Music Teacher's Helper Blog

The other day I was helping a student prepare for an audition to UCLA’s school of music. I noticed that she kept rushing into the start of the song, and of course this caused her to make many mistakes. I thought to myself, “I know she’s nervous about this, but she has got to relax if she wants to get through this audition.” I started scanning my brain for ideas to help her relax. I’m a pretty anxious person myself, and performing still makes me nervous, so I tried to figure out what I do to calm down. I thought and thought and then it hit me, “Oh yeah, I meditate!” Of course, even though meditation is completely modern and typical these days, you never know how someone will react to that word, so I decided to teach my student some “Breathing Exercises.”  This is an all around user friendly word to describe what is basically meditation.

I learned how to meditate when I was 18 years old.  My teacher told me that when you breathe deeply with your diaphragm, it will release anxiety. I can say that it will at least calm you. If you don’t really know how to engage your diaphragm, just focus on breathing deeply in through your nose, and then slowly release the breath out through nose.  When you breathe in and out, keep all of your attention on the breath. When you find your mind beginning to wander, bring your attention to the breath once more. It’s important to not scold yourself when your mind begins to wander. Everyone’s mind wanders, even the Zen monks who meditate for several hours a day. It’s totally normal. Just bring your attention back to the breath.

You should feel calm afterwards. If you feel even more anxious, then my guess is you are trying too hard and possibly scolding yourself. Don’t do that! Just do your best.

When I told my 17 year old student to try this, she giggled at first, but then agreed to give it a shot. I had her meditate for 1 minute with her eyes closed so as not to be distracted by me or anything else in the room. Per my instructions, she went straight into playing the song, without any discussion at all. The idea was for her to carry the calm focus into her performance. Let me tell you, she didn’t make a single mistake. She was stunned that she could be so focused and calm, and I was really excited to have another tool to use in my lessons. I hope that you will find it useful, too.