3 Ways to Easily Build Your Musical Confidence

Podcast Transcript

So, you’ve been playing the flute for a while now and are ready to boost your skills and feel more confident. What should you do? The answer is our subject for today and that is: three ways to easily build musical confidence …I have the list ready for you. – trust me!

Yahoo! Let’s get to it.

Hello and welcome, welcome to this new podcast episode made for those good people in this world who are striving to become better musicians and better people in general by learning how to play the musical instrument ‘flute’. It’s one of the best instruments ever (if I do say so myself), and it’s used in many situations including self expression and continuing education.

Here at Learn Flute Online, we have a wonderful program that helps keep you on track and motivated to hit your goals in life and music.

Sometimes we talk about things other than playing music that perfectly reflect on helping you make better music and make a better life, as I said.

Today is one of those days.

I do try to better myself, I like to do that, and I’m guessing you do too. 

Music is one of those skills that has so many life lessons in it. Think about it. What else do we learn as we work on gaining a talent like playing the flute?

I could name a few and I hope that you can too.

We learn things like: how to be determined and patient with ourselves at the same time (not always easy, right?). We learn concentration skills that will take us all the way to the bank I could say – now that’s a saying that really means that this skill (concentration) spans over a miriad of spaces in our life, in many different situations for sure.

And there comes a day when we realize that we are progressing in competence. Which is so much fun, right, we’re getting smarter! And now we can look forward to moving ahead and finding even more artistry in what we do and also learning how to do things like share our music with others.

Finding the proper education, the motivation, and the time to keep at it are all just part of the challenges that go along with this territory.

Since you’ve obviously found me here at Learn Flute Online, you have access to the proper education. The flute education is here for you. So, you can check that one off your list.

And if for some reason you haven’t officially joined us yet, the Gold Level or the Intermediate Advanced levels here, my question is… What are you waiting for?

Go to LearnFluteOnline.com or Send me a message [email protected] (that’s my email address) and and let’s get you going on the program. It’s wonderful and I’ll walk you through the steps,  step by step right towards success.

Actually, every day and every single lesson completed and worked on IS success – just remember that. We have very small increments and steps that we must walk through to get to where we’re going, to play the flute and to gain the confidence in a skill like this. And no worries, I’ll hold your hand as you move along.

The next thing I mentioned is motivation, and this is where I want to stay for just a minute because this will in turn spin into the main subject of this episode just perfectly.

The word motivation is basically the reason we do what we do, and our behaviors in particular ways.  

When we have types of new techniques or an expertise that we’re working on gaining, it’s really easy to lose sight of where we were going, especially if the goal is kind of far out a ways from where we are currently.

So, alright how can we keep on keepin’ on? How can we keep moving towards where we want to go? 

What we’re going to learn here today is going to be important not only for your musical development, but as I said – this will transfer as a life skill in general as well. 

Have you ever heard of someone making a goal, for example, to lose twenty pounds yet, giving up after only losing the first three? Yah well, it’s common. Really common. We’re human and it seems we all have similar tendencies, so I don’t think you’re alone in this quest.

Today we’re going to learn some real life skills and especially in music that will help keep you positive and motivated to keep bringing your instrument out every day. And on the path to improvement and enjoyment every single day.

The first thing we need to do is we need to create confidence.

Let me say that again. We need to create more confidence in ourselves. Basically, it boils down to the fact that – like I said – we human-type people tend to allow feelings of quitting and despair kind of come over us when we don’t feel we have control, or the ability to finish or conquer a goal that we have. Whether it be short term or something much farther out.

I wish this weren’t so, but we take a hit to our motivation, usually, when our confidence is low.

You’re saying “Alright Rebecca, this sounds true, but how can we remedy this situation?”

Alrighty, I’m getting there. In fact, it isn’t as tricky as you think. Just in the same way that low self-confidence can deteriorate our motivation, the opposite is just as true – MORE self-confidence enhances motivation. This makes it a very valuable asset for us all who have to consistently work on moving ahead. 

