greater variety of shifts, compared to my rest-ing days. I can confirm that through recordings I’ve made over the years. I like the changes.”332 Jonathan Swartz explains his journey in a series of videos on

Mimi Zweig’s pedagogy website.333 After forty years of playing, he, too, ditched his shoulder rest. He explains that it was a process but at the end he has discovered, like Cole, a more efficient way of relating to the instrument.334 Swartz also condones finding a chinrest that suits one’s physique.335 Note: This document does not make any suggestion as to whether an individual should or should not use a shoulder rest.

In North America, custom chinrests can be ordered from Lynn Denig/Gary Frisch in Northern

Virginia and also by Peter Purich in Montreal. Lynn Denig, a Paul Rolland clinician and Gary Frisch, a luthier offer eleven chinrest toppers. Eight of these toppers correlate to those identified by Paul Rolland’s

“description of chinrests that would serve players well.”336 These eight toppers can be mounted to the instrument in two or three positions – to the left of the tailpiece, half centered over the tailpiece, or over the tailpiece. The chinrests also come in customizable heights depending on neck length and geometry of the client. A client must find a teacher with a chinrest fitting kit in order to try a variety of chinrests.

Typically, this consultation lasts two hours, after which the client orders a recommended chinrest through

Gary Frisch. More information can be found on Frisch and Denig’s website.337

For those who cannot find a chinrest configuration among those that Frisch and Denig offer, Peter

Purch, a violinist and luthier in Montreal can provide added customization as he hand-carves multiple

332 Ibid.

333 Swartz, Jonathan. "Rest No More? (The Shoulder Rest, That Is)." Mimi Zweig StringPedagogy. Accessed February 28, 2019. http://www.stringpedagogy.com/members/volumes/articles/rest_no_more.htm.

334 Ibid.

335 Ibid.

336 Frisch, Gary, and Lynn Denig. Chinrest Choice Based on Jaw Type. PDF.

337 Frisch, Gary, and Lynn Denig. Frisch and Denig: Violin and Viola Chinrest Fitting System. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.chinrests.com/.

67 unique chinrest options for each client to try. In the following section, I have included many interview quotations from Purich as he does not have a website and his interviews are not published in major string magazines despite a number of satisfied customers. Purich explains in a 2018 interview, “I make instruments and…I investigate a lot about the acoustics of instruments but one of my passions and main work for the past 40 years has custom fitting chinrests and shoulder rests for violinists and violists who have difficulty finding something comfortable or are simply in pain.”338 He explains that violinists and violist lack resources for finding physically healthy ways to play due to the lack of research in the area:

“This is a relatively new area of study and research and there’s not much to go on, so I basically had been self-taught for the past 40 years and I’ve come to a stage where I can help people who are in dire need of help by giving them a specific chinrest of a very specific shape, the material that’s required for their particular needs whether it be a very tall neck or a very short neck…The pedagogy of the violin is very limited let’s say specifically where injuries are concerned. This is a very new field for all musicians and the actual pedagogy of playing the violin has not always been having the health of the musicians as a priority, not to mention very often the ignorance and lack of knowledge of the professors concerning the health of the players and how the instrument is actually to be played physiologically…This is something that has never been really studied adequately and we’re hoping to solve those problems here.”339

He explains the interplay between faulty technique and faulty equipment; He examines how each of his clients plays as “their techniques determine whether the pains and discomforts are as a result of the way they’ve learned to play or is the equipment that they’ve been obliged to play with that has caused them to play in a certain way therefore resulting in the pain and discomfort well combination of the two…It’s like chicken or egg type of business…and more often than not it is going to be a combination of two.”340

He comments on the recent progress in the field of musicians’ health: “As performers, we go to school and we learn how to play. We don’t learn much about proper posture and health from our teachers, because they themselves were not taught anything about it. In fact, it’s a fairly recent ﬁeld, musicians’

338 "Healthy Violin Technique." Denis Chang. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://denischang.com/index.php/2018/12/15/healthy-violin-technique/.

339 Ibid.

340 Ibid.

68 health. There are articles and books about it now, and it’s becoming acceptable to admit that you have pain as a musician, whereas before it was hidden.”341 He points out that athletes have a lot of help in order to compete, but musicians do not even have many options with regards to equipment:

“You know, if you compare the amount of stress and physical endurance required to play a musical instrument over a long period of time, with that required of a professional athlete and the amount of help THEY get in order for them to complete their tasks (not to mention the money involved), there is no comparison. Compounding the problem is the sad fact that for violinists and violists there is actually not much of a choice in terms of equipment to help alleviate the situation.”342 Like Lynn Denig, he makes the analogy of chinrests to shoes:

“I always like to compare chin rests and shoulder pads with shoes. If you imagine that there are only three pairs of shoes for everybody in the world, this would be ridiculous! But that is exactly what the case is out there. If you look at catalogues, it appears that there are about 25 models of chin rests, but so many are alike, that in terms of function, it actually comes down to about three. And that’s just not acceptable. People come in so many different sizes and shapes, and so often the minutest differences are important. For instance, here I have two different chin rests. They look almost identical, but if you put one on, you may get a pain in your shoulder, and if you try the other one, you don’t!”343 In a 2007 interview, he reports that he has 75 different chinrests at his shop but carves out multiple variations of a chinrests for a client to try:

“I have more than 75 models right here, which I will try on the clients. But each player will end up with the model that has been custom-made for them. In my drawers here, I have my samples all arranged here, and a paper-tracing sample of each. Once we settle on the approximate size, height and contour, I will use the paper template to carve out the chin rest from a block of wood. I usually make two or three at that time, with slight variations in each, for the client to try. I even have a model here that is in two parts, held together with magnets, so that I can put the top section anywhere I want. The samples that I don’t sell go into my “bank” for future clients to try out.”344 Purich listens to the differences in a player’s sound that provide clues as to whether a certain chinrest is the right fit:

341 Ibid.

342 Ibid.

343 Ibid.

344 Ibid.

“When a client comes here, there is at least a two-hour consultation to determine how they play, their medical history etc. They come in with their set-up. Some people don’t have any set-up, and others may come in with a whole bag of chin rests and shoulder pads that they have bought but don’t like. Over the years I’ve become familiar over the years with the illnesses and ailments of string players. Then I look at the way they play. This is very important, because the way they play will reveal many aspects of their physical problems. Either their set-up has caused them to play in a certain way, or they have adapted to their set-up and exhausted any positive aspects to that set-up, and their playing cannot progress. For example, when I see them, I can see why they wouldn’t be able to shift positions properly. Very often, I can tell when I have given them the right chin rest because their sound will be better right away.”345 Purich explains that sometimes, when a client has more serious physical problems, an intermediary set-up may be needed:

“In some cases they will feel better right away. If the client has a physical problem that has accumulated over ﬁve or ten years or even more, it may take a longer time to erase. Some people are in pain because their body is in a position that it doesn’t want to be in. If you put the body into a better position, they will feel better right away. Accumulated pain that is more into the tissues and the muscles can be harder to get rid of. For those people, I will give them an intermediate set-up. I will give them something, and in a month or two, move onto something else. People who suffer from, say, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and who are not able to raise their arms higher than their shoulders might take a six- month period until we have settled on the solution. But these are serious cases.”346 Purich also makes flexible custom shoulder rests that promote healthy use of the body:

“A player must have freedom of movement. To that end, I designed and created a series of shoulder pads made of foam pads that allow movement of the shoulder. They are extremely ﬂexible, can be placed anywhere on. the instrument, and are attached with elastics. There is a leather backing and a non-stick surface so that it doesn’t slip on the instrument or the shoulder. I can custom-ﬁt them to any shape I need. They have turned out to be extremely popular!”347 Purich does not take payment if a chinrest or shoulder rest that he makes does not satisfy the client but says usually the initial chinrest he makes for a client is usually a hit:

“One consultation is needed for each client, and sometimes more than that, but I usually hit it right off the bat. The client will come back and try their chin rest or shoulder rest, or I may have to mail it to them. They don’t have to pay for it if they are not satisﬁed. So, I am taking a big risk since I don’t get any money if they don’t accept the chin rest, but this has almost never

345 Rothberg, Jill. "Finding a Solution for Pain-Free Playing." The Amateur Musician: The CAMMAC Journal, December 2007. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://cammac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2007_02_Fall.pdf.

346 Ibid.

347 Ibid.

happened. I’m conﬁdent that I will be able to make something for them that is better than what they have.”348 The two-hour consultation and the chinrest together costs a client $200 (As of a 2007 interview) “if they buy it. And my shoulder pad is about $45.00.”349 Purich also offers lessons to help violinists “learn to play in a more relaxed and secure fashion to alleviate their pain.”350 He says, “People should understand that pain while playing is not an acceptable situation. A solution should exist for them to play securely and pain free.”351

348 Ibid.

349 Ibid.

350 Ibid.

351 Ibid.

Chapter 5: Self-Care

Overview

The journey to winning a coveted orchestra job has been well documented as an arduous endeavor. Practicing for even just one audition can be very taxing. Nathan Cole compares the process to

“more like a marathon than a sprint.” He advises his students, “Take care of yourselves during this training!”352 In Musician’s Way, Gerald Klickstein advises students to safeguard their health as “music making calls for mental, physical, and emotional vigor. To be an agile artist, you have to keep up wholesome practice habits and establish a self-care rhythm.”353 He explains that, according to the statistics, many performers do not excel at taking good care of themselves. He advises, “For you to reach your full potential, health maintenance needs to be front and center every day.”354 Rachelle Jenkins quotes

Denys Derome (associate principal horn of Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Mcgill University professor) in her Audition Playbook: “We play how we are.”355 She reports realizing this from first-hand experiences that led to rotten results:

“I’ll be honest... I have dined on Frosted Flakes and Advil at midnight over the kitchen sink far too many times after long practice days leading up to an audition. In those moments, usually while icing my shoulder and smearing Aquaphor on my lips, I tell myself, ‘No pain, no gain!’ and, ‘I am really preparing well!’ Regardless of the fact that, in the four weeks prior, I have not cooked a single meal (or probably eaten a single vegetable), I haven’t spent any time with friends or my hobbies, I haven’t taken a single day off from practicing, I’ve put off all of that ‘mental training stuff’ for later, and I have practically lived by the old adage of ‘plenty of time to sleep when you're dead!’ ... but I’ve practiced my excerpts for many hours a day, so I am super prepared. Right? Inevitably, time and time again, this would lead to burnout, injury, and ultimately, a bunch of really, really crappy auditions.”356

352 Cole, Nathan. "NY Phil Audition Challenge Week 14.” Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-14/

353 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009, 147-148.

354 Ibid., 148.

355 Jenkins, Rachelle. Audition Playbook. Self-published, iBook, 2018, 23.

356 Jenkins, Rachelle. "The Four Pillars of Audition Preparation." Audition Playbook. August 25, 2018. Accessed February 20, 2019. https://www.auditionplaybook.com/blog/four-pillars.

Jenkins explains, “If your life is lacking joy, physical health, or mental and emotional health, it will come out in your playing, no matter how well you think you’ve prepared.”357 Thus, this chapter will focus on self-care, namely the important elements of sleep, exercise, and burnout prevention.

Sleep

As discussed in Chapter 2, the “best” violinists in the Berlin study slept an average of five hours more per week than the “good” violinists. Upon this discovery of this knowledge, Jason Haaheim reports,

“I committed to ‘being a morning person.’ My goal was to log at least two good hours of deliberate practice before I left for work (my nanotech job), supplementing that with another 2-3 hours after I got home from work, depending on how much ‘focus gas I had left in the tank.’ I also developed a skill I called ‘micro-napping,’ wherein I would nap for as little as 10-20 minutes, but then awake feeling surprisingly refreshed for my next practice session.”358 This type of schedule was in contrast with his previous school days of being a “regular nocturnal presence in the music building at Gustavus.”359 He explains, “Unwisely, I only fit in my practicing late at night, once I’d already spent my day’s mental energy…It was so stupid. On the one hand, yes: I pushed myself to extraordinary lengths to get in my practice time, learn rep, and perform it in recitals. I demonstrated drive and commitment. But in retrospect, those late-night hours were heinously ineffective…Stupid-drive and dumb-commitment doesn’t get you very far.”360 He reports of his newly adopted schedule: “The results were dramatic, and a key factor propelling my radically increased trajectory…I began getting much more done, much more effectively.”361

357 Jenkins, Rachelle. Audition Playbook. Self-published, iBook, 2018, 23.

358 Jason Haaheim. "The Diminishing Returns of Practicing on Empty." Jason Haaheimi. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/the-diminishing-returns-of-practicing-on-empty/.

359 Ibid.

360 Ibid.

361 Ibid.

Not only can sleep optimize one’s ability to concentrate and practice effectively, but sleep also greatly aids performance. Lois Svard points out that “researchers have known for some time that sleep is necessary for consolidation of memory – for the transfer of short-term to long-term memory.”362 Recent findings also show that a good night’s sleep aids retrieval of declarative memory during stressful situations. 363

Svard explains a study by Swedish researchers in which participants were made to execute tasks that tested both procedural (ie. motor memory) and declarative memory (explicit memory): “Half of the participants slept for a full 8 hours; the other half slept 4 hours. The next morning they were tested on both memory tasks. All of the participants in both groups did equally well on both declarative and procedural memory tasks. Amount of sleep was not a factor.” However, the two groups began to deviate in their results when subjected to stress: “Those who had the short night of sleep showed significant impairment in memory recall on the declarative memory while those who had the full night of sleep showed no impairment in either kind of memory.”364 Svard explains the implications for musicians:

“Having too little sleep doesn’t cause you to forget how to play the piano (procedural memory) – but it may affect your memory of that Beethoven Sonata when you are in the middle of a performance

(declarative memory).”365

James Maas (CEO of Sleep for Success and a leading authority on sleep and performance) recommends ten hours of sleep for optimal performance.366 He points out that prior to Edison’s invention of the light bulb, ten hours was how much people typically slept.367 His book, Power Sleep, is

362 Svard, Lois. "Stress, Sleep, and Performance." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2280.

363 Ibid.

364 Ibid.

365 Ibid.

366 Maas, James B. Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance. New York: Quill/HarperCollins, 1999, location 256.

367Ibid, 255.

74 recommended both by Don Greene368 and Noa Kageyama.369 Maas says that getting the right amount of sleep can dramatically improve one’s “mood and ability to think critically and creatively.”370 The amount of sleep each individual minimally requires to function optimally is largely hereditary; Some rare individuals can get by on three hours of sleep, but most people need at least sixty to ninety minutes more of sleep than they currently get.371 Maas cites that, in a study during which subjects were permitted to sleep as long as they desired, they consistently slept for one hour or more than usual. Dr. Thomas Roth at the Henry Ford Hospitals’ Sleep Disorders Research Center in Detroit found that one additional hour of sleep boosted his subjects’ alertness by 25%.372

James Maas recommends these steps to figure out the “adequate” hours of sleep one needs:

1. Choose a time to go to bed eight hours prior to when one needs to wake up and maintain this

bedtime for one week.

2. If one has not been getting an adequate amount of sleep, one should not change his/her rising

time but go to bed thirty minutes earlier for the next week. If this is not enough, one can go

to sleep fifteen to thirty minutes each week until one can wake up without an alarm clock and

feel alert every day.

3. One can test the established bedtime found in the previous steps by cutting fifteen minutes

from one’s sleep one night to see if that results in drowsiness the next day. If drowsiness

does indeed result, then one’s sleep requirement has been identified.373

368 Greene, Don. Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002, 110.

369 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

370 Maas, James B. Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance. New York: Quill/HarperCollins, 1999, location 1031.

371 Ibid., 1046

372 Ibid.

373 Ibid., 1048-1125.

Maas recommends to his readers that they:

1. Maintain the same bedtime and wake time every day of the week, including weekends.

2. Consolidate their sleep into one continuous block as this is required for sleep to have a

rejuvenating effect.

3. Make up for lost sleep right away. It must be repaid for alertness to be restored, and this may

take weeks to pay back sleep debt accumulated from years of inadequate sleep.374

Haaheim acknowledges that some will respond to the idea of getting more sleep with thoughts like, “But sleeping takes too much time! I’m already too busy! I don’t have enough time as it is to get all my work done and prepare for these auditions!!”375 He, likewise, “justified the late nights to myself with

‘I’m happier as a night owl,’ and the lack of sleep with ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’”376 However, his experience has led him to believe that “there is one simple factor of musical accomplishment that is so much more important than where you went to school, or who you studied with, or how early you began on your instrument: excellent time management skills.”377 He explains, “You’ll have an advantage, because while it’s true that everyone has the same amount of time to prepare for an audition once the list is posted, not everyone manages their time equally well…By being twice as productive and efficient as the average auditioner — you’re effectively taking that 6-week audition preparation window and turning it into 12 weeks.”378 Haaheim advises, “Align your practice times with your periods of peak mental focus and knock out a couple of hours first thing in the morning; you can acknowledge your neurological limits,

374 Ibid.

375 Jason Haaheim. "The Diminishing Returns of Practicing on Empty." Jason Haaheimi. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/the-diminishing-returns-of-practicing-on-empty/.

376 Ibid.

377 Ibid.

378 Ibid.

76 take sensible breaks, and maximize your hours without pushing into diminishing returns; and you can be well-rested. Go the hell to bed!”379

Exercise

Exercise, an important part of general health, can alleviate stress and also aid learning. Klickstein points out that exercise “stabilizes one’s mood.”380 He quotes psychologist David Holmes: “I have never run across any stress-relief method as strong as aerobic fitness.”381 Running immediately after practice has been shown to improve motor memory.382 New findings now also suggest that exercising four hours after study can improve explicit memory.383

One study resulting in this finding can be summed up as follows: “Three groups of randomly assigned participants first encoded a set of picture-location associations. Afterward, one group performed exercise immediately, one 4 hours later, and the third did not perform any exercise. Participants otherwise underwent exactly the same procedures to control for potential experimental confounds. Forty-eight hours later, participants returned for a cued-recall test in a magnetic resonance scanner. With this design, we could investigate the impact of acute exercise on memory consolidation and retrieval-related neural processing. We found that performing exercise 4 hours, but not immediately, after encoding improved the retention of picture-location associations compared to the no-exercise control group. Moreover, performing exercise after a delay was associated with increased hippocampal pattern similarity for correct responses during delayed retrieval. Our results suggest that appropriately timed physical exercise can improve long-term memory and highlight the potential of exercise as an intervention in educational and clinical settings.”384

379 Ibid.

380 Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. Oxford University Press, 2009, 245.

381 Ibid., 245.

382 Svard, Lois. "Stress, Sleep, and Performance." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2885#more-2885.

383 Ibid.

384 van Dongen, Eelco V, Ingrid H P. Kersten, Isabella C Wagner, Richard G M. Morris, and Guillén Fernández. "Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours After Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval." Current Biology 26, no. 13 (2016): 1722-1727.

Svard explains to musicians, “If you want to improve motor skills involved in playing your instrument

(procedural memory), either sleep or exercise immediately after practice. If you want to remember the music itself – notes, rhythms, chords, structure, key relationships (declarative memory) – exercise 4 hours after practice.”385

Burn out

Playing the same excerpts repeatedly and taking multiple auditions can put musicians at risk for burn-out. Kelly Zimba, principal flutist of the Toronto Symphony, reports: “I took 17 auditions, and have definitely experienced burn out! At one point I avoided practicing Mozart like the plague because I just didn’t even want to think about it anymore!” Advice that she found helpful: “A piece of advice that a colleague gave me to keep the music fresh is to play different music by the same composer along with recordings. So, I played along with some Mozart symphonies and other concerti. This helped a lot.”386

Dr. Noa Kageyama also has advice on the matter. He points to research that suggests, “In the long run, it’s important to disengage and mentally get away from our work on a regular basis. That going for a run, a walk on the beach, dinner with friends, a nap, a game of tennis, etc., is an important part of maintaining our well-being and performance.”387 For auditionees this may occur in the form of “taking a few guilt-free days off (or even longer) after a particularly stressful and intense period of time preparing for a big audition. Or going on vacation without your instrument. Or setting aside 24 hours per week as sacred no-practicing-allowed time.”388 Kageyama acknowledges that some auditionees may feel like this

385 Svard, Lois. "Stress, Sleep, and Performance." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2885#more-2885.

386 "Interview with Toronto Symphony Principal Flute Winner." Audition Cafe. August 09, 2017. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://auditioncafe.com/article/interview-with-toronto-symphony-principal-flute-winner/.

387 Kageyama, Noa. "The Importance of Mentally Disengaging from Work and Practice." The Creativity Post. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/the_importance_of_mentally_disengaging_from_work_and_practice.

388 Ibid.

78 time off might feel like s/he is not taking their work seriously. Similar to Haaheim’s advice to sleep in order to maximize one’s focus, Kageyama points out that “intentionally disengaging from work, recharging your batteries” entails that “you can approach your practice time with a full tank of enthusiasm and focus.”389

Kageyama also recommends the “Three Good Things exercise.”390 This “involves a) writing down three good things that happened during the day, and b) describing your role in bringing about these positive experiences/events/results.”391 Kageyama explains that “These ‘good things’ could really be anything – a mock audition that went really well, a peaceful early-morning walk with your dog, or a really nice lunch with friends where you shared a lot of laughs.”392 In studies where this exercise was used, the results showed a 15% drop in burnout within two weeks among 148 medical residents at Duke, a 19% drop in burnout for a group of patient safety officers (also at Duke), and an 11% decrease in burnout for a group in the neonatal intensive care unit at Stanford University. Additionally, the findings showed that

“just 7-14 days of this exercise appeared to lead to benefits that could be measured even a year later.

Among the Duke residents, for instance, the burnout rate remained at 48% a year after completing the exercise.”393

389 Ibid.

390 Kageyama, Noaa. "Reduce (Audition/School/Holiday) Burnout with This 2-Week Exercise." Bulletproof Musician. November 19, 2017. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/reduce-audition- school-holiday-burnout-with-this-simple-2-week-exercise/.

391 Ibid.

392 Ibid.

393 Ibid.

Chapter 6: Organization and Research

Overview

Many orchestral musicians have documented the importance of planning in audition preparation.

With dozens of pages of music, Dr. Noa Kageyama explains that it can seem like there is never enough time. As he puts it, “it’s really tempting to spend all of our time…in an effort to play everything as

‘perfectly’ as we can. Where we put off all the ‘musical stuff’ or run-throughs in front of an audience until we have ironed out all of the technical details. Which seems like a perfectly valid way to approach things – except that it leaves our practice extremely unbalanced.”394 This chapter will explore methods for research and organization as disclosed by audition winners.

A Healthy Schedule

Utilizing planning to make sure that each session is not overly physically wearing can prevent injury (as mentioned in Chapter 4) and exhaustion. Like Horvath, Nathan Cole recommends, in order to avoid undue physical strain, ramping one’s practice time gradually much like one would with gym routine. For example, if one has been practicing one hour a day, he warns his students not to start suddenly practicing three or four hours a day.395 Gradually easing into a more rigorous practice schedule and balancing a practice schedule to alternate physically demanding excerpts with less demanding ones is an important consideration as one creates a calendar.

