What All Musicians NEED But CANNOT Be Taught

A portion of this video is sponsored by Berklee Online.

Video produced and edited by Nahre Sol

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As always, thank you so much for watching, and thank you to all of you that leave comments.

[Bibbzyy]

I had abusive parents, and after I finished music school they pretty much convinced me to quit. I don’t have a relationship with them now, and I’m trying to get back so that I can make music my actual career instead of working a full time office job to survive while teaching some lessons and freelancing on the weekends. It’s so hard, and I don’t have anyone to talk to about it except myself, so this video is literally exactly what I need thank you!

[pinkstrad]

I’m so glad you said what you did about self-confidence, performance anxiety and procrastination. It took me a LONG time to realize that procrastination was a symptom of low self-confidence, not the cause of it.

[Bamblagram]

A strange thing I started throwing into my practice- practicing “messing up” and recovering as smoothly as possible. Intentionally playing an incorrect note or two, but keeping the entire momentum smooth and carrying on with the performance.
I noticed that it helped my confidence immensely when playing in front of others- I started to feel like “I am prepared to mess up, if it happens” and I wasn’t thinking “don’t mess up, don’t mess up!”

[arvinsim]

There is so much music produced nowadays that even good musicians work can be left unappreciated. It's important to sometimes stop comparing ourselves with others.

[ghintz]

I just started taking lessons with a professional as an adult. While feeling that I've been a pretty dedicated, relatively advanced pianist over these years, she has made me aware of how lacking my childhood teacher was. It's been a hard (but necessary) blow to my already low self esteem as a musician. I'm already a very anxious performer. So this video is just what I needed right now. Thanks!

[Karmkane]

Your comments about reframing situations is spot on. When I was in music school I was terrified of recitals. Oddly, juries never bothered me. But, the school I went to had what they called "sophomore comprehensives" . Basically a jury exam performed in front of the entire faculty. Your performance determined whether or not you got to continue as a music major. I was in the wings sweating all over my tux and my classical guitar and started thinking through the possible outcomes. One of which was, "Chances are, nobody's going to die from this." That single thought entirely flipped my terror on its head. I played the best I ever had, and it's become my "thought" any time I'm faced with anxiety like that.

30 years on, I haven't literally killed anyone with my performances yet.

[MusicalBasics]

Another amazing video honestly, applicable for musicians of all levels

[Flewti]

The grace and humanity embedded in this generous artist's personality and work must not go unnoticed.

[cadriver]

A new golden age of music theory is happening on YouTube. ❤

[jsifford]

All of this is wonderful. Heading into my third decade as a professional musician, every minute of this video resonates with my experience. And as someone who's consumed countless books, conference presentations, and videos on the various psychological pitfalls of a musical career, I find your framing of the subject very refreshing. Congrats on the 500k, too. I think I joined around the 50k mark and have really enjoyed watching these past few years. Nice to see someone else a bit like myself, who keeps looking for new things to do and new ways to do them!

[ModularLanding]

Thank you! Three thoughts:
1. This isn’t just one of the best videos on your channel, but one of the best videos on YouTube, because it applies not just to musicians but to everybody.
2. It’s really interesting that most of your tips for self confidence are actually tips for getting better. This maybe isn’t surprising. The better we get, the more confident we feel. You’re clearly interested both in self confidence and improving as a musician. I never made this connection before, but it’s so obvious; how are you going to feel confident in something if you suck at it? Brutal but true. Thanks for bringing me to this insight.
3. For me, the key to self confidence is humility. Humility doesn’t mean putting yourself down. A psychologist who researches humility told me: humility is an accurate assessment of where you are. Wow! This means, don’t think you need to pretend to be better than you are. If you’re just starting to learn something new, why would you be good at it? If you’re good at it, then why doubt yourself? Accurate self-assessment is actually crucial to self-confidence. We don’t need to pretend.

[truecuckoo]

Congrats on 500k! You’ve been an inspiration to me for a long time. I appreciate that you stay true to yourself. It comes through. Great video. Very relatable.

[Unfortunately]

Nahre, you’ve been on such a roll recently with your videos for me. They have been so inspiring and I especially needed this one because motivation is so much harder than actually difficult music to me. A lot of times having to deal with technology that I barely know how to use is extremely frustrating to me and I just give up immediately when I can’t do something. This video has reinvigorated me to try some of of those things again, so thank you!

[tokalonlove]

Nahre, this is such an insanely good video. Wisdom and insight aside, the camera work, editing, sound design, animation.. all of that is inspiring in and of itself! Add some of the most motivating and succinct life/music/mental health advice I’ve ever received, and wow… Your intelligence and passion for your craft(s) is incredibly touching and inspiring. YOU. ARE. AWESOME!!! THANK YOU!!!!

[aguilarrojasoctavio]

Hi Nah Re. As an English teacher, I consider your "how to sound like" videos extremely valuable in terms of pedagogy. It comes to my mind that legendary video from walking the bass, "all about piano scales". There is structured and conceptualized substance that fosters people to rewatch it many more times

[yush]

I had an audition the other day and on that day I realized that practice is only 40% of the equation the other 60% is mental. I knew when I walked in that room I didn't know the cut as well as others but when I auditioned I played with the confidence of someone who knew it perfectly so I did well, indifferent to the very lazy practice I did for the audition.

[tigerhillarp]

As a chess player I can relate to your advice. Especially the part about failure. Sometimes, as a teacher, helping the students to face and deal with failure seems more important than the things I am actually teaching.

[ballman]

Only an amateur musician here, but I just had to leave a comment thanking you for your positive attitude. It's a breath of fresh air on the internet of today

[babybirdhome]

What an incredibly generous person you are. I’ve always had a latent interest in music and making music, but I’ve barely ever explored that interest. A lot of it has to do with perfectionism and not wanting anyone to hear me not be amazing, which is all on me, but it’s prevented me from really delving into one of the things I love so much in life. This is very valuable knowledge to have, and it’s also very hard won because you’ll never learn it without putting in the long, hard hours that I haven’t. But it’s also broadly applicable to pretty much everything in life, too. So not only are you pursuing your own passions and working hard to improve yourself at them, you’re sharing the results of that with the world, and not to stop there, you’re also sharing the challenges you’ve run up against in that pursuit and the things you’ve learned from running up against them and how to keep making progress. That’s a beautiful thing to do, and I’m grateful to you for doing it. Thank you for teaching those who’d listen how to make their own lives better, and how they can use that to return that favor to others, too.

[victoriayuart]

Thanks for sharing this Nahre! This was really helpful and I think not enough people talk about their struggles and the hard and bumpy roads and insecurities they have despite how successful they are! You're really an amazing person and I hope you keep continue inspiring us artists and musicians alike out there! Love what you do! And when you're feeling down, just remind yourself that you are more than amazing! And that's already a gift to yourself and to your loved ones and to the world! Stay creative and keep on creating Nahre!