So, what CAN we do to foster more confidence in ourselves?

Well, this is an awesome can of worms to open up because I’m going to have a lot of fun talking about it just as much as you’ll have fun learning and hearing about it.

In fact, if this subject resonates with you and is hitting home right now already, get some paper out, and take some notes right now. You can review these notes later and it will help you make a real game plan for yourself.

Also, I want to testify that these work.

So, let’s get started on our little list of 3 ways to easily build more confidence. Which will give us more musical confidence, and more confidence in life in general.

The first thing and the biggest takeaway I want you to have from this episode today is to accomplish easier goals – over and over and over. That’s it. Our task is to accomplish smaller, easier goals. 

When we complete tasks (big or small) that we actually can “do” without a lot of fuss and strain is a huge deal to our confidence bank. 

Just think about how babies learn, and how they gain confidence and just know that they can do things over and over, and get better and better. Until pretty soon, so confident that they can get what they want and do what they want. It’s the same for us at any age. 

The more wins we have, the more momentum we will gain, and the more motivation we will have to continue on the path of achievement.

So, what does this mean to a flutist?

Well, it means going back to yesteryear and discovering what you can do, and what we can do, with our old, good tunes – our oldies but goodies I like to call them. Translated, this means that we need to use easy melodies, like folk songs to build our musical confidence.

If I had a penny for every time I played or taught Twinkle Twinkle LIttle Star. You learn a lot of things from that little tune. 

Folk songs have so much for us to learn – they are a very important backbone to musical development. Trust me on this.

And if playing short tunes like this doesn’t sound that appealing to you yet, allow me to change your mind. I’ve been playing the flute for almost forty years now. Wow, that kind of sounds long, doesn’t it.

Well, anyway it’s true. And of course when I first began, I only knew how to play development songs, or read what was ever on the page, and nursery rhyme type songs, but I’ll have to tell you that nowadays I find folk songs especially rewarding.

I like to take a tune and see how nicely I can play it. I mean, really nicely. I can do things like focus on better tone (which is a skill you should also be thinking about also), I like to find new phrasing, new articulation and add embellishments and pretty new passages and ornaments.

I use ornaments to doll them up a bit. I can always work on things like timing and playing them with new instruments and adding new flavors into pieces.

These skills that I just listed out are KEY to an advancing player – they really are. It’s just not a good idea to try and gain new finess and dexterity while mentally still chopping our way through new rhythms and finger patterns.

Alright so, lets take a little recap here. I’m asking you to use the songs, melodies, and tunes from the lower levels, and especially not to ignore music at the folk song, or even the minuet level. I absolutely love playing waltzes, holiday pieces, and traditional melodies from many different countries. They are also a perfect time to perfect my previously learned skills, as we just discovered, because that is when confidence is gained.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Let’s move on, the next thing on the list here is kind of a tricky one for adults especially because we tend to not stop and take time to smell the roses – that might be an American saying- it means that it’s really good for your psyche, your mind,  and your confidence levels to take time to consciously think about it and direct our attention to the awareness of the moment, like the present moment right now the moment that we are in and experience and enjoy what we already have right now.

Instead of putting our attention and focus so far ahead that we briskly walk past and ignore the rows of beautiful flowers and roses, we can stop and take a moment every so often to relish in what’s already been accomplished and is possible for the moment.

Yep. We can. 

We can all take and make a lesson out of this one. Can’t we?

It’s really easy to get caught up in thinking that we need to be like someone else. It’s really just not a way to be truly happy and content, though.

So as we work on our ways to easily build musical confidence especially – put a little star on this skill because we need to remember how far we’ve already come, and what we’ve already done and use those skills to create those small moments that help us with our confidence. 

Okay let’s recap for these first two that are on our list is number one, to use folk tunes and easier songs from our youth, to solidify skills we’ve already learned. Which builds confidence. And confidence fosters motivation and enthusiasm for our goals in life.