394 Kageyama, Noaa. "Reduce (Audition/School/Holiday) Burnout with This 2-Week Exercise." Bulletproof Musician. November 19, 2017. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/auditionprep101/.

395 Cole, Nathan. "NY Phil Audition Challenge Week 14." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-14/.

Given that violinists, with a vulnerability to injury must often accommodate long and jam-packed excerpts, a practice schedule that paces physical demands is even more important. As mentioned before,

Janet Horvath recommends that musicians sort their repertoire into categories of intensity required to play. 396 Using these categories, an auditionee can interleave more physically demanding excerpts with less demanding ones. Weston Sprott, trombonist in the Metropolitan Opera also advises planning in order to avoid exhaustion:

“Look again at the way you divided the list into categories, and devise a routine that will allow you to practice effectively every day. I have learned from experience that practicing five really high and loud excerpts over and over again for an extended period of time not only leaves me in a state of fatigue that day, it completely ruins my practice goals for tomorrow. Therefore, organize your practice in a manner that is balanced and time/energy efficient. Each day should include a combination of excerpts that works all different ends of the instrument.”397 Jennifer Montone makes a similar plan that takes into account categories of difficulty:

“Example of a 3-day-plan: Day 1: Practice/woodshed maybe three #3 (difficult) excerpts, three #2s (moderate) Day 2: Record and run those 6 excerpts from day1, and plus two #1s, listen back, correct details, take a breath, run-through again, record, but don't listen back, let them be. Day 3: Listen back, think of over all comments (as if you were a judge or a teacher) work on some basics, listen and play along with a mvmt. of Mahler or a Strauss poem, etc. Enjoy the process of playing in an orchestra, doing what we do. Then start over with Day 1 woodshedding.”398

As mentioned in Chapter 2, the human mind can usually only tolerate four to five hours of deliberate practice with benefits dropping off after two hours. In addition, humans can sustain their focus for sixty to ninety minutes at a time at maximum. Given this information, one should consider scheduling practice in multiple sessions, factoring in breaks.

396 Horvath, 181.

397 Sprott, Weston. "Thoughts on Audition Preparation." Weston Sprott - Trombone - The MET Orchestra. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://westonsprott.com/audition-prep.

398 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

The Calendar

A calendar can ensure that time is spread judiciously across all audition material such that no excerpts are neglected. Rob Knopper’s course proposes that students begin audition preparation with

“To-Do” lists and calendars.399 Nathan Cole’s courses propose a plan for his followers, breaking up the

New York Philharmonic excerpt lists into the weeks leading up to the auditions.400 Seth Morris, flutist of the Metropolitan Opera advises, “Another step to take before honing in on practicing is planning…Set up an approximate practice schedule for when you would like to have pieces learned as well as when applications, along with any potential recordings, may be due.”401 Philadelphia Orchestra principal horn

Jennifer Montone advises, “In general, I find the more of a plan you have for your preparation on the day, the better… cuts down on wasting time, blowing out chops, mental psychosis/neurosis, etc.”402 Jason

Heath remarks, “Talking to other people that have landed big jobs, rarely do I talk to someone that they’re like, ‘Oh, I just kind of banged away at the music and here I am in a major orchestra!’”403

Rob Knopper begins forming his calendar by making a list of all the time he has available to practice for all of the days leading to the audition.404 For Knopper, his ideal audition schedule counts six weeks back from the day of the audition and designates this time for the “mock audition phase.”405 The

399 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/5/17/how-to-make-a-practice-schedule-for-auditions

400 Cole, Nathan. "New York 2018 Audition Preparation." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/course/new-york-2018-audition-preparation/

401 Morris, Seth. "Audition Preparation." SETH MORRIS. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.sethallynmorris.com/audition-preparation.

402 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

403 Heath, Jason. Winning the Audition. Self-published, Kindle, 2016, 90

404 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/5/17/how-to-make-a-practice-schedule-for-auditions

405 Heath, Jason. Winning the Audition. Self-published, Kindle, 2016, 89

82 first week or so is designated for organization and research, what he calls “phase zero.”406 Then, already having estimated the amount of time needed to spend on each “phase one and two” of his excerpts– one

“phase” for ingraining notes into muscle memory and the next “phase” for self-recording – Knopper fills in the rest of the days.407 He reports spending “two months or so to really learn the notes” for his winning

MET audition – that is focused on thoroughly “muscle-memorizing and ingraining [the notes]” so that he could play them “cold.”408 Then, he spent another six weeks on “phase two” which involves a meticulous process for self-recording.409 He forewarns that this schedule is flexible and may require daily adjusting and sometimes he would need to re-do phase one.410 An example of what a schedule modeled after

Knopper’s would look like can be found in Appendix A: A Calendar.

Rachelle Jenkin’s Audition Playbook, “primarily a workbook” inspired by her own audition process, is aimed at helping auditionees create their own unique plans.411 She describes her process of experimenting with various audition strategies that she learned from “teachers and others” and noting after each audition what needed to change in her plan. After several auditions, she “started to notice trends and realized that there were certain strategies that [she] had begun utilizing for every audition, many of which involved creating charts to track progress in different areas.”412 Jenkins tired of “re- inventing the wheel” for each audition – that is, “creating yet another set of charts and tools” and came up with the idea to make a “ready-to-go workbook that [she] could print off and launch for each audition.”413

406 Ibid.

407 Ibid., 89-90.

408 Ibid., 89

409 Ibid., 90

410 Ibid., 90.

411 Jenkins, Rachelle. Audition Playbook. Self-published, iBook, 2018, 9.

412 Ibid., 5.

413 Ibid., 6.

Like Knopper, Jenkins describes her preparation as going through several “phases”: 1) The Planning

Phase 2) Early Preparation Phase 3) Core Preparation Phase 4) In the Pocket Phase.414

Nathan Cole gives his readers a fourteen-week plan, which he describes as a process that has worked for him in his previous auditions. He describes the three months’ notice that the New York

Philharmonic gave for their (2015) audition as “the ideal time to spend preparing for an audition.”415 He spends the first week shoring up “technical weaknesses before stepping into the fire.”416 He also prefers to “go through all the material in detail, then set it aside to mature.”417 Much like Horvath and previously mentioned musicians, he believes in rotating one’s “hard work, much as farmers rotate their crops to avoid taxing the land.”418 He describes the next step of his ideal preparation, “Then, you give everything a second look before building the endurance necessary to get through it all in one go.”419 The last five weeks are devoted to preparing for performance (as opposed to the previous note learning stage). Much like the marathon that he compares this preparation to, Cole advises tapering “at the end so that weeks one and zero are as enjoyable as they can be.”420

For Those Who Hate Planning

Time management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders writes in the Harvard Business review: “I’ve seen some incredibly intelligent people struggle to plan. For example, very creative people who think in pictures can initially have a difficult time translating their conceptual ideas into practical actions that then

414 Ibid., 12.

415 Cole, Nathan. "New York Philharmonic Audition Challenge." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/new-york-philharmonic-audition-challenge/.

416 Ibid.

417 Ibid.

418 Ibid.

419 Ibid.

420 Ibid.

84 find a space on their calendars.”421 After reading the book Thriving in Mind: The Natural Key to

Sustainable Neurofitness,422 Saunders reports, “I came understand the scientific basis for what I had observed in my clients - that people’s brains are naturally wired for maintaining order, while others’ aren’t.”423 She explains that “those with natural brain dominance in the back-left part of the brain are most comfortable making linear plans and following them…and often don’t understand why others struggle.”424 In contrast, “those with brain dominance in a different quadrant of their brain will find planning much harder…the neurochemistry of their brain causes them to use 100 times the energy to think in ‘planning’ mode as someone whose natural dominance is back left.” She explains that though

“ease with planning is something that we’re born with or we’re not,” this “doesn’t mean that we can’t develop those skills by actively building neuro-connections in our brain through persistent practice.”425

Saunders says that the first step to improving this skill is to “accept the difficulty.”426 She warns that for those with “very weak planning patterns” in their brain, “planning will trigger pain — at least initially.”427 She compares the process to the start of a new exercise routine” in which “[you] work out muscles that you didn’t even know that you had.”428 Through practice, “the pain associated with it usually decreases. And the more positive reinforcement you get only increases, the more you do it.”429

421 Saunders, Elizabeth Grace. "A Way to Plan If You're Bad at Planning." Harvard Business Review. November 27, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://hbr.org/2017/07/a-way-to-plan-if-youre-bad-at-planning.

422 Benziger, Katherine. Thriving in Mind: The Natural Key to Sustainable Neurofitness. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.

423 Saunders, Elizabeth Grace.

424 Ibid.

425 Ibid.

426 Ibid.

427 Saunders, Elizabeth Grace. "You May Hate Planning, But You Should Do It Anyway." Harvard Business Review. September 27, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://hbr.org/2016/09/you-may-hate-planning-but-you- should-do-it-anyway.

428 Ibid.

429 Ibid.

Saunders explains that “clients who accept and work through those feelings [of frustration, disorientation, anger, exhaustion] are the ones who make the most progress.”430

Saunders advises clients to “find systems that work.”431 That is, “instead of forcing yourself into an established scheduling process, find a system that works for you.”432 For those with “front-right brain dominance,” this may come in the form of incorporating visuals, like writing “to-do items on sticky notes,” drawing on whiteboards, or using mind maps.433 Those with “front-left brain dominance” might prefer spreadsheets and tracking “progress in a numeric fashion.”434 Those with “back-right dominance” see “time as a flow and rhythm” (many musicians may fit into this category), and may prefer “paper lists that will allow [them] to adapt and adjust the cadence of [one’s] day as needed, instead of feeling boxed into rigid time frames.”435 Individuals interested in learning what part of their brain dominates, can “do the self-assessment in the book Thriving in Mind.”436 In summary: “There’s no wrong way to plan.

Experiment until you find the right fit.”437

430 Saunders, Elizabeth Grace. "A Way to Plan If You're Bad at Planning." Harvard Business Review. November 27, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://hbr.org/2017/07/a-way-to-plan-if-youre-bad-at-planning.

431 Ibid.

432 Ibid.

433 Ibid.

434 Ibid.

435 Ibid.

436 Ibid.

437 Ibid.

Other Practice Routine Tricks: Interleaved Practice

Interleaved practice, as opposed to blocked practice, not only helps a potential auditionee introduce variety in physical movements, it can also boost learning by creating contextual interference.438

As previously mentioned, with limited time to prepare for auditions, auditionees can benefit from any strategies that induce efficiency. This strategy is discussed by many musicians including Christine

Carter,439 Jessica Grahn,440 Noa Kageyama,441 Lois Svard,442 and Susan Williams.443

438 Carter, Christine E. and Jessica A. Grahn. "Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring how Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance." Frontiers in Psychology 7, (2016).

439 Ibid.

440 Ibid.

441 Carter, Christine and Noa Kageyama. "Why the Progress in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-the- progress-in-the-practice-room-seems-to-disappear-overnight/.

442 Svard, Lois. "Practice, Learning, and Memory, Part II." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=1980#more-1980.

443 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 50.

Figure 2: Blocked Practice vs. Interleaved Practice

Blocked practice:444

Excerpt A Excerpt B Excerpt C

15 min at 10 a.m. 15 min at 10:15 a.m. 15 min at 10:30 a.m.

Interleaved practice:445

Excerpt A Excerpt B Excerpt C

5 min at 10 a.m. 5 min at 10:05 a.m. 5 min at 10:10 a.m.

5 min at 10:15 a.m. 5 min at 10:20 a.m. 5 min at 10:25 a.m.

5 min at 10:30 a.m. 5 min at 10:35 a.m. 5 min at 10:40 a.m

The same amount of practice time is denoted by both tables. Blocked practice accomplishes fifteen minutes of a given excerpt in one sitting whereas interleaved practice accomplishes fifteen minutes of practice of a given excerpt in three five-minute segments. In the interleaved version, excerpts are alternated every five minutes (one can have smaller time segments – Professor Kurt Sassmannshaus touts three minute “Virtuous Moments.”)446

444 Carter, Christine and Noa Kageyama. "Why the Progress in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-the- progress-in-the-practice-room-seems-to-disappear-overnight/.

445 Ibid.

446 "Sassmannshaus on Practice, How and Why." YouTube. June 18, 2009. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr4YljhBGt8.

To illustrate the benefits of interleaved practice, studies have shown this type of contextual interference to enhance learning in baseball,447 badminton,448 and basketball.449 In the baseball study, the blocked group and interleaved groups both accomplished 45 practice pitches consisting of 15 fastballs, 15 curve balls, and 15 change-ups pitches. The blocked group performed fifteen in a row of each type of pitch – that is, fifteen fastballs in one go, fifteen curveballs in one go, and fifteen change ups in one go.

The interleaved group accomplished these pitches in a random order. The interleaved group improved

56.7% - almost twice as much as the blocked group improved 24.8%.450

In 2016, Carter and Grahn studied the implications of interleaved practice schedules on clarinetists. Their study results suggest that interleaved practice leads to better musical performance:

“Ten clarinetists were given one concerto exposition and one technical excerpt to practice in a blocked schedule (12 min per piece) and a second concerto exposition and technical excerpt to practice in an interleaved schedule (3 min per piece, alternating until a total of 12 min of practice were completed on each piece). Participants sight-read the four pieces prior to practice and performed them at the end of practice and again one day later. The sight-reading and two performance run-throughs of each piece were recorded and given to three professional clarinetists to rate using a percentage scale. Overall, whenever there was a ratings difference between the conditions, pieces practiced in the interleaved schedule were rated better than those in the blocked schedule, although results varied across raters.”451 The authors also explain the hypotheses that attempt to account for how interleaved practice/contextual interference might work. The elaborative-processing hypothesis suggests that the holding of multiple items in working memory simultaneously provides an “opportunity to compare and contrasts the different items, leading to a more elaborate and distinctive encoding for each item. The

447Hall, K. G., D. A. Domingues, and R. Cavazos. "Contextual Interference Effects with Skilled Baseball Players." Perceptual and Motor Skills 78, no. 3 Pt 1 (1994): 835.

448 Goode, Sinah and Richard A. Magill. "Contextual Interference Effects in Learning Three Badminton Serves." Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 57, no. 4 (1986): 308.

449 Feghhi, Iman, Behroz Abdoli, and Rohollah Valizadeh. "Compare Contextual Interference Effect and Practice Specificity in Learning Basketball Free Throw." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 15, (2011): 2176-2180. 450 Hall, K. G., D. A. Domingues, and R. Cavazos. "Contextual Interference Effects with Skilled Baseball Players." Perceptual and Motor Skills 78, no. 3 Pt 1 (1994): 835.

451 Carter, Christine E. and Jessica A. Grahn. "Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring how Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance." Frontiers in Psychology 7, (2016).

89 forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis suggests that switching from one task to another may induce forgetting. The reconstruction of action plans upon return to the prior tasks ‘leads to a stronger memory representation.’”452 Thought these two hypotheses seem to be at odds with one another, “It is plausible that they could work in tandem – ‘one could make comparisons and contrasts with the previous action whilst essentially replacing it as the ‘loaded’ response.”453

Though interleaved practice may be potent with benefits, it is also counterintuitive. The study also noted that “while the majority of participants found the interleaved practice schedule more useful than the blocked schedule, the majority still preferred the blocked schedule. This supports previous findings that blocked practice is often favored over more challenging training conditions because of increased feelings of fluency after repetition.”454 It may be difficult to overcome the impact that these feelings have on judgement: “Feelings of fluency can have a powerful impact over judgments of learning, regardless of how much learning has taken place. This underlines the importance of considering metacognitive factors when studying learning, especially for practice techniques that introduce difficulties

(albeit beneficial ones) for the learner.”455

Other Practice Routine Tricks: Spaced Practice

Svard points out that spaced practice “has been known about by psychologists for more than a hundred years.”456 She explains what this entails:

“They say that continuing to repeat a new excerpt of music after you have just learned it is not as effective as leaving it and practicing it again later during your practice session – maybe 20

452 Ibid.

453 Ibid.

454 Ibid.

455 Ibid.

456 Svard, Lois. "Practice, Learning, and Memory, Part II." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=1980#more-1980.

minutes later if the piece is new, maybe an hour, adding longer intervals as the piece becomes more familiar – eventually spacing by a day or two, and longer.” 457

Svard points out that spaced practice “isn’t taught in most schools – or taught by most music teachers.”

However, the research suggests “that learning is retained much longer when our practice or study is distributed over time rather than when it is concentrated.”458

Research

For the violinist, with a part that is often limited in information to a single line in the texture, it is important to look at the score for understanding of underlying harmonies and structure. This approach is in contrast to the idea of applying interpretations and suggestions by teachers superimposed “willy-nilly”

(as Rob Knopper calls it)459 onto an excerpt. The goal of this stage in the process is ownership of the music.460

Many violinists emphasize the need for research early in the process of preparing for auditions.

For example, Lucia Lin (Boston Symphony), during a lecture at a Paul Rolland workshop, recommended that candidates listen to multiple recordings to determine a “normal” tempo for each excerpt. In an interview, Jorja Fleezanis (concertmaster, Minnesota Orchestra) laments that most of her university students spend too much time in a “myopic” vision of one line of the score in one excerpt. She hears a

“painfully clear…vacant” quality when her students play without awareness of the entire score.461 She recommends learning “many different kinds of interpretations” and listening to at least four or five

457 Ibid.

458 Ibid.

459 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2015/12/1/day-8-how-to-research-an-excerpt-and-become-an-authority.

460 Ibid.

461 "MUSAIC - New World Symphony." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

91 recordings in order to develop a specific sound and timbre in one’s playing.462 Berlin Philharmonic co- concertmaster Noah Bendix-Bagley explains the purpose of this research, “In these times, the general technical level is very high. We have to accept that as a given at this point. However, I hear few candidates who have a special, personal sound, a sound which is beautiful and intriguing, that draws me in. I want to hear musicians who have a clear conception of style: candidates who play a different sound and approach for Mozart and for Brahms for example, and show me that they understand these composers.463 In another interview, Andres Cardenes (former concertmaster, Pittsburgh Symphony

Orchestra) is emphatic about the importance of research and analysis in the early stages of audition preparation.464 Mark Nuccio writes in an article, “If you have never played any of the pieces, it is a good idea to have gone through several recordings so that you have an idea standard tempi as well as for the best recording available.”465 Maxine Kwok of the London Symphony describes, “The most common mistake I have heard in over ten years of sitting in on auditions is candidates not preparing the excerpts properly. You can easily Youtube / Spotify the pieces and even better is if you listen to recent recordings of the orchestra that you are auditioning for, if possible… In this day and age of the internet, it is so easy and even free to listen to the excerpts.” She goes on to report, “The worst is when the auditionee has obviously never heard the excerpts before and therefore the tempi and style are completely wrong.

There’s no excuse for this and shows a lack of real interest in orchestral playing.”466

Though this step in the process involving research may seem like common sense, a majority of those who show up to auditions may not undergo this work for a variety of reasons. Rob Knopper relates

462 "MUSAIC - New World Symphony." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/style-and-musical-education.

463 https://auditioncafe.com/article/interview-with-berlin-philharmonic-concertmaster/ 464 "MUSAIC - New World Symphony." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/becoming-an-artist.

465 Nuccio, Mark. "Orchestral Preparation in 10 Steps." Audition Cafe. June 26, 2017. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://auditioncafe.com/article/orchestral-preparation-in-10-steps/.

466 “How to Be Successful in an Orchestra Audition”. The Strad. May 2014. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.thestrad.com/how-to-be-successful-in-an-orchestral-audition/2893.article

92 to his students: “You know how when someone’s listening to you play, and they say, ‘You need to play so that I can hear the orchestra behind you.’ and then you have that feeling afterwards that’s like, what are you talking about?! It can be infuriating, because you don’t know what to do about it.”467 One reason that the majority of violin audition candidates do not go through this step may be that they have not yet figured out how to go about this research for their own use outside of a music history or theory assignment. Or they may not understand how it may be relevant to their physical performance. Knopper provides step-by-step instructions on his website and in his various Audition Hacker courses.468 He tells his students that for a long time, he did not understand how to apply a certain musicality onto his excerpts until he got so fed up with the problem that he did everything he that had ever been suggested to him here and there throughout the years regarding how to research excerpts. In this concerted effort, he found what suggestions were effective and which ones were not.469 A model of this research (which was an assignment completed for Knopper’s course) can be found in Appendix B: Research Document.

Mental representations, important to the science of expertise (discussed in Chapter 2) are developed in this research stage of the process. Jason Haaheim of the Metropolitan Opera, himself a former scientist and deeply affected by books related to the science of expertise, explains how mental representations correlate to his process:

“In orchestral music performance, this encompasses everything from music theory and music history to our sense of cross-genre aesthetics. For example, my 2017 ‘ideal version’ of the Beethoven-9th-Symphony-1st-movement-coda timpani excerpt exists at a level of detail, refinement, and understanding that is staggeringly more sophisticated than my 2007 ‘ideal version.’ The refinement of those intervening 10 years involved everything from my process of score-informed musical decision-making to my perception of tone and my overall ‘artistic vision.’ We can all relate to this: the more you do a thing, the finer degrees of detail you’re able

467 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2015/12/1/day-8-how-to-research-an-excerpt-and-become-an-authority.

468 Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/auditionhacker-formula.

469 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “Audition Prep 101 With Rob and Noa.” Accessed February 17, 2019. https://academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/409301.

to perceive, and the more discriminating you become. This informs your ‘ideal,’ and that union of perception and knowledge creates an increasingly sophisticated mental representation.”470

Creating an Excerpt Book

Many audition winners advise creating a book that compiles all excerpts for an audition. Cole points out, “It will save you the trouble of fishing for pages when you need to flip back and forth between excerpts later on.”471 Mark Nuccio describes his process: “I make a spiral notebook of parts that include the requested passages or main/obvious solo sections with tabs on each of them so that I am able to quickly move between the excerpts as the audition committee makes their requests. At this time, I also make three additional copies for future mock auditions.”472 Rob Knopper creates a similar audition packet with tabs and likewise creates additional copies (three total) for mock auditions.473 Also included in Knoppers book are solo concerto excerpts. A photo of an excerpt book modeled after Nuccio and

Knopper can be found in Appendix C: Organizing Excerpts into a Booklet.

Make a Playlist

The practice of listening to recordings constantly is a recurring theme found in personal accounts of many successful auditionees. Jennifer Montone describes the first step in her audition preparation process: “Make a minidisk/tape/CD of excerpts in context, record your favorite recordings in order with

8-20 bars leading into excerpts. LISTEN CONSTANTLY (cannot emphasize enough!!!).”474 Weston

470 Jason Haaheim. "The Deliberate Practice Book Club." Jason Haaheim. January 26, 2019. Accessed February 16, 2019. https://jasonhaaheim.com/the-deliberate-practice-book-club/.

471 Cole, Nathan. "NY Phil Audition Challenge Week 12." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-12/.

472 Mark Nuccio, "Orchestral Preparation in 10 Steps," Audition Cafe, June 26, 2017, accessed February 16, 2019, https://auditioncafe.com/article/orchestral-preparation-in-10-steps/.

