Caroline.N.Winds

In the season of Wrap-Ups, I suppose it’s only fair to take a look back at this incredible semester. I’ll likely be playing catch up for weeks trying to share all that has happened, but when I look through this I see dozens of reasons to be thankful. Oh how blessed I am to be surrounded by people who make even the most stressful times so joyous. Little Caroline wouldn’t recognize my present as her future, but she would certainly have had less fear knowing where all she was doing would lead. Cheers to a busy Fall and looking forward to all this final Spring semester holds. I know whatever the Lord has for me will be more than alright with such an incredible crew.🩵

Grab your passport everyone! We’re going around the world from within the recital hall!🌏

So incredibly excited to announce this program, full of incredible music, that I have the privilege of playing with such amazing people.🩵
Join for an afternoon lineup of musical friends and wonderful music!

Livestream will be available on my YouTube channel:
https://youtube.com/?si=ktfNnjP4LOce3b8v

A day late, but oh well!
So thankful I stepped out on a limb and found myself at Aria Summer Academy this year.
From the gorgeous campus, to the incredible musicians, and the invaluable masterclasses and lessons, this has been undoubtedly one of the greatest weeks in my flute career. And we’re only halfway finished!
More to come after I’m home; but for now, it’s back to practicing!

Everyone makes a joke or two about messing up, right?
Maybe we’ve even caught ourselves brushing off a compliment about how we play because we don’t feel that the performance was our best…
But the truth is that these little micro-statements wear on our self confidence. They chip away at our sense of self as a musician and can negatively impact the views of us and opinions of those that surround us.
These little statements are things our brain views as truths.
Absolutes and language matters.
How we speak about ourselves matters.
How we speak TO ourselves matters.
These little changes affect our perception of our craft and ultimately, ourselves.
Don’t fall victim to poor self talk. No one wants to play next to someone who constantly talks down about themself. Change your vocabulary. Match your goals. Make the shift before you find yourself chronically unhappy with your craft.

This tip sounds crazy, but it’s true!
The more you listen, the more you know the piece! Pick out your part, sing along, and you might find those tendencies where you are ending phrases or moving too soon. This little form of score study helps get your part in your ear before the rehearsal hits - AND you can do it in your car!

When students tell me that they have limited practice time, my first question is “do you ride the bus to school?”
That bus ride is actually a blank slate of available time to get in a few minutes of focused practice.
Whether you take a pencil out to practice scale patterns✏️
Put in your headphones to listen to your concert/ solo music 🎧
Or take the opportunity to tap rhythms out with a metronome 🥁
The bus ride is easily one of the first underutilized time frames most students don’t even consider as a viable form of practice!

Little late, but I’ve had a lot still happening.

I’ll let the wrap up speak for itself on this one…
Lots planned for the summer and very excited for the fall!

You ever sit in the practice room and the longer you are there, the less you feel “getting done.” The thing about practice is that just like anything else we do, it takes mental and physical energy. 🏋🏻‍♀️
The longer we are there, the longer our mind and body are trying to focus on one idea. And it is hard! 🧠
So many of my students come into lessons talking about this and they think they are broken since they can’t practice for longer than 45 minutes without getting tired or distracted.😵‍💫 My first question is always: “are we taking breaks or are we trying to plan the whole 45?” More times than not - the answer is no.
Get up, take a water break and reset! Break that 45 into two 20s with a 5 minute break. And see how much further your focus can take you!
I actually break my practice into 3 sessions throughout the day - AM, Midday, and PM - each is around 75 minutes with 3 stretch/water breaks included.
Don’t tell my teachers… but prior to this, I would spend 4-6 hours sitting in a practice room staring at the same sheets of music trying to force progress when my mind and body were absolutely exhausted and unwilling to continue.
The difference this change has made in my mindset and progress is absolutely unbelievable. And a huge part of how I healed my relationship with my instrument.

Do you have questions or want to talk more about this? DM me! I’d love to chat about all things practice!