Number two is to stop and smell the roses– meaning that we need to enjoy and savor what we have at the moment. This also creates feelings of confidence that we need- especially for our motivation, since that’s what we’re talking about today: confidence fosters motivation. 

Gaining Assurance

The next thing I wanted to touch on here in this episode is that we need to do something else to gain certainty and assurance that we are on the right path, and that is to pay attention and purposefully accomplish lots of smaller, easy goals.

When we complete any task, whether it be large or small, we naturally are going to build our self-esteem. Creating wins is where it’s at folks. We need to create many wins, and the more wins we have, the more momentum and motivation we’ll have to put towards achieving something really great. Like becoming a nice musician… which is exactly what you are doing right now.

These small wins can be as simple as learning something brand new like a scale or an exercise from the modules, or a new finger pattern, and even a bit more complicated like kicking a small habit that you or I may have that needs to be fixed. We all have our tendencies right… overcoming less desirable ones is VERY empowering!

If you’re curious as to what types of habits in the flute world you might tackle on this journey let me give you a few clues: right hand position, tone, tension, posture, are just a few to get you started. And I guarantee that you have room to improve because I always can as well. 

Just choose one of those at a time, though. 

Get yourself a special calendar. You can print it out, and print out kind of like a month-load of a calendar. With a marker, you can X off the days as you work on it. Of course remember, you won’t really be perfect for awhile… that’s why the not-so-great habit is there to start with. Right?

I happen to know in my scenarios, in my cases, and in my own experience, that the first 4 days of kicking an old habit that needs to be kicked seems to be the trickiest for me. The first 4 days are really my trickiest time.

I’ve learned, I cannot miss any of the first 4 days, and if I can do that – if I can get the first 4 days in – the I’m usually on my way to creating a better way for myself. But it really just depends on what it is, and for you it may be that you need to get a month under you, or 3 months, or it may only take a week to get to the point where you can do it every day for a while after that. Because after that for me it’s just a matter of scheduling and using what I know. That’s really important.

What do you think?

Can you do it?

Can you use this technique to kick a small habit that needs changing?

If you can, (and I know you can) you’ll be in a great situation. You’ll feel better, you’ll have more skill, AND more confidence – don’t forget that I’ll be really proud of you as well.

Making small adjustments in life one at a time will allow your body and your mind feel that they’re in control – and being and feeling that you are in control can solve your own issues is a huge confidence booster, for sure!

Accomplish the Smaller Goals

So that’s number three on our list for today: pay attention to, and purposefully accomplish lots and lots of smaller, easier goals. They can be something brand new, a brand new goal. Or as direct as taking an older undesirable habit and kick it to the curb, as I like to say.

Whew – what a great chat this is! Those were 3 really important things that will help us build musical confidence. 

Again, I’m so proud of you and your decision to further yourself in life by using music as a tool. You are awesome!!

Well, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself today and I hope you have also. In fact, if you have found value in this episode or any of the other episodes (here on the Learn Flute Podcast), be sure to share the knowledge with someone else by letting them know that Learn Flute Online is here and that I, Rebecca Fuller am your guide. I’m Inviting them to join us on this journey. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and extremely rewarding!

If you’re used to listening to podcasts while on the go, you’ll find this show on itunes and stitcher, and of course, you can always listen by going to the LearnFluteOnline.com website and clicking into the podcast from the resources dropdown in the top menu bar. They’re there for you, all of them! Use them!

In fact, I’ve created Learn Flute Online and the programs within for people just like you who want to come and learn in the privacy and comfort of their own home, at their own pace, and on their own schedule. It’s a win-win for you!

I have thousands of video tutorials, mp3 downloads, and pdf’s all waiting for you in organized modules that will take you down a perfect sequence for learning to play the flute so well that you can play literally anything you want. Your favorite music will be on the tips of your fingers and the tip of your tongue… literally!

Well – it’s been great being with you today.

Thanks again for coming and enjoying this episode – I’ll play you out now with a fun sonata by one of the greats – George Frideric Handel. We’ll see you next time!