473 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

474 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

Sprott reports a similar strategy: “When in ‘audition mode,’ I almost always have my CD player on, and

I’m listening to pieces that are on the audition list.”475 Mark Nuccio advises, “Make a playlist on your computer/iPad/phone with all the pieces that are on the list. This way you can begin to study the music during any downtime.”476

Rob Knopper, gives step by step instructions for how to go about making a playlist. These instructions are found on his website and are further demonstrated in his AuditionHacker courses:

• “Use Amadeus Pro, or use Garageband, logic, or other audio editing software. • Open the full track in your audio editing software. • Cut out the excerpt, including ten seconds on either side of the actual percussion excerpt section. • Create a ‘fade in’ at the beginning, a ‘fade out’ at the end, and 2 seconds of silence at the end. • Save this excerpt and give it a clear, obvious title that can show up in a playlist with other excerpts. I'll use something like this: (xylo)shostakovich: polka - m. 110-131 • Add this track to an audition playlist that's connected to your phone. this will be useful later so you can have a comprehensive list of excerpts that you can listen to or play along with.”477 Rachelle Jenkins also gives step-by-step instructions on her blog for splicing excerpts using iTunes: 1. “Select the track you wish to take the excerpt from and figure out exactly where the excerpt begins and ends. Write it down if it's easier to remember the timings. 2. 2. Right-click or control-click the track and select "Song Info." 3. 3. In the Song Info box, select the "Options" tab and check the start and stop tabs. In the start tab, type the start time your excerpt begins at; in the stop tab, type the time your excerpt ends. (Note: It's always best to include a few measures or phrases before the excerpt to help you get into the character). Click OK. 4. 4. At the top left corner, select File > Convert > Create AAC version. This will make a duplicate copy of the track, but only from the start and stop times you specified.

475 Sprott, Weston. "Thoughts on Audition Preparation." Weston Sprott - Trombone - The MET Orchestra. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://westonsprott.com/audition-prep.

476 Mark Nuccio, "Orchestral Preparation in 10 Steps," Audition Cafe, June 26, 2017, accessed February 16, 2019, https://auditioncafe.com/article/orchestral-preparation-in-10-steps/.

477 Knopper, Rob. “How to Choose a Tempo for Anything in 4 Steps.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2014/10/12/how-to-choose-a-tempo-for-anything-in-4-steps.

5. 5. Be sure to undo the durational parameters you set for the original track. All you have to do is go back into the same Song Info/Options menu from above, and uncheck both boxes. It is important to remember this step. That's it! You're done!”478 Jenkins also notes: “Every time I splice an excerpt, I try to make sure I immediately copy it to the playlist for the audition I am preparing as well as a master playlist of all of my audition edits. Over time, I have built quite an extensive library of spliced recordings of excerpts and have managed to keep them organized enough that I can very quickly and easy locate each excerpt when it comes up on another audition. (I eventually organized them by composer as well!)”479 These reports regarding the importance of listening to recordings can be further understood and corroborated by studies that find that listening to recordings aids learning.

One study, conducted in 2014 by Cash, Allen, Simmons, and Duke suggests that musicians who listen to an auditory model make “significantly larger gains in performance during training and between the end of training…than those who [do] not hear the model.”480 In this study, 32 right-handed instrumental music majors with secondary piano training were divided into two groups. Both groups were asked to learn a short passage of music with their left hand. The first group learned the passage after listening to a recording and the second group learned the passage without listening to a recording. This learning occurred during one 12-minute session that occurred between 8-10 pm. After 12 minutes of practice both groups improved, but those who listened to the recording improved more. The group who had heard the recording, not only began with a higher accuracy score of 52.18, they also improved by

92%. The group who did not listen to a recording started with an accuracy score of 48.71 and improved by only 73%. Twelve hours later, after a night of sleep it was found that both improved further (without any further practice). This finding was not surprising as it had been demonstrated by previous research

478 Jenkins, Rachelle. "How to Create Spliced Recordings of Your Excerpts." Audition Playbook. August 25, 2018. Accessed February 20, 2019. https://www.auditionplaybook.com/blog/2018/4/4/how-to-create-spliced-recordings- of-your-excerpts

479 Ibid.

480 Cash, Carla D., Sarah E. Allen, Amy L. Simmons, and Robert A. Duke, “Effects of Model Performances on Music Skill Acquisition and Overnight Memory Consolidation”. Journal of Research in Music Education. 2014, vol. 62

96 that continued motor learning positively correlates with sleep. However, in addition to this correlation, it was also found that those who had initially listened to the recording improved more overnight (by 9%) compared to those who did not hear the auditory model (4%). The final accuracy score difference was

108.75 for the auditory model group and 87.25 for those who did not listen to the recording.481

481 Ibid.

Chapter 7: Learning the Notes

Overview

As discussed in chapter 2, deliberate practice involves developing mental representations that exist in long-term memory. An initial procedure for this was explained in the previous chapter (regarding research). After gaining some mental representation of what kind of sounds to produce from one’s instrument, a violinist can proceed to the physical aspect of note learning (though some advocate for

“building” before “interpreting”).482 With dozens of excerpts to execute during an audition, it is necessary to practice excerpts until they can be easily retrieved and automated from long-term memory.

Resources regarding strategies for note-learning include Rob Knopper and Noa Kageyama’s joint

AuditionHacker course,483 Kageyama’s website The Bulletproof Musician,484 Lois Svard’s blog posts on her website The Musician’s Brain,485 Tara Gaertner’s blog posts on her website Training the Musical

Brain,486 Gabriele Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite’s website Optimal Motor Learning,487 and Susan

William’s Quality Practice.488 Much of the research on motor learning discussed in this chapter has been done in the sports field but may provide beneficial ways to conceptualize learning for auditionees.

482 Galamian, Ivan. Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching. Allegro Editions, 2017.

483 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

484 Kageyama, Noa. “Bulletproof Musician" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/.

485 Svard, Lois. "The Musician's Brain." The Musician's Brain. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.themusiciansbrain.com/.

486 Gaertner, Tara. "Training the Musical Brain." Training the Musical Brain. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.trainingthemusicalbrain.com/.

487 Wulfe, Gabriele, and Rebecca Lewthwaite. OPTIMAL Motor Learning. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://optimalmotorlearning.com/.

488 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017

Motor Learning

Multiple models attempt to explain how the process of motor learning occurs. These ways of conceptualizing motor learning can aid violinists and other musicians in understanding what may be occurring during and between practice sessions and help in assessing where one is in his/her learning. For example, if a skill that appears to have been acquired does not remain stable from one practice session to the next, these models may aid in creating hypotheses for why this occurs. The classic model created by

Fitts and Posner (During the editing of this document, I found that this model was presented by Noa

Kageyama at a New Jersey lecture for piano teachers)489 proposes that skill acquisition occurs in three sequential stages: “The cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages.”490 1) The cognitive stage involves establishing task goals and determines “appropriate sequence of actions to achieve the desired goal.”491 Dr. Stacy Menz explains that “the learner mostly relies on visual input and trial and error to guide learning.”492 She uses the example of a child learning how to walk:

“Before [a] child masters walking, they will most likely look a bit awkward and will definitely stumble a few times. The reality is that the process of learning how to walk begins way before your child actually takes their first assisted or independent step as they have been visually observing others around them walking and beginning to understand the purpose. So while they make look clumsy during this stage of learning, they are only just beginning to transition from understanding the skill to executing it.”493

489 Shea, Beverly. "The Bulletproof Musician: The Science (and Art) of Peak Performance." Music Educators Association of New Jersey. January 2018. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.mea-nj.org/highlights-01- 2018.php.

490 Menz, Stacy. "Motor Learning: Stages of Motor Learning and Strategies to Improve Acquisition of Motor Skills." Starfish Therapies. October 16, 2012. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://starfishtherapies.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/motor-learning-stages-of-motor-learning-and-strategies-to- improve-acquisition-of-motor-skills/.

491 Taylor, Jordan A. and Richard B. Ivry. "The Role of Strategies in Motor Learning." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251, no. 1 (2012): 1-12.

492 I Menz, Stacy. "Motor Learning: Stages of Motor Learning and Strategies to Improve Acquisition of Motor Skills." Starfish Therapies. October 16, 2012. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://starfishtherapies.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/motor-learning-stages-of-motor-learning-and-strategies-to- improve-acquisition-of-motor-skills/.bid.

493 Ibid.

For an auditionee, this cognitive stage may correlate to the previously discussed research stage in which we study the score, listen to recordings, and determine a performance tradition. It may also correlate to an initial exploratory stage of an excerpt as one figures out bowings, fingerings, and the types of technique that one will need to use throughout. This stage of learning “involves the use of explicit knowledge.”494 2) The second stage, termed the “associative stage,” involves focusing attention on

“specific details of the sequence, determining the appropriate subparts and transitions.”495 This process

“may require some exploration of the solution space, perhaps with one segment being overhauled to ensure that the overall action is executed in a smooth and coordinated manner.”496 Menz explains,

“During this stage, the learner begins to demonstrate a more refined movement through practice. Now that the learner has had some practice and has identified various stimuli that may occur, they can focus on “how to do” moving on from the “what to do” in the first stage…Proprioceptive cues refer to the learner focusing more on how their body is moving in space and what input is being felt from their joints and muscles. The more practice, the more proprioceptive input the learner receives to aide learning.” In musical practice, this may involve taking excerpts apart to isolate small parts and then experimenting with ways to execute these specific parts.”497 In the practice room, this may look like isolation of a small section and the refining one’s motion until it can be executed comfortably to one’s vision. 3) The last stage, the autonomous stage, is “the phase in which the action is practice to hone performance into an automatized routine.”498 In the practice room, this may involve repetition of an ideal. Returning to our previous example of a violinist who appears to have acquired a skill and execution is not consistent from one practice session to the next, s/he may

494 Taylor, Jordan A. and Richard B. Ivry. "The Role of Strategies in Motor Learning." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251, no. 1 (2012): 1-12.

495 Ibid.

496 Ibid.

497 Menz, Stacy. "Motor Learning: Stages of Motor Learning and Strategies to Improve Acquisition of Motor Skills." Starfish Therapies. October 16, 2012. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://starfishtherapies.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/motor-learning-stages-of-motor-learning-and-strategies-to- improve-acquisition-of-motor-skills/.

498 Taylor, Jordan A. and Richard B. Ivry. "The Role of Strategies in Motor Learning." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251, no. 1 (2012): 1-12.

100 conceptualize and hypothesize that s/he has not yet reached the autonomous stage and proceed to additional repetition.

Other models of motor learning, make room for an initial implicit learning stage rather than an initial “cognitive” stage that entails explicit knowledge. For example, the CLARION model

(Connectionist Learning with Adaptive Rule Induction On-line), contains two subsystems – the top level for is designated for explicit knowledge and the bottom level for implicit knowledge.499 The model also incorporates four main subsystems: “the Action-Centered Subsystem, the Non-Action-Centered

Subsystem, the Motivational Subsystem, and the Meta-Cognitive Subsystem.”500 This model attempts to explain multiple avenues of learning. While the specifics can be further researched by readers of this document who may be interested, they will not be discussed here as the important takeaway is that there are other models for motor learning.

OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning

One notable learning model, the OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance Through Intrinsic Motivation for Learning) theory of motor learning,501 published by Gabriele Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite in 2016, incorporates motivational and attentional factors. This model is included in Susan William’s Quality

Practice.502 Wulf and Lewthwaite’s studies suggest that three conditions enhance learning and performance:

499 Wilson, Nicholas, Michael Lynch, and Ron Sun. Tutorial: The Clarion Cognitive Architecture. PDF. Troy, NY.

500 Ibid.

501 Wulf, Gabriele and Rebecca Lewthwaite. "Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning: The OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 23, no. 5 (10, 2016): 1382-1414. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/10.3758/s13423-015-0999-9. https://search-proquest- com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/1828126859?accountid=2909.

502 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 22

101

1. Autonomy: This entails that, “rather than passively [receiving] instructions], the student has

choices that “develop a sense of agency.”503

2. Enhanced expectancies: Positive expectancies and beliefs, including “an open mindset and high-

self-efficacy” aid learning and performance. This entails succeeding at challenges and positive

feedback.504

3. External focus: This entails that instructions “focus attention on the desired effect of the

movements (involving musical intentions) rather than on…controlling or analyzing individual

movements of the body.”505

Wulf explains that when three groups are compared, “a group that receives negative feedback, no

feedback, or positive feedback,…the negative feedback group…and the group that gets no

information typically look like each other” while the “group that receives a sense of success or

confidence tends to look different.”506 She explains that the “negative doesn’t appear to detract” but

rather the “positive appears to enhance.”507 These findings can inform not only music pedagogy in

general, but as one functions as one’s own teacher in the practice room, an auditionee can pay

attention self-talk and also, as Nathan Cole puts it in a guide, set oneself up for success: “The greatest

players spend nearly all of their practice time succeeding.”508 Additionally, an auditionee can use an

external focus (will be discussed again later), like musical intent, to aid motor learning.

503 Ibid.

504 Ibid.

505 Ibid.

506 Walker, Cordie. "The Unknown Truth about Learning Golf and Motivation." Golf Science Lab. February 16, 2016. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://golfsciencelab.com/motivational-learning/.

507 Ibid.

508 Cole, Nathan. Eight Practice Mistakes You're Making Right Now. PDF.

102

Implicit and Explicit Memory

Both implicit and explicit memory are necessary for performance. Lois Svard explains that long- term memory can be either explicit or implicit: “Implicit memory allows us to play our instrument.

Explicit memory allows us to play a specific piece of music.”509 Explicit memory, also referred to as declarative memory, “is memory for facts and events. It is memory that can be consciously recalled, like what you had for breakfast this morning, or memory for a specific piece of music…It is something you can declare verbally – or musically.”510 Implicit memory, referred to also as procedural memory, “We acquire…through repetition and practice, and once we have learned, the memory is so deeply embedded, we don’t forget.”511 As discussed in Chapter 2, Imreh performed her movements from motor memory but her mind was focused on explicit musical details.

Noa Kageyama explains the benefits of having both implicit and explicit memory with regards to resilience in high-pressure situations.512 According to research results, implicit memory may be more robust against “outcome pressure” while explicit memory may stand up better against “monitoring pressure.”

To illustrate: A study conducted “at a large U.S. Midwestern university”513 gave participants two challenges.

509 Svard, Lois. "The Many Kinds of Memory in Music." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=1793.

510 Ibid.

511 Ibid.

512 Kageyama, Noa. “What Causes Choking Under Pressure and What Can We Do About It?" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/what-causes- choking-under-pressure-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/.

513 DeCaro, Marci S., Robin D. Thomas, Neil B. Albert, and Sian L. Beilock. "Choking Under Pressure: Multiple Routes to Skill Failure." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 140, no. 3 (2011): 390-406.

103

“Task #1 was a relatively simple task, but required conscious attention and working memory for participants to be successful. So, if participants were distracted, their performance would suffer.

Task #2 was more complex, and was designed to operate on a more implicit level, outside of conscious awareness. So, being distracted wouldn’t make much of a difference in their performance, but paying too much attention to each step of their process definitely would.”514

One group of participants was subjected to outcome pressure by being “told that if they and a partner could each improve their performance by 20%, they would both win money. They were informed that their partner had already met that criteria, so the prize money was all riding on their performance.”515 The other group was subjected to monitoring pressure by being informed that “their performance would be watched and videotaped, and that footage would be watched by other students and professors at the university, and possibly used in a film distributed nationwide for other researchers and psychology classes.”516

The results: the group exposed to outcome pressure showed detriment in performance of the explicit memory task but outcome pressure did not affect the task that relied on implicit memory. The group exposed to monitoring pressure resulted in the converse: “they seemed to overthink the steps of

Task #2, and their performance went downhill. Performance on Task #1 on the other hand, did not change.”517 Kageyama explains the key takeaway: “It all boils down to training ourselves to maintain a very specific kind of focus and attention control on stage…Focus more on musical expression (to counteract outcome pressure), and less on technical execution (to protect ourselves from monitoring pressure).”518

514 Kageyama, Noa. “What Causes Choking Under Pressure and What Can We Do About It?" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/what-causes- choking-under-pressure-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/.

515 Ibid.

516 Ibid.

517 Ibid.

518 Ibid.

104

Implicit Learning: An Overview

Implicit memory can, not only be robust against outcome pressure, but research also suggests that in many situations, motor learning is most effectively and efficiently learned implicitly.519 Implicit memory, also known as procedural memory, “is the memory for how to do something – how to ride a bike, how to play the [instrument].”520 As mentioned before, this implicit memory is acquired “through repetition and practice, and once we have learned, the memory is so deeply embedded, we don’t forget.”521 Lois Svard explains, “while we certainly know how to tie our shoes and do so without thinking, if we are asked to explain the process to someone, we have difficulty. We can demonstrate easily because it’s a procedural memory, but explaining would be a challenge.”522

Susan Williams, author of Quality Practice: A Musician’s Guide, explains: “With regard to musicians, research on implicit motor learning suggests that they need to rely less on analyzing and directing their movements during learning (even in early stages), and certainly during performance.

Understanding how and where to direct conscious attention is the key to enabling implicit learning and achieving the desired results.”523 The development of implicit memory can be encouraged in several ways and offers benefits to performers. Some of these ways include 1) errorless learning, 2) the use of analogies, 3) the use of external focus, 3) change blindness, and 4) marginal perception.

519 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 18.

520 Svard, Lois. "The Many Kinds of Memory in Music." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2280

521 Ibid.

522 Ibid.

523 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 18.

105

Implicit Learning: Errorless Learning

It is important to note that “errorless” learning does not entail a crippling perfectionism or that one does not make “errors” in the process as “practice is never completely errorless.”524 Instead, errorless learning, involves “starting easy and then slowly increasing the task complexity or difficulty.”525

Whereas situations that begin with too much difficulty, are likely to induce engagement in a “kind of

‘hypothesis testing’” or knowledge building to “figure out what went wrong,” successful execution of movements ( more likely to occur in “errorless” situations) induces less likelihood that the learner will consciously try to “find ways to improve performance.”526 This “lower level awareness of the movement” leads to a more implicit mode of learning and more automated execution.527

Maxwell and colleagues’ study of a group of golf putters illustrates this concept. One group, the

“errorless” group starting by “putting gold balls at a distance of 25 cm from the hole and gradually moved back to 200 cm in increments of 25 cm.”528 In contrast, the “errorful” group started at 200 cm away from the hole (the furthest distance) and gradually moved closer. The “errorful” groups’ starting point encouraged more errors early in the learning process while the “errorless” learning group began at a position that encouraged less mistakes. There was also a group of putters that were assigned more

“random” distances from the hole.529 No group was given verbal instruction, and each group had the

524 "3 Methods for Implicit Motor Learning | Meedoen Met Sport." Meedoen Met Sport. April 10, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.meedoenmetsport.nl/nieuws/3-methods-for-implicit-motor-learning/?lang=en.

525 Ibid.

526 Ibid.

527 Ibid.

528 Lam, W. K., J. P. Maxwell, and R. S. W. Masters. "Probing the Allocation of Attention in Implicit (Motor) Learning." Journal of Sports Sciences 28, no. 14 (2010): 1543-1554.

529 Ibid.

106 same number of practice shots. When a secondary task was introduced – that of counting only the high tones among high and low tones – the performance of the “errorful” group as well as the “random” group dropped off “significantly.”530 The authors of the study “concluded that, like implicit learners of earlier studies, errorless learners had a reduced need to rely on working memory for skill performance.”531

Simply put, it may be helpful to design practice in a way that encourages less errors to begin with and then increases in difficult. Translated to violin excerpt practice, this may look like playing small, manageable sections of excerpts (like adding one note at a time in a similar fashion to Rob Knopper) and then increasing the length of sections.

Kageyama points out that not all mistakes are bad, so this “errorless” learning should not be confused with perfection. He explains, “errors” that are more exploratory in nature – that represents an effort to experiment and test out the full range of ways in which you could accomplish the task – could actually be very productive.532…Put another way, we can stick with what we know and stay in our comfort zone, or we can go exploring and try a range of other things.”533

Implicit Learning Using Analogies

The use of analogies and metaphors entails that learners are “less aware of the detailed steps that make up a movement…[and] attend to its global aspects only.”534 It is important to note that “the adopted metaphor should evoke the correct movement pattern and not lead to incorrect execution of a

530 Ibid.

531 Ibid.

532 Kageyama, Noa. “Perfrect Shmerfect the Stage of Practicing When More Mistakes is Better for Learning." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/perfect- shmerfect-the-stage-of-practicing-when-more-mistakes-is-better-for-learning/.

533 Kageyama, Noa. “How Making Mistakes Can Accelerate Learning." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/how-making-mistakes-can-accelerate-learning/.

534 "3 Methods for Implicit Motor Learning | Meedoen Met Sport." Meedoen Met Sport. April 10, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.meedoenmetsport.nl/nieuws/3-methods-for-implicit-motor-learning/?lang=en.

107 movement.”535 The use of analogies might hold value for those who teach excerpts. For example,

Gabriel Pegis often conjures the image of a basketball to describe spiccato. Auditionees may also benefit from thinking of analogies to induce correct motions.

Implicit Learning: External Focus

An external focus “aims to direct the attention to the effects of the movements in the environment.”536 This is differentiated from the idea of internal focus, “in which attention is directed to the body movements itself.”537 An internal focus may “lead to a high level of awareness about the movement.”538 On the opposite end, “an external focus would enhance more automated movements.”539

External focus has been studied in free throw shooting, dart throwing, vertical jumps.540 Noa Kageyama describes a golf study in which adults with “no prior golf experience” were made to hit golf balls at a target that was 15 meters away.541 They had in their arsenal: ten balls, one nine iron, and a ten-minute mini- lesson on the essentials. One group, designated as the internal focus group, was instructed to

“direct their attention to the movement of their arms.”542 The group designated for external focus was instructed to “make the club move like a pendulum.”543 All of the participants had 80 practice shots at the target. The results: the external focus group hit more accurate shots, “averaging a score of 21, which was

535 Ibid.

536 Ibid. 537 Ibid. 538 Ibid. 539 Ibid. 540 Kageyama, Noa. “Learn Quicker by Thinking Less About What Your Body is Doing." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/learn-quicker-by-thinking-less- about-what-your-body-is-doing/. 541 Ibid.

542 Ibid.

543 Ibid.

108 almost twice that of the internal focus group.”544 The next day, the groups were tested again in order to gauge if this effect was temporary. However, the external focused group again outperformed the internal focus group.545 In learning motor movements, auditionees can benefit from experimenting with focusing externally, on perhaps “hearing” an ideal sound, as one develops motor memory for excerpts.

