When people ask me if they really need to practice every single day, my answer is: yes, if you want to get better.

My motto has always been: “Try a little bit harder to get a little bit better everyday!”

Underlying this philosophy is my belief that there is no such “gear” in life as neutral. Either we are progressing or we are regressing.

An ecouteur is someone who listens to your practice and gives you feedback and strategies for improvement. What a miraculous idea!

The good news is that EVERYONE CAN HAVE AN ECOUTEUR!

How? By recording yourself practice. Here are 6 tips for being your own best ecouteur.

What do we do when you don’t feel like practicing?

When this happens, where are you? Are you on the couch watching Netflix? Do you have “couch lock”?

Here are my TOP TEN TIPS to help you get going.

Today, let's get inspired by a simple but powerful message from one of my favorite stand partners. Her name is Meredith Snow and we’ve been performing together for three decades.

Meredith said to me:

"Investment in preparation and knowing what you are doing when you step on stage is the key to security. It means having a clear purpose in your performance. We are custodians of our art, and we have the privilege of taking our listeners on the journey with us.”

Let’s look at the relationship between our individual thoughts and our practice sessions! "What you think about, you bring about" is often associated with the law of attraction. It suggests that your thoughts have the power to shape your reality. Applied to viola practice, it means that the thoughts and mental attitudes you bring to your practice session can affect your outcomes.

We’re going to go on a tangent for a second, but I promise it will make sense! I had a very interesting conversation with a relative in London. They shared that most homes in the UK are built of brick. FYI, Most homes in CA are NOT. Why? Because builders in the UK are afraid of fire, but in California, we’re afraid of earthquakes!

Something that's really important to me is helping my Viola tribe define success. To me, success isn't necessarily winning—success is playing your best in the moment, regardless of whether that's an audition, recital, or in your practice room.

Now that you know where my mind is today, I'm going to ask you a favor—please hit reply and give me an answer to the following question:

What is the one thing that stands in your way on the road to achieving success? In other words, what is the main thing keeping you from playing your best when it matters?

• Performance anxiety

• Lack of organization

• Imposter syndrome

• No time to practice

• Problems with time management

• Lack of audition experience

The other day, I was working with a client preparing for a major East Coast audition. Like most musicians, she was nervous. We discussed a lot of strategies for preparation, including specifics of each excerpt, how to use self-recording, and how to play along with full orchestra recordings. And then we talked about training the imagination. Why? A strong imagination can help you make UNNATURAL audition situations feel more NATURAL and NORMAL.

I’m currently reading to my grandchildren the book “Bubble Gum Brain,” which I also read to all my children, because I love the metaphor in it so much. It contrasts a “bubble gum brain” and a “brick brain.”

Someone with a bubble gum brain chews on their thoughts, stretches their brain, and expands the way they think. Their motto is “I can make great mistakes! They help me learn!”

Someone with a brick brain thinks: “with me, things are the way they are, and won’t change.”

The most important requirement for someone I’m coaching at Viola Pro is that they are a lifelong learner, that they strive to have a “bubble gum brain.”

My first rehearsal of the 2023-2024 season is tomorrow! In just our first week, the repertoire list is long!

It's pretty intimidating, so I wanted to share the process I use when I have A LOT of music to prepare. I call it my GORP—General Orchestra Repertoire Preparation.

Recently, talking to a lot of young violists who are worried about their careers, I got to thinking about how this relates to real life. There are many times when I feel like my life is chaos and out of control. Sometimes, the chaos causes anxiety that is paralyzing. Other times, I feel like the chaos is taking me in a direction I don’t really want to go.​

If I keep my composure and think about the direction I need to go, I can "countersteer" to get myself going in the direction I need to go. If I can remember to do that, I will be back on track to achieving my goals.

I was talking to a freelance violist the other day, and she mentioned "where do people learn how to take auditions? Do most people learn this in college?"

This is something I think about a lot. There are a few great programs out there like the New World Symphony, but aside from those, most people have to search out the information however they can find it.

Personally, I had some of the world's greatest teachers, but we didn't spend much time on auditions—I had to learn how to manage those on my own. It shocked me when I first realized that being a good violist wasn't the same thing as being a good auditioner.

I look at auditions like one might look at climbing trees. We size up the tree, we come up with a plan for where we want to end up, and we come up with a plan for how to get there.

So even if you're not working towards orchestra auditions right now, it’s a skill you want to master. It takes most of us years to truly excel at this, so don’t wait until a few months before the audition for your dream job.

I was thinking about perfectionism the other day, and remembered that the word "perfect" originally comes from the Greek term "teleos," which means "complete."

In fact, the infinitive form of the verb is translated as "to reach a distant end, to be fully developed, to consummate, or to finish."

So the original Greek term is not about being free from error. It's about achieving a distant objective.

I was on the committee for the LA Phil's recent Associate Principal Viola audition. Every time I think back to everyone I heard play, the following phrase comes to mind:

Bonus points matter. Let me explain what I mean…

I was thinking about musical “fingerprints” the other day. I’m talking about the details that can leave smudges, distract us, and keep us from noticing the beautiful parts of our musicianship.

When we’re practicing scales, arpeggios, études, etc., are we just doing the repetitions by rote? Are we really listening and feeling for improvement?

These activities would help us a lot more if we looked at them like we might look at polishing fingerprints off a beautiful Steinway grand…