Dealing With Frustration in the Practice Room - Zenas Kim-Banther

Trombonist Dr. Zenas Kim-Banther shares a strategy for dealing with frustration in the practice room and generously shares that it took her a long time to get good at this strategy - even though you'd think it would be easy!

Watch her full interview here: TBJ211

"What about this passage is giving you the frustration? Is it the consistency? Getting the center of the notes? Is it the rhythm? Is it pitch?

And then just narrowing it down and just keeping it to the most simplest elements.  

If it's something super frustrating, just say, 'I'm gonna spend 10 minutes on this, walk away, do something that I really enjoy,' inviting peace of mind, and kind of go at it.

It sounds so stupid, you'd think you'd figure this out earlier on in your playing. But it took me a long time to really just stop myself from just playing it over and over until it magically gets better. And that's what I yell at my students about all the time. But it's really hard when you know what it should sound like but there's a couple of blocks along the way from getting there.

—Dr. Zenas Kim-Banther from TBJ211