Kageyama does note that “an external focus of attention is not universally helpful.”546 He cites that research also “suggests that beginners or less advanced individual may perform better when using an internal focus.”547 He also notes that “at all skill or experience levels, there will be plenty of times when adopting an internal focus is more effective for learning.”548 There may be situations where it may make more sense to use an internal focus “to break down a skill, figure out what’s going on, and make technical adjustments.”549 He explains that if there is a “fundamental technical reason why your intonation or sound or rhythm is unstable, simply shifting your focus is probably not going to be an effective or stable long-term solution.”550

Implicit Learning: Marginal Perception and Change Blindness

Citing the work of R.S Masters, Susan Williams explains the tenets of marginal perception: “The information is presented to the learner so quickly that he/she doesn’t consciously notice it, and yet it influences the behavior (for instance, changes in movements or posture without the learner being aware of

544 Ibid.

545Ibid. 546 Kageyama, Noa. “Mediocre Intonation (and Other Accuracy Problems) May Not be a Practice Issue but a Focus Issue." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/mediocre-intonation-accuracy-problems-may-not-practice-issue-focus-issue/

547 Ibid.

548 Ibid.

549 Ibid.

550 Ibid.

109 learning).” Change blindness “is another form of marginal perception, where the task is made different

(e.g. more difficult) very gradually without the learner realizing.”551 In the practice room, this might occur in the form of speeding up a section of music by imperceivable increments.

Overlearning

Previous stages of learning involve the acquisition of skill through strategies like error-reduced situations and external focus. After a skill is acquired, this may be referred to as “adequate learning.”

Noa Kageyama explains this phenomenon: “Say you are working on a passage and keep having memory glitches or play a few notes out of tune, but with a bit of work, finally get through the tricky spots without incident. Moving on to a new skill or a new passage at this point would be called ‘adequate’ learning because presumably, you’ve ironed out the problem areas and have reached a certain level of proficiency.”552 Rob Knopper calls this process, “finding the comfort zone” and denotes adequate learning as the “tipping point.”553 In order to gain faster and flawless execution of a skill, as is beneficial for audition performance, “overlearning” may prove beneficial. Kageyama defines overlearning:

“If…you continued to work on the passage, beyond the point of reaching proficiency, you would be engaged in ‘overlearning.’”554 In the practice room, this may come in the form of repeating a passage

“perfectly” five to eight times in a row after the skill to execute it is acquired.

Kageyama notes that there is not much research on this phenomenon but cites two studies to illustrate this concept: one involving the U.S. army and the other involving a group of surgical residents.

551 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 18-19.

552 Kageyama, Noa. “Adequate Learning vs. Overlearning: How Many Repetitions is Enough?" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/adequate-learning- vs-overlearning-how-many-repetitions-is-enough/.

553 Knopper, Rob. “Audition Cheat-Sheet.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://convertkit.s3.amazonaws.com/landing_pages/incentives/000/015/670/original/the-audition-cheat-sheet- 2.pdf?1451784802. 554 Ibid.

110

Both studies showed that overlearning leads to faster flawless execution of skill and gains that lasted longer. In this U.S. army study, the subjects were trained in how to disassemble and assemble an M60 gun:555

“A control group practiced until they could achieve one error-free performance1. An “overlearning” group practiced until the same point, and then some (specifically, their training was extended by however many repetitions it took them to get to an error-free level2; so if it took them 30 tries to get it right, they did a total of 60 repetitions3). A third group practiced until proficiency, and 4 weeks later, had a “refresher” session where like the overlearning group, they did as many repetitions as it took for them to get it right in the first session.”556

After eight weeks, the subjects were tested. The results: the overlearning group outperformed the control group by 65% while the refresher group outperformed the control by 57%. The overlearning group actually “got faster [by 12.74 seconds] from their first error-free performance to their last practice attempt of the day.”557 The overlearning group also “demonstrated better performance after eight weeks of not touching the M60 than the refresher group did after four weeks.”558 In a different study, surgical residents demonstrated similar results with the over-learners completing the given procedure 20% faster than the adequate learners and making fewer errors.559

What this means for auditionees: an advantage can be gained from repetition beyond gaining of an initial ability to execute a passage. Kageyama notes that it is not clear “how much overlearning is best,” but there is some evidence that 50% overlearning may be the minimum to reap any gains: “For instance, it took you 40 repetitions to reach proficiency, you’d do an additional 20 repetitions past that

555 Ibid.

556 Ibid.

557 Ibid.

558 Ibid.

559 Ibid.

111 point, for a total of 60 reps.”560 He notes that there may be a “point of diminishing returns” in that “100% overlearning appears to give us more bang for our buck than 150% or 200% overlearning.”561

Variable Learning

Pioneering neurophysiologist Nikolai Aleksandrovitsch Bernstein (1896-1966) conceptualized motor learning in two phases:562 the first involves repetition with “minimal variation and if possible in simplified form”563 (similar to methods discussed earlier in this chapter), and the second involves repetition in varied circumstances in order to “make the automatisms more robust by training them to spontaneously find successful motor solutions to unforeseen changes in internal and external conditions.”564 That is, after an initial phase during which motions become automated, the goal then becomes to develop dexterity, “the ability to find a motor solution for any external situation, that is adequate to solve any emerging motor problem.”565

Noa Kageyama points out that rarely do the conditions of a performance feel like those in the practice room: “perhaps your hands are a little colder, stiffer, you are playing slightly faster or slower, your breathing is a little shallower, your clothes are more or less restrictive.”566 To accommodate this problem, one can incorporating variability into practice (after the the initial phase of automation).

560 Ibid.

561 Ibid.

562 Ito, John Paul. "Repetition without Repetition: Bernsteinian Perspectives on Motor Learning for Musicians - College Music Symposium." College Music Symposium. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=11:repetition-without-repetition- bernsteinian-perspectives-on-motor-learning-for-musicians.

563 Ibid.

564 Ibid.

565 Ibid.

566 Kageyama, Noa. "A Practice Strategy That Will Help You Play More Accurately When It Counts.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/a-practice-strategy- that-will-help-you-play-more-accurately-when-it-counts/.

112

To illustrate the benefits of variable practice, Kageyama points to a classic study567 involving eight-year olds who practiced bean bag tossing for twelve weeks: “One group practiced tossing beanbags to a target 3 feet away (“constant” practice group). The other group practiced tossing beanbags to targets

2 feet away and 4 feet away (“variable” practice group).”568 When the two groups were tested at the conclusion of the research, the variable practice group outperformed the group who practiced tossing the beanbags at the constant distance.569 This study was replicated recently (2018) at the University of

California Los Angeles, using adult subjects and involving a similar beanbag-throwing task: “Participants were randomly assigned to practice in either the varied or specific condition. During practice, participants in the specific group aimed for a target 7 ft away, while participants in the varied group alternated between aiming for targets 5 ft and 9 ft away, switching targets every 12 trials.”570 The results of this study were similar to those of the study it was modeled after.571

Kageyama notes that another study involving college subjects and basketball free throws suggests that variable practice may lead to long-term gains. In the study,572 which again, involved a variable training group and a constant training group, “when both groups took a shooting test immediately after the training session, the constant practice group performed better than the variable practice group.” The subjects were surprised by another test a year later: “The results were reversed. This time, despite not

567 Kerr, R. and B. Booth. "Specific and Varied Practice of Motor Skill." Perceptual and Motor Skills 46, no. 2 (1978): 395.

568 Kageyama, Noa. "A Practice Strategy That Will Help You Play More Accurately When It Counts.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/a-practice-strategy- that-will-help-you-play-more-accurately-when-it-counts/.

569 Ibid.

570 Willey, Chéla R. and Zili Liu. "Long-Term Motor Learning: Effects of Varied and Specific Practice." Vision Research 152, (2018): 10-16.

571 Ibid.

572 Memmert, Daniel. "Long-Term Effects of Type of Practice on the Learning and Transfer of a Complex Motor Skill." Perceptual and Motor Skills 103, no. 3 (2006): 912-916.

113 practicing free throws for a year, the participants who practiced shooting free throws from a variety of locations in the free throw lane outperformed those who practiced only from the free throw line.”573

Variable practice, as it relates to auditionees and other instrumentalists, may involve “practicing slower and faster than the target tempo. Louder and softer. With vibrato and without. Sitting and standing.”574

Practice Methods for Note Learning

Note learning comes with its difficulties. In short, it requires a lot of choreography for many small muscles in response to many musical elements. For violinists, each excerpt contains many notes and each note encompasses details like intonation, shifts, bow distribution, bow speed, sounding point, motion of fingers and bow that preserves rhythmic integrity, vibrato, etc. This list can be overwhelming and focusing on all of these items at once on every single note is impossible.575

Musicians approach this challenge in a variety of ways, from slow practice, to the use of a variety of rhythms, and even learning music one note at a time. For an auditionee, it may be difficult to know where to start. For example, Simon Fischer’s book Practice contains two hundred and fifty practice methods!576 While this document will not discuss all two hundred and fifty methods, it may be helpful for auditionees to conceptualize some of these different practice methods within the definitions of the previously discussed motor learning strategies. Useful resources for researching specific practice

573 Kageyama, Noa. "A Practice Strategy That Will Help You Play More Accurately When It Counts.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/a-practice-strategy- that-will-help-you-play-more-accurately-when-it-counts/.

574 Ibid.

575 Ophir, Eyal, Clifford Nass, Anthony D. Wagner, and Michael I. Posner. "Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, no. 37 (2009): 15583-15587.

576 Fischer, Simon. Practice: 250 Step-by-step Practice Methods for the Violin. London: Edition Peters, 2004.

114 methods include Simon Fischer’s books and website,577 Nathan Cole’s website in which he demonstrates in videos several practice strategies, including those specific to isolated passages in violin excerpts,578 and

Rob Knopper’s AuditionHacker course in which he models his very own discovery – his method of learning a piece one note at a time.579 This section will discuss a few of these methods that are most basic in that they seem to be used the most in the service of motor learning.

Rob Knopper gives auditionees a place to begin by stripping note learning to its most basic form.

His method of note learning addresses one note at a time. That is, he starts at the end of the piece, plays just the last note, addressing every element of the note (i.e. rhythm, sound, pitch, comfort, timbre, dynamic) until it is “perfect” and then repeating it until it is “ingrained in muscle memory”580

(overlearned). Then, he adds a note to the note he just worked on, practicing the last two notes until every musical and physical element is addressed and overlearned. Then, he adds one note to this, practicing just the last three notes until every musical and physical element is addressed and overlearned. Then, he adds one to this, practices just the last four notes…etc.581 He continues in this manner until he has amassed a collection of two measures, then drops one measure from this and continues the process of adding one preceding note at a time.

Simon Fischer includes this practice method in his book, Practice. The twelfth practice method in his book, he calls “Adding one note at a time” and illustrates using a passage from the Bruch violin

577 Fischer, Simon. SIMON FISCHER ONLINE. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.simonfischeronline.com/.

578 Cole, Nathan. "There Is Method to the Mastery." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/.

579 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

580 Knopper, Rob. “Audition Cheat-Sheet.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://convertkit.s3.amazonaws.com/landing_pages/incentives/000/015/670/original/the-audition-cheat-sheet- 2.pdf?1451784802.

581 Knopper, Rob. “5 Steps to Preparing Your Audition.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2017/8/17/5-steps-to-preparing-your-audition.

115 concerto.582 He demonstrates several ways to “add one note at a time,” including starting from the beginning of a passage, working backwards from the end, and using “other notes as points to work up to, or to work down from.”583 He explains that this method “gives you the opportunity to consider each note individually. As well as being very good for building passages up technically, it is also helpful for quick memorization.”584 He instructs to keep in mind while using this method: “use the same amount of bow

(in the same place in the bow) as in the passage itself” and “play with musical feeling, rather than only mechanically.”585

Professor Kurt Sassmannshaus has a similar strategy that he titles: “Putting It All Together: One

Note at A Time.”586 A difference is that he starts with the first note of a piece and does not indicate stringing together each note but instead checking the connections between notes. He instructs students to check each connection for items like sounding point, how the bow changes, bow speed, bow pressure, finger action, etc. until one is satisfied with the result. This may address a more explicit memory. He emphasizes that it is a “powerful practice method” through it may be time consuming.587

Simon Fischer’s “ABC” method, also similar, addresses a passage through patchwork.588 That is, he begins just by practicing each note, say denoted by symbols A B C D E, separately, sparing any connection between any of them. Then, he proceeds to practice AB, BC, CD, DE– in pairs. Then he

582 Fischer, Simon. Practice: 250 Step-by-step Practice Methods for the Violin. London: Edition Peters, 2004, 21.

583 Ibid.

584 Ibid.

585 Ibid.

586 Sassmannshaus, Kurt. "Putting It All Together." Violinmasterclass. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://violinmasterclass.com/en/masterclasses/putting-it-all-together.

587 Ibid.

588 Fischer, Simon. “The ABC Method of Practising.” SIMON FISCHER ONLINE. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.simonfischeronline.com/uploads/5/7/7/9/57796211/044abc.pdf

116 practices ABC CDE, then ABCD BCDE, then the entire ABCDE. His instructions: “Until each section or stage is in tune, clean, in time, and feeling easy, it cannot be considered to have been mastered, and it may be unwise to join other sections onto it. In making a patchwork quilt, you would not sew a finished patch onto an unfinished one.”589

Nathan Cole seems to use a method similar to Knopper’s, as needed, for example recommending it in the learning of Don Juan for the infamous sixteenths leading to a high D in the first page excerpt590 - that is, starting with the last high D and working back to the beginning of the passage one note at a time.

Gabriel Pegis encourages a “shortcut” version of Knopper’s method in which, for example, he recommends beginning at the end of a passage, repeating the last group of four sixteenth notes until one can play it five times consecutively to one’s ideal, then adding another group of four notes, repeating the passage until one can play it five times perfectly, etc.

“Slow practice” is debated in music world. Musicians, like David Kim591, Hilary592 Hahn, and

Itzhak Perlman593 extoll the virtues of “slow practice.” Dr. Tara Gaertner conceptualizes slow practice as a form of errorless learning: “In music practice, errorless practice can be achieved by practicing at a slow enough tempo to avoid mistakes in pitch and rhythm. I’ve adopted this approach recently, playing everything extremely slowly and accurately, and I found that it improved my retention of the pieces both

589 Ibid.

590 Cole, Nathan. "New York Philharmonic Audition Challenge Week 11." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-11/.

591 Kageyama, Noa. "David Kim on Letting Go and Being Yourself.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://bulletproofmusician.com/david-kim-on-letting-go-and-being-yourself/.

592 Hahn, Hilary. "Slow Practice for String Players." Hilary Hahn. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://hilaryhahn.com/2004/01/slow-practice-for-string-players/.

593 “Never Practise for More than Five Hours per Day, Says Violinist Itzhak Perlman." The Strad. July 17, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.thestrad.com/never-practise-for-more-than-five-hours-per-day-says- violinist-itzhak-perlman/4052.article.

117 within and between practice sessions.”594 Others like Rob Knopper and University of Idaho Professor

Miranda Wilson, deem “slow practice” as ineffective and a potential waste of time as a go-to solution as it entails using different motions and muscles from those that are needed to play at tempo. Lois Svard points out that while slow practice may hamper fast playing, this difference in motions pertains to motor skills; Slow practice can aid in the development of explicit long-term memory even if the motions are different:

“very slow speed forces us to think about what comes next. There is no way we can play anything on automatic pilot. We have to think about every single note, chord, rhythm, articulation, phrasing, etc. If we aren’t sure, for example, how the second statement of the theme is different from the first, then we have to specifically note that the R.H. ties over the E and adds a G# in the second statement. That we are noting the difference means the brain is making that distinction and encoding it. The neural pathways become more securely consolidated.”595

Nathan Cole utilizes “slow practice” as a tool in his “arsenal”, but discourages “working it up” it as a

“first line of attack.” Instead, he encourages his readers to figure out what is preventing them from playing it in tempo in the first place.596 Similarly, to Gabriel Pegis, using the right “tool” from ones’ collection is important to practicing efficiently. Kageyama points out that it may be more accurate to think of this type of practice as “super slow-motion” practice, as this type of practice allows violinists to slow down each motion so that one can “think, monitor, and analyze” mindfully about every movement, discovering “subtle mechanics and increasing awareness of what is actually happening.”597 Slow practice may be helpful for a string player, in some instances, before ingraining notes into motor memory, like in the service of listening carefully to pitches. Svard says, “the jury may still be out on whether or not slow

594 Gaertner, Tara. "Aging and Motor Memory." Training the Musical Brain. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://trainingthemusicalbrain.blogspot.com/2017/07/aging-and-motor-memory.html.

595 Svard, Lois. "Practice, Learning, and Memory, part III." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=1992.

596 Cole, Nathan. "Nathan’s Rules of the Metronome." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/roberts-rules-metronome/.

597 Kageyama, Noa. "Is Slow Practice Really Necessary?” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/is-slow-practice-really-necessary/.

118 practice is good for developing fast motor skills, but there is no doubt that extremely slow practice is beneficial for reinforcing learning and memory.”598

Practicing groups of notes using different rhythms is also a classic practice method. Cole describes this approach as not “slow practice exactly…but it isn’t fast either.”599 Rather, these different rhythm permutations (below) rotates segmentations in order play certain groups of notes faster while giving the brain “a chance to recover” during the longer rhythm durations. John Paul Ito, in his article

“Repetition without Repetition,” conceptualizes this type of practice as that of varied practice, which he illustrates using a violin excerpt from Smetana’s Bartered Bride Overture:

598 Svard, Lois. "Stress, Sleep, and Performance." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2280

599 Cole, Nathan. "Gain Speed and Accuracy by Grouping Notes." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/gain-speed-accuracy-grouping-notes-video/.

119

Figure 3: Smetana's Bartered Bride - Practicing with varying rhythms/groupings

The original passage:

Groupings of two:

Different permutations of a grouping of four notes:

600

A variety of methods may be just what violinists need in order to vary the physical demands as violin excerpts are usually quite long and many notes sustained (for example, in contrast to the release of notes that a percussionist can take advantage of). For example, learning an excerpt one note at a time,

600 Ito, John Paul. "Repetition without Repetition: Bernsteinian Perspectives on Motor Learning for Musicians - College Music Symposium." College Music Symposium. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=11:repetition-without-repetition- bernsteinian-perspectives-on-motor-learning-for-musicians.

120 similar to Rob Knopper, is a valuable and powerful exercise as when one engages in this type of work, one can discover that “problems” do indeed “occur between two notes”601 or within just one note. As

Nathan Cole says, a “common pitfall is trying to solve too many problems at once. In fact, two is usually too many!”602 Practicing one note at a time is a great starting point for learning about what practicing entails and the effects of practicing carefully and in detail. Ideally, one would be able to examine each note and its connection to another. However, to go through this exercise on a regular basis may require a lot of time that may not be available and a Herculean physical endurance. Taking “shortcuts,” as Rob

Knopper calls them,603 might be necessary in the interest of avoiding exhaustion and injury.

601 Zweig, Mimi. "A Letter From Mimi." String Pedagogy. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://stringpedagogy.com/members/volumes/00_1_mimi_letter.htm.

602 Cole, Nathan. Eight Practice Mistakes You're Making Right Now. PDF.

603 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

121

Chapter 8: Refining

Overview

In the previous chapter, we discussed the need for implicit memory, which allows us to execute motor function outside of conscious awareness and is resilient to outcome pressure as well as “zoning out.”604 However, as Dr. Tara Gaertner points out, implicit memory may fail if, in performance, we happen to think about what our bodies are actually doing. Gaertner explains what happens when our consciousness interferes with our motor memory: “The conscious parts of our brain are sending commands to the motor cortex that interfere with the commands coming from the cerebellum, and so we get mixed up.”605 She explains that the best way to prepare a piece is to “form explicit memories of the piece alongside the implicit memories.”606

There are two types of explicit memory , Svard explains, “semantic and episodic, and it takes both to memorize a piece of music:”607

“Semantic memory refers to factual knowledge. While our earliest knowledge of music is about pitches and rhythms, as we become more advanced, we add all kinds of theoretical, historical, and musical information to the complex framework that constitutes our semantic memory. And that is what we draw upon as we learn a specific piece of music. Semantic memory is knowing. Episodic memory is remembering – an important event, a movie, a particular piece of music. But with music, episodic memory is associated with the exact serial order of events, with how the piece unfolds through time. We can remember many different sections, or episodes, in the music and those episodes in serial order form the explicit memory of the piece – the memory that we are using when performing.”608

604 Ibid.

605 Gaertner, Tara. "Explicit and Implicit Memory in Learning Music." Training the Musical Brain. Accessed February 17, 2019.

606 Svard, Lois. "The Many Kinds of Memory in Music." The Musician's Brain. May 27, 2016. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=1793.

607 Ibid.

608 Ibid.

122

For an auditionee, these explicit memories can be deliberately acquired during the research stage and also as one goes through a stage of refining. Svard explains what this entails for pianists,

“For instance, you could analyze the chord structure of the piece and memorize that, so you would know what chord you should be playing at each moment. Or you could form an explicit memory of what notes you should be playing at the beginning of every fourth bar (or each phrase). Or whatever works for you. The key thing is to at least have some explicit memory of the song, even if it is just every few bars, that way if you lose your automatic train of thought, you have an explicit landmark to go back to, so you can get back into the song and continue playing.”609

This conjunction of implicit and explicit memory is similar to what Imreh demonstrated as discussed in

Chapter 2.

Many musicians report structuring their practice to work on implicit and explicit learning during different “phases.” Some musicians, like Jennifer Montone, indicate a cycling back and forth from woodshedding (implicit learning) to recording and problem solving (explicit learning). A reminder of what her routine looks like:

“Day 1: Practice/woodshed maybe three #3 (difficult) excerpts, three #2s (moderate) Day 2: Record and run those 6 excerpts from day1, and plus two #1s, listen back, correct details, take a breath, run-through again, record, but don't listen back, let them be. Day 3: Listen back, think of over all comments (as if you were a judge or a teacher) work on some basics, listen and play along with a mvmt. of Mahler or a Strauss poem, etc. Enjoy the process of playing in an orchestra, doing what we do. Then start over with Day 1 woodshedding.”610 Knopper takes students through his process in AuditionHacker, and Kageyama clarifies stages of learning by denoting implicit and explicit learning.611 Knopper notes that explicit problem solving may require the solution going back to a motor learning phase. Kageyama explains that when one cycles through implicit

609 Ibid.

610 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

611 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

123 and explicit learning phases multiple times, the version that one ingrains during the implicit learning stage is a version that was conceptualized during the most recent explicit learning phase.612 To illustrate:

Figure 4: Cycling Through Implicit and Explicit "Phases" of Learning

First cycle: Implicitly learned (version A)→ Explicitly learned is transformed into (Improved A) Second cycle: Implicit stage: “Improved A” is engrained into automaticity → Explicit stage: “Improved A” is transformed into “Further Improved A” Third cycle: “Further Improved A” is ingrained into automaticity → Explicit stage: “Further Improved A” is transformed into an “Further Improved and Refined A”

In this chapter, we will discuss explicit learning that allows auditionees to refine their excerpts.

