Fearless Performance

Cheering you on! ✨💛 Jeff & Katy __________________ #instaclassical #musicmajor #musiciansofinstagram #auditioning # #musiciansdaily #flute #oboe #clarinet #bassoon #saxophone #piano #frenchhorn #horn #trumpet #trombone #tuba #violin #viola #cello #bass #percussion #band #orchestra #musiceducation #opera #operasinger #fearlessperformance #auditionprep

Hey hey 👋 We have SO many new faces here, so we thought we'd re-introduce ourselves and get to know you a little better! Behind Fearless Performance is: 🇨🇦📯🐷Jeff Nelsen, Hornist with Canadian Brass and Professor of Horn at IU Jacobs School of Music andddd... 🔬📯💕Dr. Katy Webb, cognitive science researcher with a specialty in skill acquisition We started sharing on this account because we know the deep struggle of having good abilities and bad performance experiences. We've found our way through and are here to help others do the same. :) Over the past 25 years, we've been able to help musicians win professional auditions for jobs in the Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, business people perfect their marketing pitches, speakers prepare for TedX stages, kids nail their show-and-tell performances and more. Got a performance of any kind?? We're in! It is so rewarding to meet so many incredible people of all ages, help them find confidence in the beauty of who they are underneath their fears, and help them learn to share that with the world! 🎉 On a personal note, we believe performance is everywhere, and we are obsessively refining and inspiring our own skills. We love packing our hard-fought lessons into tools we share with you! We're also pretty passionate about gummy bears (Albanese are best!!), funny shows/comedians like Nate Bargatze, and good quotes. (send them our way!) Our mantra: "You don't have to be serious to take things seriously." 🤪 Here, you can expect to see our fearless spin on performance training, research-backed practice strategies, and whatever well-being habits are currently lighting us up! We also share in our weekly newsletter! (link in bio). We'd love to find out a little more about you, too. Let us know what you do and something interesting about you below!? (or let us know something new you haven't yet shared with us!!) ⬇️

Action breeds clarity ✨

There's nothing like onstage jitters! I mean, the excitement and possibility of what’s gonna happen over the next few hours is the invisible force that raises the hair on your arms and gives you some pretty bold visions of the future, right?! But if you’re anything like us, you might also attest that, as that excitement hits, something else hits you with a left-hook outta nowhere. Yep, we’re talking about the voice that whispers, “Who am I to do this?” BOOM! Imposter syndrome has entered the chat. But listen. ⚡️⚡️There’s not a musician in the world who hasn’t battled this insecurity at one point or another. And we don’t want to let a thought stand in the way of you giving a GREAT performance. So, TOMORROW we’ll be leading a 30-minute live Train Your Trust workshop & Elevate Open House at 12 PM ET. Annnndddd this is the VERY FIRST public training that we are hosting on Elevate itself!! You can go there right now 😱 [link in bio!] [Check out our free How to Make an Audition-Winning Repertoire Book course there while you’re at it!] Enrollment for Elevate ends tomorrow Thursday, April 20th, at 11:59 PM ET. So, if you’re not sure if this program is for you, come to the open house, learn a 2-step technique to build self-trust, and we'll give you a tour of our favorite spaces in our platform! As a bonus, you will receive a free Train Your Trust Practice Journal, which will help you implement what you learn during the workshop. No replays on this event... sorry!! Please comment with your questions or send us a DM if you have questions about whether Elevate can help your with your musical goals. Check the link in the bio to RSVP

🎉 Grab a seat, friends! We have one more FREE LIVE training! 🎉📣⁣ ⁣ Audition Success 101 is our actionable, 100% free 45-minute Audition Prep Bootcamp. Make more progress on your audition list than going at it alone… 😱💯👏⁣ ⁣ We know you’re itching for a strategy you can depend on to perform your best when it matters most. If you’d love to get started on it with a LIVE virtual experience with us… 👇🙋‍♀️⁣ ⁣ Then Audition Success 101 is the training for you. And the best part? It’s free. 🙌🔥🤯⁣ ⁣ Register at the link in our bio!

It’s time to stop piñata practicing, once and for all. You want to nail your next performance, so you gather all your music and commit to spending a ton of time in the practice room. Voila!! ….right? Not quite. Because when it comes time to work up your music, you’re not totally sure how to make it sound better. And without figuring out your proven performance strategy, you feel like you’re missing half the puzzle. 👉 want people to see you as an expert? You’ve gotta start preparing like an expert. 👉 want people to be moved your music? You’ve gotta start preparing emotional storytelling that speaks through your music. 👉 want to start feeling empowered to share your music on stage? You‘ve gotta stop hiding your preparation as though it’s unworthy to be heard except on this one performance day when you’re finally “ready.” ENTER ELEVATE Our performance training network will give you the community and frameworks you need to prepare and perform your best. ✅ an audience at your fingertips ✅ people who can appreciate the gravity of your successes and lessons ✅ audition-winning strategies combined with award-winning research combined with a wholllleeeee lot of heart. Elevate is open for enrolllment for one week only ❤️ Check the link in the bio for more info and DM us with any questions!

