The Bulletproof Musician Noa Kageyama

For most of my life, even through college and grad school, regular ol' repetition was probably my most-utilized learning strategy whether I was studying for a test or practicing for my next lesson or performance.If you've gone through stages like this, you probably remember that this approach is not particularly enjoyable, and is also quite time-consuming. And pretty demotivating too, when you don't get the grade you want or perform as well as you'd like.You're probably utilizing more effecti...

We all procrastinate on things from time to time. And sometimes we pay the price for doing things at the last minute. But then there are times when it actually seems to work out pretty well!So is procrastination all bad? Or could there be a productive and unproductive sort of procrastination?Well, the research seems to suggest that the answer could be...yes?Get all the nerdy details and find out how to know if you're the "good" or "bad" kind of procrastinator: Are You the “Good” or “Bad” Kind...

This episode is sponsored by Musician's Maintenance - safe, simple, maintenance exercises that specifically address the muscle groups that matter most for musicians.* * *When I was first starting out on the violin, I remember there were more fun games and practice challenges involved in my daily practice. Like free improvisation. Or playing with various weights and stuffed animals clipped to my bow.And then at some point, practice became much more "serious." Where the goal was to play things ...

In the age-old debate about nature vs. nurture, I know the correct answer for most things is that it's a blend of both.But sight-reading, at least for me, always felt like one of those things which leaned more on the nature side than nurture. Some folks just seem to have a knack for it, while I always struggled.But what does the research say? Could I have gotten better at sight reading if I applied myself more diligently? And what would that have even looked like anyways? Are there specific t...

This episode is sponsored by Musician's Maintenance - safe, simple, maintenance exercises that specifically address the muscle groups that matter most for musicians.* * *I think we’ve all had teachers tell us that the technical and expressive aspects of music-making are inextricably connected, and that we shouldn’t just work on technique, and expect to add the expressive details later.But how exactly do you do this? Like, what does it look like to connect both the technical and expressive asp...

Everyone seems to be pretty good about staying hydrated nowadays with the popularity of reusable water bottles and a growing number of public water refilling stations in schools, airports, etc.But how much of a difference does hydration make when it comes to practicing and performing more effectively? How exactly might we benefit from being better hydrated? How dehydrated would we need to be to start seeing negative effects? And what would those negative effects even be?There are a number of ...