Self-Recording

“If You’re Not Self-Recording, You’re Not Deliberate Practicing” – Jason Haaheim

Many musicians emphasize the need for self-recording. Jennifer Montone, as we determined previously, devotes day 2 of her routine to self-recording, after she has done the initial woodshedding.613

“Recording is key,” says Nathan Cole.614 Cellist Johannes Moser always travels with a recording device

“because it is important to monitor oneself.615 After putting together the musical elements, Seth Morris

612 Ibid.

613 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

614 Cole, Nathan. "New Beginner Violin Lessons from Nathan Cole." Artistworks. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://artistworks.com/blog/new-beginner-violin-lessons-nathan-cole.

615 "Focus, Stretching, and Practice Equipment." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/focus-stretching-and-practice-equipment.

124 tells his readers to record themselves. He says, “In many ways, you can be your best teacher through this method.”616 Jason Haaheim calls self-recording a “cornerstone” of his practicing.617

Rob Knopper points out that “[Self-recording] is just another thing that, at the highest levels of professional auditioning, people DON’T DO enough of. It’s what essentially disqualifies 70-80% of people taking an audition.”618 Jason Haaheim also finds that a surprising number of people do not record themselves: “so many people practice hundreds or thousands of hours with virtually no feedback whatsoever. For the last few years, I’ve been asking this same question to rooms full of orchestral musicians at some of the best music schools in the country, and the results are astonishingly consistent: a handful are already self-recording, an even smaller number do it regularly, but most are not doing it nearly enough.”619

The process of self-recording is psychologically challenging. Haaheim explains, “The reality of your own weaknesses are rarely more vivid than when you hear them in your own playbacks. The recorder doesn’t lie, and this can be extremely difficult to confront. Initiating the ritual of self-recording can be emotionally shredding; you’ve probably had this certain concept for how you think you sound, but all of a sudden this brutal little device pops that bubble. It’s tough. I get it. I’ve been there.”620 On a podcast, he tells Kageyama “That’s how you sound…you better get used to it…embrace that knowing

616 Morris, Seth. "Audition Preparation." SETH MORRIS. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.sethallynmorris.com/audition-preparation.

617 Kageyama, Noa. “Jason Haaheim on Practice, Talent, Motivation, and Playing the Long Game." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/jason-haaheim-on- practice-talent-motivation-and-playing-the-long-game/?hilite=%27recording%27

618 Knopper, Rob. “How to Have a Competitive Advantage at an Audition.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/4/24/how-to-have-a-competitive-advantage-at-an-audition

619 Jason Haaheim. "Practicing Without Feedback is Like Bowling Through a Curtain." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/practicing-without-feedback-is-like-bowling- through-a-curtain/.

620 Ibid.

125 that that can be improved.”621 Knopper encourages his students to “PUSH THROUGH the ‘pain.’”622

Kageyama warns and advises similarly: “WARNING! You might find yourself being strangely resistant to taping yourself, and/or afraid of listening back to the recording. Do your best to push past this. It’s natural. I think most of us are afraid to listen to ourselves. Just remind the voice within that it’s better you hear yourself first, warts and all, than your audience.”623

This aversion to self-recording is common to most musicians, but pushing past it is a crucial part of the process of being adequately prepared for auditions. Avoiding self-recording can result in having little clue of what we sound like. Cole explains, "What happens for most people is that their ear gives them some combination of their true sound and what they wish they sounded like.”624 His wife, Akiko

Tarumoto, says in their podcast, that she began self-recording after failing to win her second audition and found that she sounded “edgy”: “Unbelievable that I didn’t think of that until that moment…No wonder I didn’t get those jobs.”625 Kageyama says likewise: “We can end up with a misleading sense of how we sound if we avoid taped run-throughs.”626

Kageyama explains further that we need to separate “conceiving” and “evaluating” in our practice in order to be in an ideal mental state for performance and our best bet is to use self-recording to achieve

621 Kageyama, Noa. “Jason Haaheim on Practice, Talent, Motivation, and Playing the Long Game." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/jason-haaheim-on- practice-talent-motivation-and-playing-the-long-game/?hilite=%27recording%27

622 Knopper, Rob. “How to Have a Competitive Advantage at an Audition.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/4/24/how-to-have-a-competitive-advantage-at-an-audition

623 Kageyama, Noa. "Why Is It So Important to Record Yourself?” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-is-it-so-important-to-record-yourself/.

624 Cole, Nathan. "New Beginner Violin Lessons from Nathan Cole." Artistworks. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://artistworks.com/blog/new-beginner-violin-lessons-nathan-cole.

625 Cole, Nathan, and Akiko Tarumoto. "Audition Advice For Our Younger Selves.” Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/004-audition-advice-for-our-younger-selves/.

626 Kageyama, Noa. "Why Is It So Important to Record Yourself?” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-is-it-so-important-to-record-yourself/.

126 this end: “Our best performances happen when we have a clear idea of what we want to sound like, connect deeply with this in our mind’s ear, and keep this going in our head as we trust our body to bring it to life.”627 He calls this “conceiving mode” and points out that we can spend an overabundant amount of time instead in the “evaluating” mode. He explains that recording allows us to be in “conceiving” mode as we play, and we can save “evaluating mode” for later when we listen back to the recording.628

The science of expertise and its definition of deliberate practice tells us that we need continuous feedback in order to improve, Haaheim points out. Hahaaim explains, “If you’re spending hundreds of hours on your own, without a daily teacher and without self-recording, then you fundamentally lack a continuous feedback loop.”629 He elaborates, “Repetition without feedback is essentially the same as hurling that bowling ball down the lane through that curtain, over, and over, and over again. Repetition only counts if you’re getting feedback on whether your practice techniques are being effective. Your efforts need to adapt; your practice will require modification in response to that feedback.”630 Today, technology offers many options for self-recording. A popular option is a portable handheld recorder, like the ZOOM H4N. Cole recommends an iPhone microphone as nowadays everyone carries a smartphone anyway.631 Knopper is very specific with his equipment. For him, the right equipment can create a workflow that diminishes some of the overwhelm that accompanies self-recording.632 He recommends a set up that can connect with a laptop interface as he does not like the potential amount of time that can be

627 Ibid.

628 Ibid.

629 Jason Haaheim. "Practicing Without Feedback is Like Bowling Through a Curtain." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/practicing-without-feedback-is-like-bowling- through-a-curtain/.

630 Ibid.

631 Cole, Nathan. "10 Essential Back to School Gifts for the 21st Century Violinist.” Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/10-essential-back-school-gifts-21st-century-violinist/

632 Knopper, Rob. “Every Piece of Gear You’ll Need for Self-Recording.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2014/10/17/day-7-the-complete-guide-to-self-recording-part-two-and- tude-7-12daysofdelcluse.

127 wasted scrolling through a Zoom recorder.633 With a laptop interface, one can place the cursor on exactly the spots that s/he wants to hear again. He recommends a cardioid or omnidirectional microphone, as these types of microphones pick up sound in a manner that mimics how audiences pick up sound.634

When choosing a mic, he is also careful to pick a microphone that does not enhance bass sounds. Ideally, the frequency response graph of a chosen microphone would be flat to avoid distortion.635 He is careful not to rely on a recording set-up that compresses sound; He informs his readers that sound compression depends on the sound card of the interface.636 In order to avoid compression, he uses a preamp to connect the microphone to his laptop, specifically the Blue Icicle XLR to USB Mic Converter/Preamp.637 He also uses a microphone stand and places it 30 feet away as an audience committee usually sits at least that far away. 638 Both Cole639 and Knopper640 recommend studio headphones to listen back to one’s recording (as opposed to laptop speakers which can distort playback).

Nathan Cole utilizes self-recording in the service of developing an “ideal ear,” “the skill of hearing [oneself] as [one’s] listener’s [would] hear.”641 Cole advises his readers to take note of what they hear as they are performing for their recording devices. During playback he instructs, “If you do hear

633 Ibid.

634 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958.

635 Ibid.

636 Ibid.

637 Knopper, Rob. “Every Piece of Gear You’ll Need for Self-Recording.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2014/10/17/day-7-the-complete-guide-to-self-recording-part-two-and- tude-7-12daysofdelcluse.

638 Ibid.

639 Cole, Nathan. "10 Essential Back to School Gifts for the 21st Century Violinist.” Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/10-essential-back-school-gifts-21st-century-violinist/

640 Knopper, Rob. “Every Piece of Gear You’ll Need for Self-Recording.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2014/10/17/day-7-the-complete-guide-to-self-recording-part-two-and- tude-7-12daysofdelcluse.

641 Cole, Nathan. Eight Practice Mistakes You're Making Right Now. PDF.

128 differences from what you expected, write them down and note where they occur. Then play those parts over and over again, listening while you play. Do you hear what you heard before, or are you listening differently now? You’ll have to repeat this process over a period of weeks and months to attain an ideal ear.”642

The process of self-recording can be used as a tool for problem solving. Knopper explains that recording can take a musician from sounding like a student to a polished professional. 643 During his process of self-recording, Rob Knopper creates explicit cues that help him execute a piece to his vision.

To remember these, he methodically keeps written records in a chart. Rob Knopper tells his readers:

“Recording yourself is not just playing something, listening to the recording, and making a few changes.

Self-recording is doing that process over and over and over until there are absolutely no problems left.

Self-recording is just the activity. Problem-solving is the effective process that’s happening, and self- recording forces you to do even better problem-solving.”644 He describes his process as one that deals with small sections at a time: “When I self-record, I do it to a small section of music - a line or two or even a single measure at a time. The smaller the section of music, the more details I can deal with at once.”645 Knopper suggests cycling through the “audition rubric” one element at a time. He then writes down problems and potential solutions during this process: “I’ll play, listen back, write out a list of problems that I hear with it, and then one by one I’ll test out possible solutions that can fix each one of those problems until they are all fixed.”646 He says that this process seems to open a can of more worms to grapple with and at this stage, most people do not persist: “The hard part is that once you fix a problem, it opens up your ears to even more details and 5 more problems come up. This is what annoys most

642 Ibid.

643 Knopper, Rob. “How to Have a Competitive Advantage at an Audition.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/4/24/how-to-have-a-competitive-advantage-at-an-audition

644 Ibid.

645 Ibid.

646 Ibid.

129 people to the point of saying ‘wow, this must not be working,’ and quit.” However, the rewards of pushing through the cycle “over and over” and persisting on each problem until one finds a solution can result in sounding like a “polished professional” and one’s excerpt “excerpt will end up sounding more musically balanced, more objectively precise, and more confident.”647 In Appendix D: Self-

Recording/Problem Solving, I have included an example of my personal practice using Knopper’s method.

Visualization

Visualization is extensively used by athletes and many audition winners, as well. That is, they use “vivid, highly detailed internal images and run-throughs of the entire performance, engaging all their senses in their mental rehearsal, and they combine their knowledge of the sports venue with mental rehearsal.”648 Golf champion Jack Nicklaus has said: “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.”649 Muhammad Ali used techniques like

“affirmation; visualization; mental rehearsal; self-confirmation; and perhaps the most powerful epigram of personal worth ever uttered: ‘I am the greatest.’”650

Not only can mental practice help auditionees stay injury-free and fresh, studies show that it activates the same regions as of the brain as physical practice. In one study conducted by Dr. Alvaro

Pascual – Leone, pianists who used mental practice to practice a five-finger exercise resulted in the same

“reorganization of the motor outputs to finger flexor and extensor muscles similar to the one observed in the group of subjects who physically practiced the movements.”651 This “led to a similar improvement in

647 Ibid.

648 Adams, AJ. "Seeing Is Believing: The Power of Visualization." Psychology Today. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/flourish/200912/seeing-is-believing-the-power-visualization.

649 Ibid.

650 Ibid. 651 Pascuale, Leone, Alvaro. "The Brain that Plays Music and is Changed by it." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930, no. 1 (2001): 315-329.

130 their ability to perform the five-finger movement exercise.”652 Studies of cerebral blood flow indicated that “mental stimulation of movements activates some of the same central neural structures involved in the early stages of motor skill learning.”653 After five days, the mental practice group had achieved a level of improvement that equaled the improvement that the physical practice had achieved by day three.

After five minutes of physical practice, the mental practice group matched the physical practice group’s day five performance.654

There are two important items to consider with mental practice. It is important to note that:

“Even though mental practice effectively improves performance, it is not a perfect substitute. Mental practice of a task alone is generally less effective than physical practice (Driskell et al., 1994). A combination of mental and physical practice, however, can be as or more effective in improving task performance than physical practice alone.”655 As an example: “Research participants who mentally and physically practiced putting a golf ball showed more consistent improvement, for instance, than did participants who only engaged in mental or physical practice (Frank et al., 2014).”656

One disclaimer is that certain types of visualization can be counterproductive and result in decreased motivation. Visualization that causes one to feel like s/he has already achieved a goal can reduce motivation to put in the hard work.657 For example, “If women compare themselves to magazine images of thin models, they feel overweight. If instead, they imagine being the pictured model, positive

652 Ibid.

653 Ibid.

654 Ibid.

655 Kappes, Heather Barry and Carey K. Morewedge. "Mental Simulation as Substitute for Experience." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 10, no. 7 (2016): 405-420.

656 Ibid.

657 Ibid.

131 affect is produced (Tiggemann, Polivy, & Hargreaves, 2009) that may counteract the push to embark on an unpleasant diet. Simulating the achievement of a desired behavior or outcome can make people feel better and less likely to pursue goals that are difficult or costly to achieve.”658

For Nathan Cole, visualization is a very crucial part of the audition process; to him, it is where the real work begins. He describes, “Visualization is the concept, and the technique, that will separate the contenders from the rest at this audition and every other one (I somehow avoided pretenders in that sentence, but just barely). It’s the same technique that allows top athletes to perform at a world-class level under extreme pressure.”659 For him visualization entails “seeing,” not an ideal, which he calls “wishful thinking” or “modeling” as described in the previous paragraph, but instead observing any quirks that may happen in one’s mind, like a bow sliding off the string as one engages a mental run-through of an excerpt.660 He notes that, after accounting for all hard work, “what matters is your ability to concentrate on what you do best, even under pain and stress.”661 For Cole, the ability to perform under pressure is enhanced “the more clearly and quickly we can concentrate on, or visualize, the sound and feel of each selection.”662 For Cole, visualization seems to produce explicit memories that can be used “not only to sense, in advance, the outcome that you desire, but the ability to sense, in the moment, what you are actually producing.”663 This visualization aids the goal of the audition, “what we really do no matter our instrument, is to embody the character of various pieces of music.”664

658 Ibid.

659 Cole, Nathan. "NY Phil Audition Challenge Week 5" Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-5/

660 Ibid.

661 Ibid.

662 Ibid.

663 Ibid.

664 Ibid.

132

There are multiple methods to visualization. Cole’s visualization process, very similar to physical practice, can be summed up as follows:

1) Listen to the first thirty seconds of one’s favorite recording of an excerpt. Write down key words

that describe the excerpt, like “alive, human, singing, free bow, smile, resist the string, draw the

sound.” It may take multiple listens to come up with words that one can deem as appropriately

matched to what is heard.665

2) In a quiet space, visualize starting from rest position to bringing one’s instrument to play and then

to playing “30 seconds of music straight through.” During this process, the purpose is to “hear”

the sound that one is creating in the moment and “feel the physical sensations of playing the

violin.” What one “hears” may or may not match key words that were found in step 1.666

3) “Read your key words again and take one minute’s rest. Repeat the visualization.” This may

result in the perception of “more detail: perhaps you can feel more of the sensations of actually

playing; the sound that you’re making; certain details of your execution.” He assures, “Don’t be

alarmed if your visualization is out of tune, or scratchy, or contains any of a hundred other faults!

This means that you’re really going through the process, and your breakthroughs, when they

come, are going to be extraordinary. It’s common for our brains to magnify certain aspects of our

playing when we are in this state. In some cases, the aspects our brains call attention to are very

different from the ones that we are used to perceiving while playing.”667

4) “Now repeat the process, taking 60 seconds break in between each repetition, until you are able to

get through the 30 seconds of [the excerpt] with some clear observations.” These observations

“should be “immediate.”” They may or may not “match the words you wrote down after

listening to the recording, and some may be the exact opposite!” Cole’s example: “Instead of

665 Ibid.

666 Ibid.

667 Ibid.

133

“alive, human, singing”, I may perceive and write, “tight, sweaty, buoyant” if that’s what I

sensed.” The important takeaway is determined by one’s observations: “How accurately you

describe your visualization, not how well your visualization matches up to the recording.”668

5) “Pick one word or phrase that doesn’t match up with the words you wrote about the recording.

For example, my very first word, ‘tight’, doesn’t match up with anything I wrote about [the

recording].”669

6) “Pick an exercise to perceive how “tight” or “loose” [you may have] felt. I might even start with

some stretching, breathing or motion exercises away from the instrument.”670

7) Then, one can physically play on “the violin…some full bows, feeling the freedom and looseness

in my muscles. Then I would stop and visualize doing the exact same thing, feeling that

looseness in my visualization.”671

8) Go through this process multiple times every day alternating “between mental image and physical

execution.”672

9) “Shape your visualization along with your playing, step by step. Because you’ll eventually need

to visualize that playing not in the room you’re in, but in a concert hall or audition space. And

because you’ll need to visualize your “entrance”, from the warmup room downstairs to your first

steps onto the stage in front of the committee.”673

668 Ibid.

669 Ibid.

670 Ibid.

671 Ibid.

672 Ibid.

673 Ibid.

134

Cole’s method of visualization resembles that of physical practice in that one notices “mistakes” in one’s imagery. One also develops explicit memory from this exercise as one determines exactly what motions are occurring and considers key words in relation to the music and the visualized versions.

Suggesting a slight variation to the practice of visualization, Noa Kageyama notes that a study of high jumpers suggests that dynamic imagery may yield more gains that motionless imagery. Compared to motionless imagery, dynamic imagery yielded higher scores in the “quality of the approach phase,”

“quality of the athlete’s strides during the curve portion of the run – up,” “quality of the impulsion phase,”

“the athlete’s shoulder, knee, and feet movement during the bar clearance portion of the jump.”674 The jumpers were “more successful in clearing the bar when utilizing dynamic imagery, with a success rate of

45% (compared with 35% when engaging in motionless imagery).”675 Kageyama notes that “previous studies have highlighted the importance of ‘temporal congruence’ (timing) in maximizing the impact of visualization.”676 He adds, “Makes pretty good sense when you think about it. Imagining (or playing) a tricky shift in Don Juan under tempo is very different than imagining or playing that shift at tempo.”677

In the jumpers, those who engaged in motionless mental imagery, “the visualized jump took an average of

5.12 seconds. The actual jump which followed, lasted 4.24 seconds.”678 This resulted in a discrepancy of

17%. Kageyama notes, “That’s not the same jump anymore, in the same way that playing Schumann

Scherzo 17% slower isn’t the same excerpt.”679 The dynamic imagery group resulted in a discrepancy

674 Kageyama, Noa. “Do We Have to Sit Still When Doing Mental Imagery?” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018.https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-do-we-have-to-sit-still-when-doing- mental-imagery/.

675 Ibid.

676 Ibid.

677 Ibid.

678 Ibid.

679 Ibid.

135 between real and imagined jump of only .01 seconds, “4.26 for the imagined jump, and 4.25 for the actual jump.”680 In short, dynamic imagery can aid in achieving better temporal congruence in imagery.

Solving Common Problems: The Basics

As Conductor Carl Topilow emphasizes, “There are two elements in music which are completely objective to the listener, namely rhythm and intonation. Subjective areas may include sound quality, interpretation, and articulation choices. The basics, time and pitch, are irrefutable, and must be the foundation of your preparation.”681 Kelly Zimba of the Toronto Symphony explains the importance of these basics and the difficulty they pose to an auditionee: “In concrete terms, it’s important to demonstrate a mastery of the basics: pitch, rhythm, and sound. This might seem obvious, but it’s deceptively difficult, especially in such a high pressure, nerve-wracking situation. Emphasizing dynamics, particularly soft playing, is also important.”682 Sound is an element that is better addressed by a violin teacher, as it involves violin technique that is contingent on many other different factors; Thus, it will not be discussed here. Rhythm and intonation are discussed below.

Rhythm

In an interview for the New World Symphony, Jorja Fleezanis remarks that rhythm is an

underdeveloped skill in violinists today: “Rhythm is not nearly developed enough in schools. I’m even

hearing it here [at the New World Symphony].”683 There may be a gap from when a violinist initially

learns how to use a metronome and read rhythms during youth, to the audition stage, in which his/her

inner pulse is expected to be fully developed. Fleezanis notes that some auditionees will not figure out

680 Ibid.

681 Topilow, Carl. "Preparing for an Audition." Audition Cafe. December 15, 2018. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://auditioncafe.com/article/preparing-for-an-audition/.

682 "Interview with Toronto Symphony Principal Flute Winner." Audition Cafe. August 09, 2017. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://auditioncafe.com/article/interview-with-toronto-symphony-principal-flute-winner/.

683 "Audition Tips." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

136

the importance until they fail to win auditions: “If they’re lucky somebody will say something to

them.”684

In an orchestra audition, rhythm is highly valued for good reason. “We’re listening not only for

people who can play really well, but [also for] who can play in a section,”685 Maxine Kwok, explains.

Auditionees must convince potential future colleagues that they will blend with the string section, and

in order to achieve this blend, rhythm is key. Fleezanis explains the importance of rhythm for ensemble

playing: “If you can subdivide all the time…you are…locked into the ensemble.”686

Apart from the audition experience, it may be rare that a violinist is expected to maintain time

without external cues. For example, in a recital, typically a violinist can bounce off a pianist’s time in

any lapse of attention. In an orchestra setting, usually nonmelodic instruments have rhythmic figures

that a violinist can/must listen and respond to. Noa Kageyama points out that “timing, like any skill,

needs to be practiced and cultivated.”687 Fleezanis also explains likewise that timing is not an innate

skill: “Working with a metronome seems to just bother people…you just don’t have that innate skill

unless you really train.”688

Kageyama makes a distinction: “Metronomic precision is not at all the same thing as good

rhythm.” He cites Leon Fleischer who placed rhythm in the highest importance and but playing in time

684 Ibid.

685 Orchestra, London Symphony. "Audition Tips for String Players." YouTube. November 30, 2012. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syrkU7PiIBU.

686 "Audition Tips." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

687 Kageyama, Noa. “Should You Be Using a Metronome When You Do Mental Practice?" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/should-you-be-using-a- metronome-when-you-do-mental-practice/

688 "Audition Tips." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

137

entailed paradoxical a flexibility.689 Fleezanis also clarifies that playing rhythmically is not playing

mechanically, but that holding a pulse is incredibly important to being able to hold a professional job:

“It doesn’t mean you play mechanically. It just means that you understand how to hold a pulse through

the difficulties of…take the Beethoven scherzo…there are lot of things you [have] do dynamically and

articulation-wise. If you can’t tow the rope through pianissimo to crescendo to fortissimo and then with

rests in between, then you’ll never be able to hold your way through a…professional symphony

orchestra.690

Rhythm is not only important to locking in with a string section, but it can also organize one’s

technique and provide a framework that allows one to play with more accuracy and consistency. Julie

Landsman reports subdividing “100%” of the time during teaching, practicing, and performing and

describes it as the glue that holds all technical details together and allows her to be musically free. She

describes it as a kinesthetic sense of time that she feels in her tone.691

While the goal is not to play metronomically, the metronome can be a useful tool. Nathan Cole

has listed a few rules on metronome use.692 1) Play with the metronome as if it were another player.

