Really cool to see a "day in the life" of someone in some profession, to get a feel for what it's really like. And it also gives you a sense for what practice looks like, and what's necessary to get good.
It's a nice way to feel part of a community, too. If there was a way to get on stream with a bunch of other people practicing, I find that more motivating to practice myself.
Indeed, this is what I miss most about not being in the office: seeing people modeling good working behavior. I find it much more motivating to have that in my immediate environment.
On a related note, I've been following P90X workout videos for a few months now. They've been really effective for motivating me to workout consistently.
I wonder if "workout videos" for other domains would work to motivate people.
Like, if you wanted to get motivated to work on a side project, you could pop in an hour-long video of some charismatic leader encouraging a bunch of programmers, talking to them, pumping them up, encouraging them, P90X style.
The instagram page of Lauren Pierce (bass) is a lot of fun for me since it's encouraging to watch a player of her caliber struggling with really difficult pieces, or working on pieces she doesn't enjoy but still motoring through them anyway.
Not specific accounts but Reddit Public Access Network and Twitch are interesting services to discover this kind of content. Although the signal to noise ratio is low.
Hilary Hahn herself has been doing '100 days of practice' again recently - she's on day 87 now. Another example I've been enjoying lately is the German pianist Annique Goettler practicing sections of the Moszkowski piano concerto - sometimes she does split screen and also plays a reduction of the orchestral part (on Instagram, also her YouTube "Heart of the Keys" account). She's a pro but has a sense of humor about the ridiculous amount of messy work and frustration it takes to get things polished. See her recent "1 Min, 10 Min, 1 Hour Challenge" for the last movement of the moonlight sonata.
This is the kind of thing that in the old days you would only see if you hung around a musician's house. I used to have an older pianist friend who would say "look what I'm working on!" and then crash through some crazy virtuoso piece that months later he would play perfectly. Most kids don't have direct access to musicians at that level, so I really appreciate this trend of practice videos. Plus, seeing behind the curtain makes the music even more interesting.
I grew up playing the violin, and also drawing a lot.
They had very different models for learning: with the violin you’d spend weeks or months in solitude on a piece, each week trying to improve some particular passage, and then you performed in front of lots of people, and then it was done.
The drawings I did, on the other hand each consumed a few hours at most. Each drawing made me a bit better, and I got constant feedback. There wasn’t one single important moment, where things could go wrong and invalidate months of preparation, and drawings were also fairly mutable.
This is interesting because it’s a sort of union of the two — practice becomes performance. Maybe I’d have been a little more motivated if I’d been able to see my peers practice violin.
I am a professional bassoon player (working in an almost full size symphony orchestra of 82 in Norrköping, Sweden). I am heading off for the practice room about 2 minutes after writing this.
Perviously, I have never been a fan of these things. Sure, with Hillary Hahn it is a great thing to be able toget a glimpse how someone that amazing approaches practice, but the smaller accounts were bot at all something I liked: they generally play ok-ish at best, and whatever students I had that were in on it were the ones with the least motivation and willingness to ACTUALLY practice. I have been seeing most social media as nothing but digressions from what actually matters. To become any good, you will probably need 3-4 hours of focused practice 5-6 days a week. Spending one or two of those hours of practice also doing Instagram often means one or two hours wasted.
At least that is what I thought until this year: I am so thankful that my students can connect with others. I am having a hard time motivating myself, even moreso with my students. Any positive bassoon interaction they have, and anything that makes them think "hmmm... Maybe I should try doing it like this" is fantastic.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 35.7 ms ] threadIt's a nice way to feel part of a community, too. If there was a way to get on stream with a bunch of other people practicing, I find that more motivating to practice myself.
Indeed, this is what I miss most about not being in the office: seeing people modeling good working behavior. I find it much more motivating to have that in my immediate environment.
I wonder if "workout videos" for other domains would work to motivate people.
Like, if you wanted to get motivated to work on a side project, you could pop in an hour-long video of some charismatic leader encouraging a bunch of programmers, talking to them, pumping them up, encouraging them, P90X style.
This is the kind of thing that in the old days you would only see if you hung around a musician's house. I used to have an older pianist friend who would say "look what I'm working on!" and then crash through some crazy virtuoso piece that months later he would play perfectly. Most kids don't have direct access to musicians at that level, so I really appreciate this trend of practice videos. Plus, seeing behind the curtain makes the music even more interesting.
https://www.instagram.com/nancyzhou_violin/ https://www.instagram.com/joshuabrownviolinist/ https://www.instagram.com/kersonleong/ https://www.instagram.com/violincase/ https://www.instagram.com/augustinhadelich/ https://www.instagram.com/weatherclef/
I also enjoy just browsing the discover tab on instagram. If you mostly click on these instrumentalist accounts, it's pretty good about finding more.
They had very different models for learning: with the violin you’d spend weeks or months in solitude on a piece, each week trying to improve some particular passage, and then you performed in front of lots of people, and then it was done.
The drawings I did, on the other hand each consumed a few hours at most. Each drawing made me a bit better, and I got constant feedback. There wasn’t one single important moment, where things could go wrong and invalidate months of preparation, and drawings were also fairly mutable.
This is interesting because it’s a sort of union of the two — practice becomes performance. Maybe I’d have been a little more motivated if I’d been able to see my peers practice violin.
I'm a data engineer now but I started college on a bassoon scholarship.
Perviously, I have never been a fan of these things. Sure, with Hillary Hahn it is a great thing to be able toget a glimpse how someone that amazing approaches practice, but the smaller accounts were bot at all something I liked: they generally play ok-ish at best, and whatever students I had that were in on it were the ones with the least motivation and willingness to ACTUALLY practice. I have been seeing most social media as nothing but digressions from what actually matters. To become any good, you will probably need 3-4 hours of focused practice 5-6 days a week. Spending one or two of those hours of practice also doing Instagram often means one or two hours wasted.
At least that is what I thought until this year: I am so thankful that my students can connect with others. I am having a hard time motivating myself, even moreso with my students. Any positive bassoon interaction they have, and anything that makes them think "hmmm... Maybe I should try doing it like this" is fantastic.