Category: About Learning

Posted on

5 Tips To Avoid Zoom Laryngitis

Anyone experiencing laryngitis from too much time on virtual meetings? It’s one of the new challenges that has popped up as we’ve had to change the way we do things because of the pandemic.  Even singers and voice teachers experience it. Within the span of two weeks, two of my teachers had laryngitis from teaching remote lessons. Why are they getting laryngitis now when they weren’t in in-person meetings? I have some ideas. I’m going to give specific advice and examples from remote music lessons, but most of what I have to say is relevant to anyone experiencing laryngitis in virtual meetings. 

I was able to avoid laryngitis during this switch to remote lessons mostly because I already had to deal with it in the past. It happened while teaching groups of kids in summer day camp. I was trying to teach and keep the attention of a bunch of excited kids in front of instruments for hours every day. Even though I was rotating through groups of kids to keep them from being fatigued, I wasn’t getting any breaks. I had to learn how to keep myself and my voice from getting worn out.

Being a singer and teacher with vocal training didn’t stop me from getting laryngitis but it did enable me to problem solve it. The first thing you have to do is examine what it is that you are doing differently than before. You need to be aware of everything that is contributing to the problem in order to make changes that are effective. These are the things I was doing that I think are also happening during zoom meetings.

Talking Louder

Sound is not always optimal through Zoom or other virtual meetings. Many people are talking louder without realizing it in order to compensate. Talking louder all by itself isn’t a huge problem until you couple it with the other things in this list. 

 Some teachers are choosing to use microphones and headphones. While this can help, it often isn’t enough all by itself to keep your voice from getting worn out. It’s also a good idea to try to choose an environment without a lot of background noise for yourself and the student. That may be making it difficult for you to hear or others to hear you. It can also make it super distracting for students, making it harder for you to get and keep their attention. This in turn often makes people talk louder in order to regain attention. Try to use other strategies to get and keep attention other than just loudness.

Speaking at a pitch that isn’t the most natural range to your voice.

This is easy to do without being aware of it. It may be a habit that happens all of the time or just depending on certain situations. For instance, I noticed years ago that I would talk at a lower pitch than I was really comfortable at when I wanted to be taken seriously. On a subconscious level, I was worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I talked in a higher voice. Although it wasn’t purposeful, I eventually noticed it because it didn’t feel good and my voice would become hoarse. When I’m really excited and lost in a subject, I talk at a slightly higher pitch. It’s actually the most comfortable range for me. Once I became aware of this, I started making the effort to talk in a more natural range for me. This makes a huge difference. Your vocal chords get thicker and shorter to make lower pitches and stretch to be longer and thinner for higher pitches. It’s my theory that talking in your most comfortable range allows them to just be in their natural resting state which is less fatiguing. John Henney gives an easy to understand explanation of how the vocal cords work and make pitch in his article, “How The Vocal Cords Work for Singing”

Talking non stop

This is easy to do without being aware of it. It may be a habit that happens all of the time or just depending on certain situations. For instance, I noticed years ago that I would talk at a lower pitch than I was really comfortable at when I wanted to be taken seriously. On a subconscious level, I was worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I talked in a higher voice. Although it wasn’t purposeful, I eventually noticed it because it didn’t feel good and my voice would become hoarse. When I’m really excited and lost in a subject, I talk at a slightly higher pitch. It’s actually the most comfortable range for me. Once I became aware of this, I started making the effort to talk in a more natural range for me. This makes a huge difference. Your vocal chords get thicker and shorter to make lower pitches and stretch to be longer and thinner for higher pitches. It’s my theory that talking in your most comfortable range allows them to just be in their natural resting state which is less fatiguing. John Henney gives an easy to understand explanation of how the vocal cords work and make pitch in his article, “How The Vocal Cords Work for Singing”

Talking with tension

Staying relaxed when you talk, is much easier on your voice and allows you to talk for much longer without getting fatigued. Try to be aware of where you might be holding tension in your body especially as it relates to the muscles around your face, neck and shoulders. A good way to find out if you are holding tension in your body, is to tense and then relax specific areas. Relaxation is a crucial skill that singers work on in voice study. There are notes in the vocal range that sound strained and feel painful when tense, but are effortless and clear when relaxed. 

Having your mouth open for a long time without rehydrating

Your mouth and throat are meant to be wet. Talking a lot involves having your mouth open a lot which can make it dry. When it gets dry, it can cause soreness and scratchiness. I once took a long bike ride where I made the mistake of breathing through my mouth the entire time. By the end, all that air going through my throat made it dry and sore. Make sure you have some water periodically.

5 things that can help you avoid laryngitis during virtual meetings

1. Don’t allow your talking volume to be too loud especially for prolonged periods of time.

2. Speak at a pitch that is most natural to your vocal range.

3. Don’t talk nonstop. Even small breaks can help.

4. Stay relaxed as you talk.

5. Stay hydrated.

Posted on

How To Fit Learning Into Your Life (Part 2)

Fit Learning Into Your Life (Part 2) 

Once you’ve gone through ‘How to Fit Learning Into Your Life (Part 1)’ and filled out the calendar, you’re ready to get to the details!

What is it you want to learn?