That is, the metronome is not in the background, but like another player in a string quartet. 2) Before

you turn the metronome on, decide when you will turn it off. Cole recommends using the metronome to

check the rhythm of a certain spot, taking care not to become dependent on an external beat. 3) Favor

the big beats. This means setting the metronome to beat every half bar to even every other bar. Cole

689 Kageyama, Noa. “Should You Be Using a Metronome When You Do Mental Practice?" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/should-you-be-using-a- metronome-when-you-do-mental-practice/

690 "Audition Tips." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/audition-tips.

691 Kageyama, Noa. “Julie Landsman on Getting into the Zone and Developing Trust in Your Playing" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/julie-landsman-on- getting-into-the-zone-and-developing-trust-in-your-playing/

692 Cole, Nathan. "Nathan’s Rules of the Metronome." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/roberts-rules-metronome/

138

advises that this is a great way to “shore up” an internal pulse “while preserving musical freedom.” 4)

Favor the off-beats. While rule 3, can give an auditionee “the big picture,” using the metronome to beat

on the weak beats can fill in some details. 5) “Work it up” only as a last resort. As mentioned before,

Cole recommends figuring out what it is that prevents one from playing a passage at tempo before

resulting to “slow practice.”693

In an interview with Knopper, Jake Nissly (Principal Percussionist of the San Francisco

Symphony) explains that he starts on smaller denominations of time and expands to longer durations.

That is, he sets the metronome to line up with smaller subdivisions, i.e. eighth notes, then progressively

to quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, etc. Then, similar to Cole, utilizes the metronome in a way

that its pulse lands on various weak beats.694

Kageyama, citing the suggestions of a research study, explains that one may improve accuracy on

one’s instrument through eurythmics that takes place away from one’s instrument.695 Joseph Gatwood

(Concertmaster Emeritus of the National Philharmonic and former professor at Catholic University)

often advised practicing timing by fluidly marching in place during play throughs of excerpts. An

auditionee may also find benefit in orally singing subdivisions away from the instrument (ie. “1 e and a,

2 e and a”) in order to form an explicit memory of rhythm.

Solving Common Problems: Intonation

Intonation is an element that violinist may be accustomed to obsessing over anyway. However, it may still be easy for a violinist’s sense of pitch to drift. In this case, a resource, like the Tuning CD

693 Ibid. 694 Knopper, Rob. “How Jake ‘the Tornado’ Nissly Won 3 Principal Jobs.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/10/14/how-jake-the-tornado-nissly-won-3-principal-jobs.

695 Kageyama, Noa. “A Metronome Practice Strategy for Musicians Who Hate Metronomes." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/a-metronome-practice-strategy- for-musicians-who-hate-metronomes/

139

(recommended by Jisun Yang, Assistant Concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony) can be a useful tool.

It was created by classical saxophonist Richard A. Schwartz, who describes the effects of using his CD:

“Dramatically improves singers and woodwind, brass and orchestral string players pitch, though many have noted The Tuning C.D. also promotes a more centered and mature tone quality.”696 He describes the

Tuning CD as a tool for pitch, analogous with the metronome’s use for development of good rhythm and pulse: “The Tuning C.D. is a musician’s intonation learning tool. While the metronome helps train musicians to steady their rhythm, The Tuning C.D. can train the musician to establish an acute awareness of intonation. Instead of using visual skills to line a needle in the middle of a meter, you must listen, using your ear’s natural tendencies, making yourself more aware of pitch.”697 Schwartz’ CD, which can also be found on iTunes, “contains 34 sets of drones on 34 tracks. The first twelve tracks are drones of tonics and fifths in each key. While the tonics of each drone are equal-tempered, the fifths are just, or pure. This establishes an environment with no waves, or beats.”698 Schwartz explains that

“This type of drone sets-up an intriguing environment. When a musician performs a note with The Tuning C.D., he or she will immediately recognize if the note they are performing is in or out of tune. This is due to slight intensification, or beats. In order to get rid of beats, one must carefully raise or lower the performed note. It is this repeated process of shaping the note sharp or flat to get rid of beats with The Tuning C.D. that trains the ear and reinforces good intonation habits.”699

Playing notes slowly enough to carefully listen to pitches against the Tuning CD drones may be a useful practice for auditionees.

696 Schwartz, Richard A. The Tuning CD. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://raschwartz.wixsite.com/the-tuning- cd-2017/about.

697 Schwartz, Richard A. “The Tuning CD Instructional Booklet.” The Tuning CD. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/876de5_edb2a811737b7eb7c7ea22ef906d9867.pdf.

698 Ibid.

699 Ibid.

140

Chapter 9: Mock Auditions and Teacher Feedback

Overview

After learning the notes, Nathan Cole refers to the last few weeks leading to an audition as when the “true work” begins.700 For him, this entails some mock auditions and a lot of visualization. For Jen

Montone, 6 weeks to 3 weeks out” constitutes “The bulk of [her] hardcore preparation.”701

After polishing excerpts during the self-recording process, Knopper says that this is the stage at which excerpts are ready for the feedback of a teacher.702 He also devotes the rest of the weeks to mock auditions, having taken forty-two mock auditions (one a day for six weeks) before his winning MET audition.703 This chapter will address items that one may engage in during the final weeks leading to an audition. These activities include mock auditions, visualization, and teacher feedback.

Mock Auditions

Mock auditions are a universally crucial part of audition preparation. Maxine Kwok encourages auditionees to do mock auditions because “It’s not like going out onto a stage and being applauded.”704

Michael O’Gliebe points out “an audition is a very bizarre and unnatural situation. I mean, when else in life are you going perform for only a couple of people who cannot see you, and play 2 minutes of a concerto, 30 seconds of Mozart, 35 seconds of Brahms, and 30 seconds of Strauss? (Maybe a recital for

700 Cole, Nathan. "NY Phil Audition Challenge Week 5" Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/ny-phil-audition-challenge-week-5/

701 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

702 Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, https://academy.robknopper.com/courses/343958/lectures/5269197

703 Ibid.

704 Orchestra, London Symphony. "Audition Tips for String Players." YouTube. November 30, 2012. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syrkU7PiIBU.

141 blind people with A.D.D?) The point is, you need to practice simulating this strange situation.”705 He advises auditionees to make mock auditions as realistic as possible, even wearing the same clothing that one will wear on the day of the audition. His website, also features an “Audition Simulator” that an auditionee can use in absence of a live audience. This “simulator” is a video of a panel of “judges” making notes and the same types of expressions that imitate a real committee.706 At the New World

Symphony, “Mock auditions are carried out at the concert hall. To simulate the real thing, a screen is set between the candidates and the audition panel.”707

Mock auditions, done on a regular basis can allow for an audition to feel like a routine. Knopper suggests doing mock auditions often before an audition that an audition day so that it feels routine.

Kageyama tells his audience that twelve-year-olds in New York take many practice exams for a test to get into high school such that the test becomes routine: “The 30 practice exams are the same length as the real test, they happen at the same time of day, and they ask the same kind of questions…and when the students get to the big day, it’s their 31st time experiencing the test.”708

Knopper advises that a “practice room version” of excerpts is not what judges will hear; “the only way you can access the performance version to know how it sounds is to do mock auditions and put yourself is a realistic performance situation. over and over and over. then your fixes will apply to the performance because you’ve been working on the right version. There are so many other benefits to mock auditions that you would only find out if you did a ton of them. I do 6 weeks of daily mocks before an

705 OGibbles, Michael. "Preparing for Auditions: How to Practice." Orchestra Excerpts. October 30, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://orchestraexcerpts.com/preparing-for-auditions-how-to-practice/

706 OGibbles, Michael. "Resources." Orchestra Excerpts. October 30, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://orchestraexcerpts.com/resources/

707 Meneses, Esteban. "Orchestra Training Opens New World To Young Players." Classical Voice North America. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2018/06/02/orchestra-training-opens-new-world-to- young-players/./

708 Knopper, Rob. “3 Ways to Beat Nerves With Noa Kageyama.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/10/1/3-ways-to-beat-nerves-with-noa-kageyama

142 audition before I start to feel like I’m comfortable in the routine of the audition performance.”709 He notes that many auditionees do not do mock auditions because they are uncomfortable but advises, “If you’re pissed off that you keep getting nervous at auditions because of things like shaky hands or missing notes in auditions, you need to step out of your comfort zone and try something uncomfortable.”710

Richard Levine, cellist of the San Diego Symphony, comments that forty-two mock auditions might be too much for string players as their playing “requires more care,” but once a week is reasonable.

Many musicians train for adversity during mock auditions. Lucia Lin tells auditionees to be prepared for “anything.” Jennifer Montone advises auditionees to “do a few mock auditions for people, behind screens or not, in a hall, 3 feet from people, cold, warmed up, tired, etc, keeping in mind that equally important to running the excerpts is running and perfecting your on-stage plan.”711 Don Greene says, “Things happen in auditions – cell phones go off, all kinds of distractions can occur.”712 At Julliard and at the New World Symphony, his students must take a final exam “meant to train for adversity: an audition, filled with surprise distractions.”713 He has done things like placing ping pong balls inside of apiano, having a mock auditionee go through their excerpts while another player plays off-key and slightly out of sync, blow music with a fan, have cell phones going off, and placing a TV monitor in view of the mock auditionee so that as they play, they must deal with the fact that they can see and hear themselves on a screen.714 In one of Noa Kageyama’s Juilliard classes, it is observed “he makes them do

709 Knopper, Rob. “How to Have a Competitive Advantage at an Audition. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/4/24/how-to-have-a-competitive-advantage-at-an-audition.

710 Knopper, Rob. “3 Ways to Beat Nerves With Noa Kageyama.” ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/blog/2018/10/1/3-ways-to-beat-nerves-with-noa-kageyama

711 Montone, Jennifer. "Sample Audition Preparation Plan." Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com/sample-audition/.

712 Niles, Laurie. "2009 Starling-Delay, Day Three: Don Greene on Practicing for Performance Stress." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20095/10164/.

713 Ibid.

714Violinist.com. "Adversity Training for Performance." YouTube. May 28, 2009. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyGZKHt8sZA.

143 burpees until they’re sweaty and breathing hard — then asks them to play for the group. ‘It’s distracting when your heart is pounding,’ he says, but if you practice playing while feeling that sensation, it can become a little less unnerving. ‘It’s the same thing you need in an audition — to see past what your body is saying, and to focus on the task at hand.’”715 Other ideas for auditionees include sticking one’s fingers in a bucket of ice to simulate cold hands, or running around the block in order to induce a fast heart rate.

This entails that one might learn a way to play even with shaky or cold hands, instead of attempting to eradicate these responses entirely.

Teacher Feedback

Teacher feedback is also helpful, for as Cole716 and Haaheim717 both put it, “No one gets there on their own.”718 Haaheim developed a system for getting the most out of his lessons, what he calls

“deliberate lessons.” His system consists of 1) asking teachers for permission to record lessons, 2) transcribing each lesson and re-listening, sometimes even weeks later to important parts of lessons, 3) keeping all of what is learned from the lesson in mind during practice, 4) a synthesis of what is learned from each lesson and connecting suggestions to broader patters. His goal is to bring to his teacher

“problems to solve” rather than “phenomena to diagnose.”719

715 McGinn, Daniel. "How Juilliard Teaches Musicians to Handle Stress – Thrive Global – Medium." Medium. June 06, 2017. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-juilliard-teaches-musicians-to- handle-stress-3849786eaa44.

716 Cole, Nathan and Akiko Tarumoto. "We All Need an Audition Helping Hand" Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/015-we-all-need-an-audition-helping-hand/

717 Jason Haaheim. "No One Gets There On Their Own." Jason Haaheim. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018.https://jasonhaaheim.com/no-one-gets-there-on-their-own/.

718 Ibid.

719 Ibid.

144

Chapter 10: Psychological Considerations

Overview

After planning, researching, note-learning, problem solving, and adversity training, there are some considerations relating to the mind in performance. Don Greene explains that a violinist can experience stress when "all the pressure is on that first note, everything is leading up to that moment.”720

Laurie Niles points out, “Physicals signs of that stress can manifest as a shaky bow, forgetfulness, tension, wild vibrato, erratic shifting, inability to focus and cold hands.”721 This stress can not only affect physical elements but also mental ones. Greene describes, "People get very self-critical and start screaming at themselves."722 He discovered that when he had students “write down their thoughts before a performance…the lists that students came up with [were] rather alarming.”723 They wrote things "they would never say to a friend…or they'd never have friends. I called it the 'Juilliard Syndrome.'"724 He explains that the left brain, which analyzes and criticizes, ‘goes haywire under performance stress….Instead of just one voice, there's a whole committee meeting going on.’”725 Our reptilian brains, which process “emotion at a caveman-type level - kicks in with a fearful response as well.”726 Greene explains that this type of response may have helped cavemen flee or fight dangers in the past but can cause problems “when applied to modern situations.”727 This chapter will explore the topic of beta

720 Niles, Laurie. "2009 Starling-Delay, Day Two: Don’t Lose Your Adrenaline, Use It! Don Green on Performance Psychology." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20095/10156/.

721 Ibid.

722 Ibid.

723 Ibid.

724 Ibid.

725 Ibid.

726 Ibid.

727 Ibid.

145 blockers, as well as the practice of centering, and also discuss possible ways to focus during performance.

While there are many more psychological considerations important to audition-taking, they will not be discussed here. Readers may refer to the courses of Dr. Noa Kageyama (“Beyond Practicing”)728 and Dr.

Don Greene (“Winning on Stage”).729 Dr. Don Greene also writes several books Performance Success:

Performing Your Best Under Pressure730 and Fight Your Fear and Win: Seven Skills for Performing Your

Best under Pressure--at Work, in Sports, on Stage.731 Dr. Julie Nagel’s book, Managing Stage Fright: A

Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers,732 also provides additional insight into this topic.

Beta Blockers

Beta-blockers have become a commonplace go-to for individuals who experience nerves.

According to a New York Times article, “Musicians quietly began to embrace beta blockers after their application to stage fright was first recognized in The Lancet, a British medical journal, in 1976. By 1987, a survey conducted by the International Conference of Symphony Orchestra Musicians, which represents the 51 largest orchestras in the United States, revealed that 27 percent of its musicians had used the drugs.

Psychiatrists estimate that the number is now much higher.”733

728 Kageyama, Noa. "Beyond Practicing 2nd Edition (Lifetime)." The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://members.bulletproofmusician.com/courses/beyond-practicing-v2-5-lifetime/.

729 Greene, Don. "Winning on Stage." WOS. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.winningonstage.com/.

730 Greene, Don. Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002.

731 Greene, Don. Fight Your Fear and Win: Seven Skills for Performing Your Best under Pressure--at Work, in Sports, on Stage. London: Ebury Digital, 2010.

732 Nagel, Julie Jaffee. Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

733 Tindall, Blair. "Better Playing Through Chemistry." The New York Times. October 17, 2004. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/arts/music/better-playing-through-chemistry.html.

146

The use of beta blockers is a source of controversy. Don Greene says, “"I would no more have a musician use beta-blockers than I would have one of my athletes take three shots of vodka before a race.”734 Gerald Klickstein sums up the opposing views:

“1) If musicians are going to compete for paid positions in professional ensembles, will those who use beta-blockers have an unfair advantage over those who don’t? And should employers and co-performers be concerned that they might hire musicians who can’t play or sing well in public without drugs?

2) On the other hand, if some musical artists are exceptionally affected by nerves, shouldn’t they be able to take a safe, legal medication that enables them to express the artistry that they’d otherwise be unable to share?”735

His personal view: “Musicians and employers can sensibly argue both sides of this issue. However, I believe that musicians who take beta-blockers – whether prescribed for performance anxiety or chronic health conditions – should not be thought less of nor excluded from performing and competing because they access medical aid. Also, adult amateur musicians who seldom perform might benefit from beta- blockers to ease their nerves at concerts that they might otherwise shy away from due to stage fright.”736

There are alternatives to beta blockers that auditionees can be encouraged to try prior to medicating. Kageyama points out that performance anxiety can manifest three ways. It can have “1)

Physical effects 2) Mental effects, 3) Emotional effects.” He points out that beta blockers address just one of these – the physical effects – and cites that there are studies that show that mental and emotional effects are “more to blame for poor performances.”737 Dr. Julie Nagel points out that “there was an

734 Niles, Laurie. "2009 Starling-Delay, Day Three: Don Greene on Practicing for Performance Stress." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20095/10164/.

735 Klickstein, Gerald. "Musicians and Beta-Blockers." Musician's Way. February 12, 2019. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.musiciansway.com/blog/2010/03/musicians-and-beta-blockers/.

736 Ibid.

737 Kageyama, Noa. “3 Reasons Why Beta Blockers Could Ultimately Be Holding You Back." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/3-reasons-why-beta- blockers-could-ultimately-be-holding-you-back/.

147 optimism that beta-blocking drugs would be an effective ‘quick fix’ for performance anxiety without the side effect of affecting mental function.”738 However, she reports that “this wish has not been born out.

Ironically, because these drugs do not interfere with thinking and cognition, they do not help performers deal with underlying emotional issues of low self-esteem and self-doubt, two of the major debilitating psychological issues that fuel performance nervousness.” She advises that “if these medications are used…psychotherapy should be combined with drug treatment for the most effective treatment for reducing performance anxiety. This approach emphasizes both mind and body are integral to anxiety reduction.”739

Dr. Julie Nagel points out that while beta blockers are not physiologically addictive, “some performers become psychologically dependent on them.” This “psychological dependency develops a sense of emotional safety and security for some performers when using…a beta blocker, and a sense of unease emerges when the drug is discontinued.”740 Thus, the need to educate musicians about alternatives during their training is advisable.

Centering

One alternative to beta blockers for auditionees to use is “centering,” a strategy developed by sport psychologist Robert Nideffer, and adapted by Dr. Don Greene. It is used by, not only performing artists, but also “Olympic athletes, business executives, SWAT teams, medical professionals, and individuals in many other high-pressure fields to quiet the mind, increase concentration and focus, and give…increased control over the physical effects of performance anxiety.”741 Nideffer had been training

738 Nagel, Julie Jaffee. Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 175-175.

739 Ibid., 175.

740 Ibid.

741 Kageyama, Noa. “3 Reasons Why Beta Blockers Could Ultimately Be Holding You Back." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018.

148 in akido, “one of the most mental of martial arts” and was fascinated by the akido masters, whose movements were “more like ballet than fighting. And yet the power of those movements was nothing like he’d ever witnessed – a dazzling display of mind over matter, focus over force.”742 When Nideffer worked on his degree in psychology, the pieces came together to create “the stress model…[as well as] the solution to the involuntary stress response…With practice, scatterbrained thinking could be transformed into quiet concentration in less than ten seconds.”743

Greene learned centering from Nideffer himself at the United States International University.

Nideffer mentored Greene as the latter was writing his dissertation, which involved clinical trials of the

“centering technique.”744 His research involved giving a SWAT team two lessons on centering while another SWAT group did not receive training. The test:

“Was a move and shoot drill…each officer would run, one at a time, about a hundred yards before stopping in front of a building to load his weapon. The bullets were real. Then he’d enter the building that his instructor who was by his side, directed him into, not knowing what was going to happen inside- what “people would pop up where and when. ‘Hostiles’- bad guys with guns – were purposely paired with ‘innocents’ – women holding groceries or babies. The officers were to move at top speed, we told them, because they were being timed. For every hostile they shot they’d earn ten points, but for every innocent they hit, they’d lose ten points. They were being graded on both judgement and accuracy.”745

The centering trained members scored 37.65/50 without shooting innocents while the untrained group scored an average of 21.94/50. His dissertation made headline news and other SWAT teams began to call

Greene to ask if he would be willing train their agents.746 Greene explains, “The effectiveness of the technique was in helping people shift their thinking from left brain which is inclined to analyze, criticize,

742 Greene, Don. Fight Your Fear and Win: Seven Skills for Performing Your Best under Pressure--at Work, in Sports, on Stage. London: Ebury Digital, 2010, 50.

743 Ibid.

744 Ibid.

745 Ibid.

746 Ibid.

149 and distract with instructions, to the right brain, that quiet place where we allow our instinct, training, and muscle memory to take over and let us perform rather than obsess about the quality of the performance.”747

The steps to centering can be summed up by the following news article excerpt, featuring a

Juilliard performance class:

“1. Identify a focal point, a fixed point in the distance that is below eye level. Why below eye level? Try doing the problem 23x16 in your head. What do your eyes do? They go up, and that's because you just jumped into your left brain. Don't tempt the left brain!

2. Form a clear intention. What are you going to do in your performance? Think of this in a pro-active, positive way.

3. Breathe mindfully. My yoga instructor would call this ‘belly breathing,’ but it's the kind of breathing you do when you are sleeping or very calm. ‘That will help jump start the calming effect,’ said Kageyama. ‘Focus on getting the belly button to move as far away from your spine as possible.’

4. Release tension. Are your muscles tense? You may not even be aware that they are. Here is one exercise Kageyama showed us for relaxing muscles and becoming aware of them:

5. Find your center. This one isn't very easy, but try circling your hips, as if you were spinning a hoola hoop, and make the circle smaller and smaller, until it feels like it's inside you. Then drop that point a little lower, and that is your center, or our ‘chi.’ ‘It's almost like you have a little center of gravity, core of the earth, inside of you, grounding you,’ Kageyama said. This can also mean finding a stable playing position:

6. Think of a process cue -- an image, sound or sensation that will activate the right brain and help you imagine your performance.

7. Direct your energy. ‘Feel it being sucked into your center, into your chi, and blasting it out through your focus point," Kageyama said. "You don't aim at the last row, you aim past it. Pull it up into you and use it!’748

747 Ibid., 47.

748 McGinn, Daniel. "How Juilliard Teaches Musicians to Handle Stress – Thrive Global – Medium." Medium. June 06, 2017. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-juilliard-teaches-musicians-to- handle-stress-3849786eaa44.

150

It is important to note that centering takes practice. Greene says, "You have to earn this word, and it takes

50 times "centering" before you can use it effectively…After you learn to do it, you can do it in less than five seconds." 749

Focus

As in centering, certain types of focus during performance can also induce right-brain states. As discussed in this document in the section devoted to the note-learning stage, thinking about mechanics can interfere with execution of motions learned implicitly. Also discussed was the concept of external focus, which in many cases, not only facilitates implicit learning but also aids performance. Gabrielle Wulf explains:

“When you focus on body movements, you consciously try to control your movements and the result is that you constrain your motor system, meaning there will be unnecessary co-contractions between agonists and antagonists, and even superfluous contractions in other muscles as well. That disrupts the fluidity of the movement, and people use more energy than necessary, and accuracy of their movements is degraded and so forth. Now, when you use external focus, you use more automatic control processes which are unconscious, much faster, and as a result, movements are more efficient, more fluid, smoother, and more accurate.”750

Again, it is important to note Kageyama’s advice that an internal focus may be more appropriate at times.