3 mistakes that are maybe a little too easy for musicians to make? And of course, what to do instead :) ____________ #practiceroom #instaclassical #musicmajor #musiciansofinstagram #auditioning #mindmatters #musiciansdaily #flute #oboe #clarinet #bassoon #saxophone #piano #frenchhorn #horn #trumpet #trombone #tuba #violin #viola #cello #bass #percussion #band #orchestra #musiceducation #opera #operasinger #fearlessperformance #auditionprep

Just trust me on this one, ‘kay? Cali is cute, but she runs a tight podcast-editing ship! Our latest episode of Performing Beyond Doubt is out! It comes complete with mantras you can steal when you’re struggling with uncertainty. And feeling that limbo of uncertainty is totally natural, right? But when we linger in it …dwell on fears associated with it… we stop taking confident steps forward. Our focus is divided between our aim and our fears. We might feel overwhelmed, under-equipped, and therefore can’t settle into that flow state that helps us do our best work. So now we’re feeling uncertain, AND we know we could be doing better. It’s just like how we’ve been talking about fear. The issue is not that we fear, it’s how we respond to fear. It’s not a problem we feel uncertain (and when can we be truly certain about anything?) but we can have destructive responses to feeling uncertain. Check out these mantras to help you spend less time in that destructive zone so you can get into your next actions that create clarity! Episode 9 :) Link in the bio!

What’s the deal with “falling in love with the process”? Like, what are the parts and components to that? What does it MEAN?! Let’s get this straight. Willing yourself to enjoy something you’re not enjoying doesn’t work and isn’t very kind to yourself. It’s like the time when Katy told Jeff she doesn’t like pineapple pizza. Did he respond with, “Well you SHOULD. What’s wrong with you?!” Ok, maybe he did. But you can be just as successful at enjoying a delicious dinner if you go about it a different way (and order classic pepperoni like any truly respectable person would!!) In the same manner, you can be just as successful at enjoying a rich musical life if you lean into your tastes. That means, understanding what your tastes are! Maybe you really appreciate beauty, so enjoying the process a bit more means splurging on a practice journal that makes you swoon every time you see it. Or maybe you’re passionate about fairness and use your recital to program pieces by composers that are typically underrepresented. You’ve gotta know your taste, and while you’re working up your music to your audience or audition panel’s taste—you’ve gotta leave room for yours, too! We have a LIVE training coming up that includes exactly how to do this called: Ditch the Never-Enough Guilt. It’s happening April 11 & 12. Register free at the link in our bio!

It’s an INCREDIBLE time to be a musician. With reports of six recent studies showing classical music on the rise and the Apple Music Classical app debuting in the TOP spot in the app store, it looks like there’s a well-deserved renewal in appreciation for this music we soooo love! GREAT news for us. But when is Apple gonna create an app that inspires renewal not just in classical music, but in classical MUSICIANS? We’ll keep crossing our fingers and making wishes on the first scoop out of the peanut butter jar (does anybody else do that?!), but in the meantime, we’ve gotta take matters into our own hands. If you’re struggling with overwhelm. If you’re struggling with self-doubt. If you’re struggling with wondering if you’ll ever be enough… We've got the perfect FREE live event for you! For starters, it’ll take just 45 minutes of your time. For seconders, we’ve geeked out majorly over curriculum design to pack those 45 minutes full of upbeat, motivational trainings to give you real tools that drive real results, no matter what level you're at. Click the link in our bio to learn more! #auditionprep #stagefright #musician #musicmajor #classicalmusic #performancetraining

I don’t know why I thought I could fit all our tips into this little reel 😂 Check out the Performing Beyond Doubt podcast episode #8 for the mindset tricks we use when we’re not loving performing but want to show up well anyway! Got a go-to tip to help you get in the zone when you’re not feelin’ it? Please drop below… we can’t all be mad scientists like Jeff :) —————- #musicmajor #mentalhealth #musiciansofinstagram #auditioning #mindmatters #musiciansdaily #flute #oboe #clarinet #bassoon #saxophone #piano #frenchhorn #horn #trumpet #trombone #tuba #violin #viola #cello #bass #percussion #band #orchestra #opera #operasinger #fearlessperformance

Why do I put off things that I know I want to do? We’d answer here but… maybe tomorrow?! In the meantime, check out episode 6 of Performing Beyond Doubt! (link in bio) and let us know some of your favorite follow-through tips below! —————- #musicianwellness #musicmajor #mentalhealth #musiciansdaily #flute #oboe #clarinet #bassoon #saxophone #piano #frenchhorn #horn #trumpet #trombone #tuba #violin #viola #cello #bass #percussion #band #orchestra #musiceducation #opera #operasinger