However, Susan Williams also notes, “The more expert you become, the more externally you need to focus.”751 She also points out, “Focusing on the meaning and emotion behind the music is an example of extreme (distal) focus.”752

749 Niles, Laurie. "2009 Starling-Delay, Day Three: Don Greene on Practicing for Performance Stress." Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20095/10164/.

750 Walker, Cordie. "Understanding External Focus in Golf with Dr Gabriele Wulf." Golf Science Lab. February 16, 2016. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://golfsciencelab.com/external-focus/.

751 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 64

752 Ibid.

151

Recent studies involving skilled musicians tested the hypothesis that an external focus results in better performance. In one of these experiments, the group subjected to the external focus condition was

“asked to focus on playing for the audience and the expressive sound of the music.”753 The other group, subjected to an internal focus condition, was “asked to focus on the precision of their finger movements

(or lip movements for singers) and correct notes.”754 The control group was “asked to play the way they normally did.”755 The musicians’ performances were evaluated for “both musical expression and technical precision” by “expert raters.”756 In the first experiment, the “external focus instructions enhanced musical expression relative to both internal focus and control conditions” with “no effect on technical precision.”757 In the second experiment, the “raters were given more detailed evaluation criteria.” It was again found that “an external focus…led to superior musical expression compared with internal focus and control conditions.” This time, it was also found that “technical precision was higher within the external relative to the internal focus condition.” 758

There are multiple ways to focus externally during performance. Gabriel Pegis recommended

“hearing” an ideal version of sound and pitch during much of practicing and playing. Chicago Symphony

Tubist Arnold Jacobs advises a similar strategy: “Listen to ‘ideal music’ while playing; don’t listen to yourself.”759 Kageyama calls this, “singing brain,” a name that he heard one of his students use to

753 Mornell, Adina and Gabriele Wulf. "Adopting an External Focus of Attention Enhances Musical Performance." Journal of Research in Music Education 66, no. 4 (2019): 375-391.

754 Ibid.

755 Ibid.

756 Ibid.

757 Ibid.

758 Ibid.

759 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 64

152 describe this phenomenon.760 To describe this method, he uses the example of Glenn Gould, who often vocalized as he was playing.761 Susan Williams explains that “when you are audiating, you are not using the verbal cognitive region of your brain, but rather the parts that are associated with feeling and emotion.

This frees the unconscious motor part of the brain to initiate more exact movements.”762

The right brain state can be induced in other ways. In one of Kageyama’s podcasts, Julie

Landsman reports that she encourages students to come up with imagery, like that of hiking in Yosemite while overlooking a lake, or of a sunrise at the beach that they can conjure during performance while always subdividing.763 On her website, she describes another practice that she learned from Carmine

Caruso, called “note tasting” in which a right-brain state is induced by focusing on any sensation from the five senses that correspond with each note – ie. what each note looks like, what each sound tastes like, etc.764 Another similar trick Landsmann uses is to use the sounds around her or the audience as inspiration for creativity in the moment.765 This is similar to what Kageyama calls "micro-improvisation” which he describes as “playing around with subtle nuances of dynamics, pulse, articulation, sound, and more.”766

760 Shea, Beverly. "The Bulletproof Musician: The Science (and Art) of Peak Performance." Music Educators Association of New Jersey. January 2018. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.mea-nj.org/highlights-01- 2018.php.

761 Ibid.

762 Williams, Susan. Quality Practice: A Musician's Guide. The Hague, 2017, 64

763 Kageyama, Noa. “Julie Landsman on Getting into the Zone and Developing Trust in Your Playing" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/julie-landsman-on- getting-into-the-zone-and-developing-trust-in-your-playing/

764 Landsman, Julie. "Caruso Method." Julie Landsman. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.julielandsman.com/gallery.

765 Kageyama, Noa. “Julie Landsman on Getting into the Zone and Developing Trust in Your Playing" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/julie-landsman-on- getting-into-the-zone-and-developing-trust-in-your-playing/

766 Kageyama, Noa. “Why Improvisation Should Be Part of Every Young Musician’s Training" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-improvisation- should-be-part-of-every-young-musicians-training/

153

In a similar vein, Kageyama explains that a 2008 study767 found that improvisation quiets “a region of the top front part of the brain which is thought to be involved in problem-solving and conscious monitoring of our performance (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex).”768 In another study involving an improvisatory approach to classical music repertoire (which Kageyama also writes about in another article),769 researchers compared performances of a skilled trio in “strict mode” vs a “let-go mode.”770

Data included performers’ self-reporting, an audience’s evaluation, and EEG readings of the participants’ brains. The results of the study suggest that “unlike the prepared performances, in improvisatory state of mind the musicians aim spontaneously toward the macro-structure, while the “local” tasks are performed more successfully, with less effort and anxiety, and in full accordance with the definition of a flow state presented in Csikszentmihalyi (1975, 1997).”771 The performers also reported experiences more “self- conscious performances, increased levels of performance anxiety and more internal critical chatter” in the

“strict” mindset.772 In addition, the audience preferred the improvisational performances, rating them as

“more “emotionally compelling” (3.8 vs. 2.6 out of 6) and “musically convincing” (4.1 vs. 3.2 out of

6).”773

767Limb, Charles J. "Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Improvisation." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 127, no. 3 (2010): 1950-1950.

768 Kageyama, Noa. “Why Improvisation Should Be Part of Every Young Musician’s Training" Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-improvisation- should-be-part-of-every-young-musicians-training/

769 Kageyama, Noa. “Why An Improvisational Mindset Could Be Vital to Reducing Performance Anxiety and Increasing Audience Engagement." Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-an-improvisational-mindset-could-be-vital-to-reducing-performance-anxiety- and-increasing-audience-engagement/.

770 Limb, Charles J. "Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Improvisation." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 127, no. 3 (2010): 1950-1950.

771 Ibid.

772 Ibid.

773 Ibid.

154

Conclusion

A compilation of audition winners’ personal accounts of their preparation process yields many similarities, and these “stages” in their preparation can be conceptualized through the lens of emerging scientific findings. Among these commonalities between audition winners include thorough research of excerpts and listening to recording repeatedly to probe and ingrain the character and mood of pieces.

Audition winners also report engaging in a thoughtful regimen that avoids exhaustion, utilizing much planning and tracking of practice. Note learning is typically followed by self-recording. There is an emphasis on rigorous performance preparation as distinct from music learning. Many audition winners also learn mental strategies taught by performance psychologists. A growth-mindset is also a salient characteristic of audition winners.

Scientific research can inform the process of audition preparations. Research suggests that deliberate practice plays a large role in the acquisition of expertise. Research findings can also enable a better understanding of the mechanics of learning with regards to the brain; An education of how brains work leads to more deliberate learning strategies and improved performance, according to Carol Dweck’s research. Some notable findings include strategies suggested by the OPTIMAL model of motor learning that takes into account motivational factors as well as the induction of implicit learning through errorless learning, external focus, and analogy, and the distinction between “adequate” learning and a more robust

“overlearning.” Findings in performance psychology research yields strategies that may provide significant benefits during auditions, such as those that induce external focus and right-brain states.

Musicians’ health findings, which report that 80% of musicians will be injured if current trends continue, also support an imperative for more education in the area. Solutions, like violin pedagogy further informed by physiology and attempts to provide more customization in chinrests and shoulder rests.

155

This study of audition preparation can also inform pedagogical practices. Traditionally, pedagogy has focused on physical technique or musical tradition with unexplained and seemingly

“mystical” approaches to performance. Now, explanations can be provided to students regarding the role of practice to brain development and overall growth of potential. Contrary to previous popular belief, deliberate practice has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in attainment of expertise while any initial talent has been demonstrated to impede the development of deliberate practice strategies. Thus, educating students in practice strategies and methods is crucial. Carol Dweck’s studies emphasize the importance of a “growth” mindset and the self-fulfilling detriment of a “fixed” mindset which fears limitations of inborn

“talent” or lack thereof. For the educator, adopting a growth mindset can lead to better teaching.

Educators can also be mindful to cultivate a growth mindset by commenting on effort coupled with strategy that leads to results rather than ability or even effort alone. The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning entails that teachers point out positive attributes of performance, offer help to the student as requested by the student, and in many situations, induce an external focus (while being mindful that the external focus results in proper mechanics).

Conservatories can also be more mindful of what elements are involved in attaining jobs in the music world and provide relevant structure and resources for students. Curricular considerations involve showing students how to apply theory and history to their playing, as well as making sure that students have plenty of time for sleep that facilitates long-term memory and true learning. Suggestions for additional resources include those pertaining to musician’s health, performance psychology, providing ample opportunities to perform mock auditions that incorporate adversity training, and even classes that address practice strategies and the brain mechanics of learning. By now, online courses exist that address some of these elements – conservatories can even contract the use of these courses for the free access of students.

156

For auditionees, in light of lack of resources in a traditional education, an understanding of expert performance, mindset, injury prevention, self-care, an understanding of some of the mechanics of the brain, as well as a survey of modern sources may aid in deducing a process of preparing for auditions.

157

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Goldin, Claudia and Cecilia Rouse. "Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact Of 'Blind' Auditions On Female Musicians," American Economic Review. 2000, v90(4,Sep), 715-741

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Ito, John Paul. "Repetition without Repetition: Bernsteinian Perspectives on Motor Learning for Musicians - College Music Symposium." College Music Symposium. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=11:repetition-without- repetition-bernsteinian-perspectives-on-motor-learning-for-musicians.

Kerr, R. and B. Booth. "Specific and Varied Practice of Motor Skill." Perceptual and Motor Skills 46, no. 2 (1978): 395.

Kappes, Heather Barry and Carey K. Morewedge. "Mental Simulation as Substitute for Experience." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 10, no. 7 (2016): 405-420. Lam, W. K., J. P. Maxwell, and R. S. W. Masters. "Probing the Allocation of Attention in Implicit (Motor) Learning." Journal of Sports Sciences 28, no. 14 (2010): 1543-1554. Limb, Charles J. "Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Improvisation." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 127, no. 3 (2010): 1950-1950. Mcpherson, Gary E. and James M. Renwick. “A Longitudinal Study of Self-regulation in Children’s Musical Practice”. Journal of Music Education. 2001, Vol. 3 – Issue 2.

Memmert, Daniel. "Long-Term Effects of Type of Practice on the Learning and Transfer of a Complex Motor Skill." Perceptual and Motor Skills 103, no. 3 (2006): 912-916.

Mornell, Adina and Gabriele Wulf. "Adopting an External Focus of Attention Enhances Musical Performance." Journal of Research in Music Education 66, no. 4 (2019): 375-391. Pascuale, Leone, Alvaro. "The Brain that Plays Music and is Changed by it." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930, no. 1 (2001): 315-329. Rothberg, Jill. "Finding a Solution for Pain-Free Playing." The Amateur Musician: The CAMMAC Journal, December 2007. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://cammac.ca/wp- content/uploads/2016/07/2007_02_Fall.pdf.

Taylor, Jordan A. and Richard B. Ivry. "The Role of Strategies in Motor Learning." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251, no. 1 (2012): 1-12. van Dongen, Eelco V, Ingrid H P. Kersten, Isabella C Wagner, Richard G M. Morris, and Guillén Fernández. "Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours After Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval." Current Biology 26, no. 13 (2016): 1722- 1727.

Carter, Christine E. and Jessica A. Grahn. "Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring how Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance." Frontiers in Psychology 7, (2016).

Willey, Chéla R. and Zili Liu. "Long-Term Motor Learning: Effects of Varied and Specific Practice." Vision Research 152, (2018): 10-16.

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Wulf, Gabriele and Rebecca Lewthwaite. "Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning: The OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 23, no. 5 (10, 2016): 1382-1414. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/10.3758/s13423-015-0999-9. https://search-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/1828126859?accountid=2909.

Letters Knopper, Rob. LetterSophia Arriaga to . 2018. "Winter Bootcamp Enrollment Is Open". Email, 2018. Magazine and News Articles Abels, Caroline. “Symphony Auditions: Where Only the Strong Survive.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 30 May 1999, old.post-gazette.com/magazine/19990530auditions1.asp. Dorris, Jennie. "The Audition: Mike Tetreault's Audition for the BSO." Boston Magazine. February 07, 2016. Accessed February 16, 2019. https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/06/26/boston-symphony- orchestra-audition/. Gelfand, Janelle. “Inside a Symphony Audition.” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 Dec. 2015, www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/11/24/inside-symphony-audition/75478764/. “How to Be Successful in an Orchestra Audition”. The Strad. May 2014. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.thestrad.com/how-to-be-successful-in-an-orchestral-audition/2893.article McGinn, Daniel. "How Juilliard Teaches Musicians to Handle Stress – Thrive Global – Medium." Medium. June 06, 2017. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-juilliard- teaches-musicians-to-handle-stress-3849786eaa44. Richardson, Brianna. "Finding the Perfect Setup, Part 2." String Visions | from Ovation Press. August 21, 2011. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://stringvisions.ovationpress.com/2011/06/finding-the-perfect- setup-part-2/. Saunders, Elizabeth Grace. "A Way to Plan If You're Bad at Planning." Harvard Business Review. November 27, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2019. https://hbr.org/2017/07/a-way-to-plan-if-youre-bad-at- planning. Smith, Charlotte. "Paul Rolland." The Strad, November 2018, 31-38. Tindall, Blair. "Better Playing Through Chemistry." The New York Times. October 17, 2004. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/arts/music/better-playing-through- chemistry.html. Willoughby, Laura Jane. "Advances Help Musicians with Repetitive Stress Injuries Continue to Play." Baltimoresun.com. September 28, 2017. Accessed November 16, 2018. https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs-fe-musicians-health-20170825-story.html. Online Courses "Beginner to Advanced Music Lessons Online." ArtistWorks. Accessed September 22, 2018. https://artistworks.com/.

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Greene, Don. "Peak Performance Training School." Peak Performance Training School. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://peak-performance-training-school.teachable.com/. Greene, Don. "Winning on Stage." WOS. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.winningonstage.com/. Kageyama, Noa. "Beyond Practicing 2nd Edition (Lifetime)." The Bulletproof Musician. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://members.bulletproofmusician.com/courses/beyond-practicing-v2-5-lifetime/. Knopper, Rob, and Noa Kageyama. “The Auditionhacker Formula - Action Edition.” RSS, 2018, academy.robknopper.com/courses/enrolled/343958. Podcasts Cole, Nathan, and Akiko Tarumoto. "Stand Partners for Life." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/the-stand-partners-for-life-podcast/. Gauthier, Renee-Paule. “The Mind Over Finger Podcast.” Mind Over Finger. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.mindoverfinger.com/podcast-1. Kageyama, Noa. “The Bulletproof Musician Podcast.” iTunes. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bulletproof-musician/id1402378177?mt=2 OGibbles, Michael. "Per Service." Orchestra Excerpts. October 30, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://orchestraexcerpts.com/perservice/. Recordings Brahms, Johannes. 2014. Symphony No. 4 in E minor. Conducted by Claudio Abbado. Recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic. Deutche Grammophon 002065002. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps. Brahms, Johannes. 2007. Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Hungarian Dances/ Alsop, London PO. Conducted by Marin Alsop. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, March 21, 2007. Naxos. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 2008. Brahms: Symphony No. 2 & 4/ Bernstein, BSO. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, August 25, 1972. Euroarts 2072138. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 2017. Brahms: The 4 Symphonies/ Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic. Conducted by Herbert Von Karajan. Recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic. Deutch Grammophon 4797429. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 1998. Brahms: Symphony No. 4 /Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic. Conducted by Carlos Kleiber. Recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic, March 1980, Dg The Originals 457706. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 2011. Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Tragic Overture/ Muti, Philadelphia. Conducted by Riccardo Muti. Recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra, October 1988. Philips 422337. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 1998. Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Etc./ Masur, New York Philharmonic. Conducted by Kurt Masur. Recorded with the New York Philharmonic, 1995, Teldec 13695. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps

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Brahms, Johannes. 2010. Symphony No. 4. Conducted by Georg Solti. Recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Decca 414563. Spotify streaming audio 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes.1991. Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Etc. Conducted by George Szell. Recorded with the Cleveland Orchestra, 1982, Sony CEC 46330. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Brahms, Johannes. 2012. Brahms: Symphony No. 1-4/ Zinman, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Conducted by David Zinman. Recorded with the Zurich Tonhalle. Rca 793349. Spotify streaming audio, 320 kbps Scores Brahms, Johannes. Symphony No. 4. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1926-27. Videos Composed. Directed by John Beder. Bed Rock Productions, 2016. Accessed February 16, 2019. "MUSAIC - New World Symphony." MUSAIC - New World Symphony. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://musaic.nws.edu/. Websites Cole, Nathan. "There Is Method to the Mastery." Natesviolin. 2018. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://www.natesviolin.com/. Gaertner, Tara. Training the Musical Brain. 2019. Accessed February 17, 2019. Gauthier, Renee-Paule. “Mind Over Finger.” Mind Over Finger. 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.mindoverfinger.com/podcast-1. Jason Haaheim. "Jason Haaheim." Jason Haaheimi. November 03, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://jasonhaaheim.com/. Kageyama, Noa. "Bulletproof Musician.” Bulletproof Musician. September 09, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://bulletproofmusician.com/. Klickstein, Gerald. "Musicians and Beta-Blockers." Musician's Way. February 12, 2019. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.musiciansway.com/blog/2010/03/musicians-and-beta-blockers/.

Knopper, Rob. ROB KNOPPER. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.robknopper.com/. Frank, Pamela, and Nelson, Howard. "Fit as a Fiddle." Fit as a Fiddle. Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.fitasafiddle.nyc/. Frisch, Gary, and Lynn Denig. Frisch and Denig: Violin and Viola Chinrest Fitting System. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.chinrests.com/. Landsman, Julie. Julie Landsman. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.julielandsman.com/.

MET Orchestra Musicians. April 17, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2019. http://www.metorchestramusicians.org/. Montone, Jennifer. Jennifer Montone. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.jenmontone.com./ Morris, Seth. SETH MORRIS. Accessed February 17, 2019. http://www.sethallynmorris.com/.

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Niles, Laurie. Violinist.com. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.violinist.com/

"Performing Arts Medicine Association." Performing Arts Medicine Association | Dedicated to the Health of Performing Artists. Accessed November 20, 2018. http://www.artsmed.org/. Sprott, Weston. Weston Sprott - Trombone - The MET Orchestra. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://westonsprott.com/. Svard, Lois. The Musician's Brain. 2019. Accessed February 17, 2019. https://www.themusiciansbrain.com/. Schwartz, Richard A. The Tuning CD. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://raschwartz.wixsite.com/the- tuning-cd-2017/about. "The World's Audition Platform." Audition Cafe. Accessed September 24, 2018. https://auditioncafe.com/. Workshops Rolland, Paul, Lucy Manning, Lynn Denig, Nancy Kredel, Joanne May, Abigail Albaugh, Gerald Fischbach, and Michael Finelli. "Paul Rolland Workshop." Lecture, 2018 Paul Rolland Workshop, University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, July 2018. Zweig, Mimi, and Brenda Brenner. "2017 Violin and Viola Retreat." Lecture, 2017 Violin and Viola Retreat, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, July 2017.

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Appendices

This appendix is created in the spirit of “modeling” specific strategies. (A study by Australian researchers points out that, in their study, “While their instrumental teachers were making [students] aware of what to practise, many had very little idea of how to practise. An important implication therefore is that teachers should spend time during their lessons demonstrating and modelling specific strategies that their students can try when practicing.”)774 The materials in this appendix are not to be used as reference for the reader’s research of these excerpts.

774 Mcpherson, Gary E., James M. Renwick. “A Longitudinal Study of Self-regulation in Children’s Musical Practice”. Journal of Music Education. 2001, Vol. 3 – Issue 2.

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Appendix A: A Calendar

On the following page is an excerpt of a calendar created for Rob Knopper and Dr. Kageyama’s online course, “Auditionhacker Formula.” This was my first attempt at organizing my practicing into this format. “Phase 1” denotes the note-learning stage and “Phase 2” denotes refining and self-recording.

This calendar required daily adjustment. Included in my document is the section, “For Those Who Hate

Planning;” Auditionees may also find it helpful to experiment with ideas suggested in this section.

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Week 1 Time Research and organize (6/22 – 6/28) Friday 9-11 Research and organize 2-4 Saturday 9-11 Research and organize 2-4 Sunday off Monday 9-11 Research and organize 2-4 Tuesday 9-11 Research and organize 2-4 Wednesday off Thursday 9-11 Research and organize 2-4 Week 2 Diaphragmatic breathing. Sibelius exposition phase 1 and 2, Mozart 39 1st mvt phase 1 and (6/29 – 7/5) 2, Prokofiev Classical phase 1 and 2 Friday 9-11 warm up, run through, Mozart 39 1st mvt phase 1 2-4 Saturday 8-11 phase 1 Prokofiev/Mozart 39 1st mvt phase 1 3-5 Sunday Prokofiev phase 1 /Mozart phase 2 Monday 9-11 warm up, run through, Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt phase 1, Mozart 39 1st mvt phase 1, Mozart 39 1st 2-4 mvt phase 2 Tuesday 9-11 warm up, run through, Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt phase 2, Mozart 39 1st mvt 2-4 phase 2 Wednesday 9-11 warm up, run through Sibelius exposition phase 1, Prokofiev Classical phase 2, Mozart violin concerto phase 1

Thursday 2-4 warm up, run through Sibelius exposition phase 2, Prokofiev Classical phase 2 Week 3 Breathe/release tension, Mozart concerto phase 1, La Mer phase 1, Schumann Scherzo, (7/6- 7/12) Magic flute phase 1, Verklarte Nach, Bach Sonata phase 1, mocks for masterclass Friday 9-11 Mozart Concerto phase 1, La mer phase 1, mocks for Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt, Brahms 4 fourth 2-4 mvt, Mozart 39 1st movement.

Saturday 8-10 Mozart Concerto phase 1, La mer phase 1, mocks for Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt, Brahms 4 fourth mvt, Mozart 39 1st movement.

Sunday Off Monday 9-11 Schumann Scherzo phase 1, Brahms 4 2nd mvt phase 1 2-4 Tuesday 9-11 Schumann Scherzo, Brahms 4 1st mvt phase 1 2-4 Wednesday 9-11 Magic Flute phase 1, Brahms 4 1st movement phase 1 2-4 Thursday 9-11 Bach Sonata phase 1, Verklarte Nacht phase 1 2-4 Week 4 Breathe/release tension/hear it. Bach Sonata, Verklarte Nacht, Shosty 5, Beethoven 9, Prok (7/12 – Classical 4th mvt, Brahms 4 2nd and 3rd mvts, Schubert Symphony 2 phase 1 7/19)

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Appendix B: Research Document

The following pages includes a research document created for Rob Knopper and Noa

Kageyama’s course, “Auditionhacker Formula.” Many hours were spent on this document; “Shortcuts” are needed for auditions in which one has limited time. These shortcuts may come in the form of listening to less recordings or only writing down the tempo for each recording.

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Brahms Symphony 4 1. Score notes: a. Mvt 1 (mm. 1-53): Mm (1-4) First and second violins homorhythmic. Vla and Cello playing arpeggios. This section Bass drone on E on downbeats - indicating prolongation of tonic. Flute and oboe includes notes from imitate with more disjointed rhythm and articulation on off beats. Horn drone on an analysis of the E – 1st horn harmony seems to indicate 2 measure phrase segments. Ascending score. chromatic harmonic motion to dominant in measure before letter A. Mm (5-8) First instance of harmonic movement. Harmonic movement by 5ths Mm (9-12) mm. 9 flute, clarinet, bassoon, and horn change from disjointed echoes I have noted the nature and drones to syncopation – more tension coinciding with swells in violins. All of harmonic motion, players crescendo together to mm 12 diminished chord and decrescendo to and changes in the mediant chord in mm 13. texture, and rhythmic Mm (13–15) Fragmented: Disjointed off-beats in winds. Syncopation in violins on offbeat of 2 and 4. Swells only in violins. Viola and cello change in arpeggio details that I might patterns – shorter arpeggios in cellos (only 3 notes) and violas join violins in “hear” as I am learning same rhythm. Downbeats still found in bass. and playing the excerpt. Mm (14-letter A) Elaboration of the dominant. Everyone crescendos together to the This understanding downbeat in measure 17 (forte). Texture change: Violins no longer leads to a more homorhythmic. Winds sustained syncopation over two measures. Cello and bass informed intuition as I playing on downbeat and 4th beat. Eighth note arpeggios in viola. Mm 17. 2nd make decisions about vln paired with viola. Cello paired with bass. Oboe echoes 1st violins. Other phrasing, vibrato, winds and brass sustaining. Note: The textural changes in the first 12 bars dynamics, sound etc. textural changes seem to indicate 4 measure phrase segments but mm 13 to A is six bars. Mm. 13 – 14 may be classified as a “link” Letter A – mm. 22 Prolongation of tonic.? Pick up in 2nd violins – downward octaves and 1st violins echo with upward octaves. Viola pick up starting downward scale – echoed by downward scale in clarinet and bassoon. Continuous 8ths among the whole texture. Cello bass take over disjointed off beat quarter notes (woodwinds were playing this in the beginning). Pick up to mm (23 –26) Texture change: Violin 1 takes the downward octave figure previously assigned to the 2nd violins and violin 2 switches to upward octave figure. Viola/oboe 8th note turn figure echoed by flute, clar, bassoon – passing 8th notes. Mm (27-31) Chromatic descending harmonic line to the dominant in m 31. Texture change: Sustained syncopation in most of the orchestra. 8th notes passed between vla and cello. Violins joined in homorhythm again. Mm (31-32) Texture change: 1st violins syncopation – held together by 8th notes in 2nds and vlas. Stagnant bass movement while 1st violin takes over descending line. Note: “link” figure occurs again but this time at the end of the “section” in m. 31-32 Mm. (33-37) Ascending bass line until mm. 39. 1st and 2nds paired again in homorhythm. 8th note arpeggios passed between cello and vla. Tension created by bass holding for 3 beats and finally playing on beat 4 again. Swells shared in violins shared with woodwinds. Fragmented version of melodic material in m. 9 Mm. (37-38) “Link” measures appear again. Violins offset from each other –passing

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figuration in contrary motion, creating tension. Basses in contrary motion, widening the register gap in m. 38 Mm. (39-41) bassoon and bass take “link” motif from the 1sts – alternating with 2nds and vlas – though this time in parallel motion. Mm. (41-B) bass providing downbeats for first violins. Violin 1 in fugue offset by eighth note w/ 2nds and violas until m. 39. Everyone crescendos together. Most of the orchestra is finally looking more rhythmically stable aligning with each beat except for 1st violins. 1 before B – accents on beats from cello and bass. Letter B After downbeat, texture clears and becomes chorale among string quartet, adds instruments to texture gradually until whole orchestra is playing in measure 50. As phrase turns upward 3 measures after B, clarinet, bassoon, bass join texture – strings crescendo but not winds. Mm. 49 – accents on beat 2 and 4 in clar/bassoon. Downward scale motif passed from violins to oboe and klar. Mm. 53 Excerpt ends on an F# major chord, which is also the beginning of a new martial- like theme. b. Mvt 2 (mm. 88-102) – Mm. (88-96) Excerpt starts with only strings. Swells occur at the same time in all instruments. Ends of phrase segments (ie. end of mm. 2) connect to the next segments by way of eighth notes moving in lower strings. Mm. 95: eighth notes in lower strings for first violins to bounce off of. Suspensions in 2nd violins. Winds enter pick up to 96. Mm. (97 to Letter F) violins/violas are homorhythmic– woodwinds also play the same rhythm but with downbeats omitted. Cello/bass play straight eighths along with brass. Trills in percussion emphasize half bars. c. Mvt 4 (mm. 33-80) – 8 bar passacaglia line throughout. Mm (33-Letter B) Excerpt starts with melody in 1sts, syncopation in 2nd violins and vlas, For the fourth passacaglia line in cello, bass, bassoon. No other woodwinds or brass. This wash movement, I of string sound may contribute to expansive but conflicted character. Bass line separate my reaches tritone in mm. 37 – also forms tritone with first violins (diminished observations in chord): contributing to tragic mood. Mm. 38 – crescendo in orchestra after st correlation with cadential 6-4 chord until 1 before B :1 violins have as sustained dissonant D the 8 bar sharp in violin against E in bassline until resolving to the tonic at the end of the measure. phrases. Letter B- mm. 49 Texture changes – woodwinds come in with downward scales in winds while counterpoint in string melody features eighths rising in pitch. Downbeats and passacaglia line found in cello and bass. Cell has steady eighths – arpeggiating passacaglia line. Mm. 49 marked espress. cresc. in violins/vla: perhaps a change of sound is appropriate. Mm (49-Letter C) Hairpins in winds – like 1st mvt opening motif? Passacaglia variation in cello – triplet arpeggiation, sustained in bass. Mm. 53 – cresc. in winds but not strings: perhaps interpreted as “resistance”? 1 before C – forte and then forte again in strings – slurred eight notes against staccato marked quarters: a lot of emphasis. Letter C – m. 65 Marked piu forte. Sustained dotted rhythm in 1st/2nd violins. Rest of orchestra has shorter martial rhythm – everyone plays last 16th of 2nd beat together as well as pick 16ths to the next measure. Antiphonal conversation between violins and the rest of the orchestra. No crescendo marked until 5th

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measure of C: static mood until the crescendo. Fortissimo in mm 61. 16th note pick-ups staggered between upper strings and cello/bass and woodwind. Mm. (65 – 73) Mm. 65 2nds and violas playing 16ths during first violin rests. sf on m 66 beat 2 from everyone except upper strings though one beat later - Sfs together with 2nd violins. Mm. 65 chromatic line found in violin 16th notes (1st and 2nds are in unison apart from 1st violin rests) found also in winds but in legato eighth note form. Mm. 69 fp on downbeat before violin 1 comes in coinciding with #4 (tritone) part of passacaglia line (lower strings). Chromatic line found in violin 16th notes delineated with sustained eighths in flute and vla. Also staggered fp – downbeat, offbeat, beat 2. Mm (73-Letter D) Sextuplets violins in contrary motion with lower strings bass – expanding and contracting register gap adds to drama. Mm. 74 Triplets passed around. Sf. On beat 2 from bass – emphasizing beat two as peak of the phraselet. Mm. 77 tritone in passacaglia coincides with texture change: E drone in violins with downward chromatic line in winds. Mm. 79 everyone marked pp except for chromatic clarinet and bassoon. 2. Recordings a. Abbado, Berlin This section includes: i. 1st mvt 1. Timing: 00s to 1 min. 36s 1. Start times for each 2. Tempo: about 61.7 bpm but uses lots of rubato and speeds up to around excerpt in each recording. 68 bpm 2. Tempos. These tempos 3. Notes: Rubato into the downbeat – pick up sounds like it is a half note. will later be used to Comma after downbeat of B and similar comma after downbeat of 49. calculate an average Hairpins sound like they start almost forte, second one is less. Eighth tempo. Some recordings notes not audible in the beginning. Can hear the woodwind syncopation st fluctuate significantly in though. 1 violins very prominent in texture. Crescendo in m. 8 led by tempo, so I noted this. syncopated parts. Rubato into m. 13 and dynamic and tempo wind down 3. Notes include any to Letter A. Almost sounds like it will phrase off in m.15 but grows nd st opinions, comparisons with instead. Can’t hear 2 violins – mostly 1 violins and continuous 8ths in the score, comparisons woodwinds. nd between recordings, and ii. 2 mvt 88-102 anything else heard in the 1. Timing: 8:32 orchestra part that might 2. Tempo: Rubato around 58 bpm affect the way the first 3. Notes: Sounds prayerful. Very beautiful. Wash of string sound. Large violin part is played or interval skips very connected. Eighths against held notes not very understood. prominent in beginning of excerpt. Become more audible as line rises. Canon m. 96 builds. Winds “sneak” in. iii. 4th mvt: 1. Timing: 1:04s to 2 min 44s 2. Tempo: starts around 80, gets faster each section ends at 88. 3. Notes: Lots of tension between melody and syncopation. Veering on sharp in the melody. During first phrase: F sharp louder than D sharp in this interpretation. Cacophonous sounding at times. Letter C: Shorter martial rhythms in flute sound like “commentary.” Passacaglia bass obscured by texture.

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b. Karajan, Berlin i. Mvt 1 1. Timing: 00s Rob Knopper recommends 2. Tempo: 74 bpm choosing three words to 3. Notes: dance like and airy. Gentle. Woodwind eighths crescendo. describe the mood of an Counterpoint audible. Brass prominent at end of excerpt. excerpt and to write them ii. Mvt 2 onto one’s practice copy in 1. Timing: 7:48 order to remember from 2. Tempo: Settles in around 64 bpm slows to 62 bpm by syncopated the very beginning of section learning the notes to 3. Notes: Thick, rich texture but moving lines audible. Moves along even practice consistently with though time is taken. Brass audible in syncopated part. Expands into the character of the piece syncopated part – sounds grand. iii. Mvt 4: in mind. Thus, as I 1. Timing: 1:02 listened to recordings, I 2. Tempo: beginning at 82 bpm speeds up to 88 bpm and then back to 82 note differences in the bpm and then back to 88 bpm character and storytelling 3. Notes: Sounds like conflict and tension between parts. Loud. of each interpretation. Syncopated parts brought out. Full string sound. Dynamic weakens instead of crescendo after C sharp in mm. 37. Letter C: Woodwinds sound weighty instead of light commentary (in contrast to Abbado’s recording). Tumultuous. Fortissimo in mm. 62 sounds like the appropriate dynamic in this recording. Sixteenths in mm. 64 sound articulated instead of connected. Stormy. c. Kleiber, Vienna i. Mvt 1: 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: Some rubato around 66 bpm 3. Notes: Starts with a tempo right away. Calm. Sounds like true piano. Hairpins aren’t a completely different dynamic. Graceful. C natural (pick up to mm. 9) is softest – sounds like new phrase. Dance like. Good balance between string melody and accompaniment parts. ii. Mvt. 2: 1. Timing: 8:04 2. Tempo: starts around 69-70 but actually slows down to 61 by syncopated part (doesn’t sound like it slowed down though). 3. Notes: flowing melody (faster). Canon m 96 – more gentle and doesn’t build as much – only build with the first violin entrance. Less dramatic. Brighter and hopeful interpretation. Eighth notes against held notes more audible. Bass more prominent. Sense of “heartbeat” iii. Mvt 4: 1. Timing: 53s to 2min 24 s 2. Tempo: begins around 101 bpm rubato to 99 bpm fastest at 104 bpm. Slows down to 97 bpm during 16ths and fast triplets. 3. Notes: Fast. Beat more evident than Abbado’s. Can hear the brass more. Woodwinds and brass more of equal partner to violins. Can hear

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cello arpeggios better. More straightforward though less dramatic than Abbado’s. Beat more emphasized while syncopation plays less of a role. d. Muti, Philadelphia i. Mvt 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: rubato around 67 bpm or 68 bpm 3. Notes: Timing taken on pickup note. 2nd measure of phrases louder until hairpins. C natural (pick up to mm. 39) phrase continues previous phrase with less separation, creating longer line. Recording quality obscures pitch. Wash of sound – less defined sounds in texture. Not together going into some rubatos. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 8:16 2. Tempo: Starts around 66 bpm but loses a notch each mini phrase until about 60 bpm then speeds back up to around 66 bpm for the syncopated part. 3. Notes: Sounds darker and more exhausted/subdued/pensive. Eighth notes against held notes audible. Recording sounds off pitch. Inner voices more prominent. Counterpoint more prominent – especially when in contrary motion. Sounds triumphant in syncopation part. iii. Mvt 4 1. Timing 1:02s 2. Tempo: starts at around 80 bpm and speeds up to 90 – most of it is around 88 3. Notes: Sound more refined than previously recordings of European orchestas. Richer brass and less blaring. Texture cleaner. Strings less strong sounding. Melody more singing. Syncopation audible. Passacaglia audible. Strings balanced with woodwinds brass – not louder than. Sounds more ‘disciplined tempo’ wise. Ff m 62 doesn’t sound louder. e. Solti, Chicago i. Mvt 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: rubato around 71 bpm -72 bpm 3. Notes: Takes time on first note. More solid sound. 2nd bar of phrase softer the second time. Louder the first time. More present romantic sound. Phrase continues after two bar phrases – loudest on low B natural two before Letter A. Doesn’t diminuendo into two before Letter A but cresc. instead. More tumultuous. Takes lots of time at ends of certain phrases. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 9:19 2. Tempo: Starts around 55 bpm. In syncopated part speeds up gradually to 60 bpm. 3. Notes: Slower. Sounds more prayerful. Inner voices noticeable and carry a line. Syncopated part sounds celebratory. Canon part – doesn’t build. Each entrance starts at about same tempo.

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iii. Mvt 4 1. Timing: 1:03 s – 2 min 35 seconds 2. Tempo – starts 86 bpm speeds up to 95 bpm. 3. Notes: Forceful but clean brass. Rich sound. Accents. Rich but controlled sound in strings. Less clean sextuplets – can’t hear triplets passed around. Mm. 49 cant hear cresc. Rubato 1 before C. Most like how I play the excerpt now. f. Szell, Cleveland i. Mvt. 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: Around 58-60 bpm 3. Notes: takes time into first note. Slow. More tender interpretation. Noisy recording. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 9:08 2. Tempo: starts around 60 bpm but slows down each phrase until 52 bpm speeds up again to about 55 bpm syncopated part and throughout speeds up to 60 bpm. 3. Notes: Deep rich sound. Grounded feeling, gravity. Bass prominent. Eighths against held notes audible. Speeds up into syncopated part. Timpani trills very audible in this one. iii. Mvt 4 1. Timing: 1:01 s 2. Tempo: Starts 91 bpm, hovers around 93 bpm. After Letter C: Actually slows down on martial rhythms and for sixteenth and sextuplet phrases. 3. Notes: full brass. A little edge. Robust. Good dynamic range. Actually notice timpani in this one. Tempo clear as well as syncopation. Syncopation doesn’t sound as tense with melody but more actually helping define the beat (shorter?). Drama but clean. Doesn’t sound “controlled” but pretty well controlled. Slows down a lot 1 before C. Audible rest in martial rhythms after Letter C. g. Zinman, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich i. Mvt 1: 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: starts around 75 bpm and then settles into 70 bpm. Beginning changes tempo a lot with the gestures 3. Notes: space in between melody and bass – transparent inner voices. Like melody and with a rumbling brook beneath. No nonsense in beginning. Gets tumultuous and then graceful and then tumultuous again. Really stops at comma. Not dramatic at end of excerpt. Keeps going. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 7:38 2. Tempo: starts around 66 bpm - 67 bpm – slows to below 64 bpm and speeds back up to 64 bpm during syncopated part. Syncopated part speeds to 65 bpm

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3. Notes: Reminds me of Swiss scenery – not emotional but more descriptive. Sounds off pitch. Strong timani roll – but not clear. Sounds like a rumble. iii. Mvt 4 1. Timing: 52s 2. Tempo: starts around 94-96 bpm. Speeds to 102 bpm in moving eighths in melody. 101 bpm at martial part. Sixteenths slow to 100 bpm. Sextuplets slow to 99 bpm. 3. Notes: resistance in melody – very singing lots of vibrato. Very meaty sound without being pressed. Pulsating syncopation. Martial rhythm at Letter C sounds iambic. Sixteenths sound fast. Sextuplets fast but clean – sounds like a burst. Chromatic line at end audible. h. Alsop, London Philharmonic i. Mvt 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: around 69 bpm 3. Notes: fairy like music. Maybe because of flute sound. Fairy like gestures in strings and breaths in pickup downbeat figurations. Lovely vibrato in strings. Strings sound prominent but not because of volume – enhancing the woodwind eighth notes – following the woodwind dynamics and phrasing. Weaving eighth notes – add to fairy like feel. Slows a lot during commas. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 8:55s 2. Tempo: starts around 55 bpm slows to 50 bpm during syncopated part and syncopated part slows to 48 bpm. 3. Notes: slow. Solemn. Like funeral but of a natural death and not sad. Lot of bass and inner voices. Color change prominent. Special colors. Sextuplets slow a lot. Syncopated part sounds like arriving on top of a mountain and very stretched out – like arriving at a beautiful final resting place for eternity. iii. Mvt 4 1. Timing: 56s 2. Tempo: starts 87-89 bpm. Speeds to around 90 bpm during eighth note melody. Martial part about 90.6 bpm. sixteenths slow to 90 bpm. Sextuplets slow to about 89.5 bpm. 3. Notes: rich G string sound. Flute figurations stand out. Dark sound. Cuts back in dynamic at mm. 49. Syncopations sound like commentary pushing rhythm along. Can hear eighth notes against held notes in melody. Lots of vibrato on held notes in martial section at Letter C – winds imitate with less sound. Clean string playing throughout. Mm. 65 - Sixteenths separated in this recording. Sounds like middle of dramatic journey. Cinematic sounding. i. Bernstein, Boston i. Mvt. 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: settles into about 71 bpm. Starts slower.

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3. Notes: brisker tempo. Deader sound. Loudest note in first long phrase in B natural on G string. Less singing. Gets going in the more dramatic part – stays on the regal side rather than emotional. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing: 8:11 2. Tempo: 52 bpm – slows down a little in colored part. Syncopated part back to 52 and building to 54. 3. Notes: tension in sound. Pressed? “walking” steady tempo. Tender and hopeful sounding. Melody focused – bass also featured. Inner voices more transparent. Canon – builds. Holds back into syncopated part. Syncopated part march-like. iii. Mvt 4 1. Tempo – starts 82 bpm, slows to 80, ends 82 2. Timing: 1 min 2 seconds. 3. Notes: woodwinds more prominent in intro. Less brass. Brighter sound. Drama between melody and syncopation. Rhythmic tension. Sounds like a ‘leaning back’ tempo – but actually very steady when checked with metronome. Very full texture. Everything audible without being too cacophonous. j. Masur, New York i. Mvt 1 1. Timing: 00s 2. Tempo: takes several bars until settling in two about 60 bpm. 3. Notes. Very slow. Lots of time on first note. Idyllic mood. Stretches out into end of phrase. 2nd 2 bars softer than first two. 2nd bar louder than 1st and 4th louder than 3rd. octaves in 1sts sound like commentary. Remains lyrical as it music gets more excited. ii. Mvt 2 1. Timing 8:36 2. Tempo: around 59 bpm rubato before syncopated part syncopated around 60 speed to 61 3. Notes: Moving notes audible but transparent when not moving. Singing. Like a lullaby. Keeps moving at ends of phrases. Special sound at 1st violin entrance pick up to sextuplets. Syncopated part “beautiful” sounding without too much angst or celebration. My favorite recording. iii. Mvt. 4 1. Timing: 1:08 2. Tempo: around 87 bpm. Tempo used to phrase. Gets slower 85 3. Notes: Regal sounding beginning. A little menacing in character. Velvety strings. Most captivating in-the-moment interpretation with micro-changes in character. Harder to perceive as a whole. Actually softer at mm 49. Syncopation sounds like a ‘heartbeat.’

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Appendix C: Organizing Excerpts into a Booklet

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Appendix D: Self-Recording/Problem Solving

The following page includes an excerpt of the process of self-recording/problem solving logged in the manner taught by Rob Knopper and Noa Kageyama. For each problem heard in self-recording,

Knopper suggests brainstorming multiple solutions and writing these problems and solutions down.

Subsequently, I reverted to paper and pencil method using a journal, as I found this to be the most convenient during practice. Knopper suggests using notecards, but I found these cards too small to hold the number of items I needed to write.

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Comments Solutions Vibrato – need wider and more consistent Play with tuning CD and focus on relaxing unused fingers. 12:17 Fat part of finger 18:49 Press less on first finger for wider vib Phrasing – Hear orchestra part Not enough cresc m. 38-40 Start with less bow (around balance point). More bow on eighth notes.

Need colors at B Start less. Gradually closer to bridge 3rd m of B and 5th measure of B

Weird swell m. 45

Decide what to do with C# m. 46 From the string, hear rest before. Not too much m. 48 g string Listen

Not enough f, f at measure 56 Emphasize more

Need more sound m 65 and shape

Need more color change m. 69 – 73 m. 77 dynamic change needs to be more gradual

Sound – need more overtones, sometimes Play closer to bridge - listen for sizzle. More crunchy. pronation. Wrist horizontal. Arm leads string crossings. Rhythm – Slows down m 38-40 Play a few times with metronome

B rushes Hear eighth note subdivisions and rests. More bow on second 8th note of slurs. M. 50 hear orchestra part.

C not in rhythm. Hear orchestra part

M65 different tempo Hear 8th note subdivisions last note of m. 64 m. 66-67 rest too short Wait. Hear subdivisions.

Intonation – not centered Play with tuning CD a few times to listen and then play with tuning CD and metronome. Shifts not in tune. Shift hand position unit.

Combination shift m 34

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M 35 – shift with both 1 and 2 half step. (mostly 1)

m. 49 – lighter fingers.

M 53 don’t shift to rib.

C – 3rd measure – use 2nd finger for reference.

m. 63 – use 1 for reference.

M 73 – continuous shift as well as m 75 Letter C - inconsistent Practice going from 1 before C to C

Prepare two fingers at a time.

Bow horizontal not quite at frog except for ff.

Don’t try to do too much cresc. Up bows m. 65 – 68 softer than downbows Play in upper half and pronate into up bow Down bow heavy m. 73-75 Play in upper half and crescendo on down bow M 69 uneven Upper half, horizontal wrist. “lane 2”

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