  1. Think of a big picture goal. Be careful not to make your big goal too nebulous. For instance, “I want to learn to play the piano.” Maybe instead your big goal would be “I want to be able to play piano for enjoyment.” If you just have “I want to learn to play piano” you haven’t given yourself a goal that can ever be met because there isn’t a specific criteria for what that means. Would you consider playing Yankee Doodle having learned how to play piano? Technically it is but it probably isn’t what you were thinking when you imagined yourself playing piano and it won’t feel satisfying. It’s important not to set an open ended goal that can’t be met. It should have clear criteria for what it means to meet it.
  2. Think of a smaller, detailed goal, such as; “I want to learn to play Fur Elise.” or “I want to play and sing Let it Be.” 

Don’t start making excuses yet why you can’t! This is the fun part where you daydream about what you’d like to learn assuming you had no obstacles. Don’t say ‘no’ to an idea before you’ve even considered if it’s possible. 

This is where a lot of people stop themselves before they begin because they only give themselves a big picture goal. This feels overwhelming and doesn’t give them an idea of where to start. Giving yourself a small goal, gives you an easy success and a first step. The first step often leads you to your next step if you don’t already know what it is. It narrows your goals down to specifics that will allow you to figure out what tools, skills or information you will need to learn in order to do it.

Why do you want to learn it?

This is a really important part of the puzzle. If you can articulate how learning this thing is going to give you something you want or make your life better, this will give you your own mantra. You can recite it to yourself when you need a little push or to put things back into perspective. Your perspective needs to match your goals or you won’t be satisfied with the results or be able to fit it into your life. People often don’t realize they are hanging on to unrealistic expectations of themselves and forget why they are learning something in the first place. It’s all that programming from childhood that’s designed to make us good little worker bee students. Having a perspective that matches your goals will help get all of your brain on board with your plan. I’ll talk about that more below.

Don’t rely on willpower to practice or study! 

Wow, I’m going against what every teacher since the beginning of time tells you. Hear me out! Willpower takes concentrated focus and effort. Our brains are not designed to run off of willpower 24/7. It’s meant to give a temporary boost to get through a short term challenge not be your way of being. That being the case, if you are relying on willpower, you will only be able to keep it up for so long before it fails.

Willpower is linked strongly to your confidence and energy  level in the moment. Do you feel confident and energetic 100% of the time? I don’t. I have “Yes, I can do this!” days where I’m unstoppable. I also have “No, go away…” days where I don’t want to face anything. So what happens when you rely on willpower for the long term? You not only fail at your goal but you feel bad about yourself. You may pick yourself up a few times and try again but eventually you want to stop feeling bad about yourself so you give up altogether on the goal. Feeling guilty or disappointed in yourself is counterproductive because it usually leads to quitting and it was definitely not make learning ENJOYABLE!

Have you ever wondered why it can be so hard to feel motivated to do something that you want?

In her book, This Year I Will, M.J. Ryan gives great insight about why you need to get your logical brain and your animal brain on the same page in order to build or change habits. (I’m paraphrasing, so forgive me M.J.) Since the animal part of your brain is automatic and there to help you survive, the second you’re not exercising willpower, it takes over and reverts to looking for safety or pleasure. If you can appeal to those drives, you won’t be as likely to feel like you have to fight to stay motivated. Although some people have more willpower than others, no one can keep that focused will power going every second of the day.

Make sure your plan and goals align with how you want learning to fit in your life!

For instance, let’s say your reason for learning the piano is in order to be able to enjoy playing music at the end of the day. It may be purely for enjoyment or to de-stress. Knowing that means you won’t need to set up a practice schedule as if you are planning to be a concert pianist. You may think that is obvious but if you are taking lessons or learning from someone who is, they may not be really customizing your plan to your goals. If they practice six hours a day, it may not seem like a big deal to ask you to practice an hour a day but I know as a piano teacher that most people (especially adults) don’t have an hour to practice every day. Adult students in particular, can be really hard on themselves. It’s important to remember that learning an instrument should ADD to your life not give you another reason to feel guilty. 

Make practicing part of a habit you already have. 

Whether it’s practicing an instrument, a language or any other information or skill, you need to find a way to make it part of a habit you already have. If you have to make the decision to do it, you will find it doesn’t happen very often.

Whether you are a morning or night person might also play into your plan. If you work it into a routine where you’re already naturally at your best you’re more likely to do it regularly.

One of the most important ways that our brains commit things to long term storage is by revisiting them often regularly over time. If that scares you, then that means you are already thinking about taking on too much information at once. 

Only introduce a few things at a time!

I go in depth about this in the guest blog I did on Musical.U called  “The magic number and how to use it to learn anything.” Your working memory holds a few things in storage just long enough to do something in the moment. Let it help you out. Experts disagree about how many things this. Some say five to seven things. More recent thoughts are that it is three to five. I personally have found three to be ideal for most things.

Introduce a few things and stick to them until they are mastered before moving on. This not only makes learning feel easy and less tiring, which increases your chances of sticking to it, it is also more effective. Learning by overwhelm is frustrating, exhausting and actually takes longer to master the same information. You need to give your brain time to encode and process how information fits into a bigger framework.

Don’t be fooled that you have mastered something because you seem to know it well at the end of a study/practice session. That’s probably your short term memory. Only if you can come back to it later and it’s still just as solid the first time you use it, are you on your way to committing it to long term memory. It will take a longer period of time of regularly using the information before it will truly be mastered. 

Plan for a reasonably small amount of time.

If you do this, you can honor it regularly and it will seem manageable. If it feels like it will take a lot of effort, you will be discouraged from starting it. Knowing that it’s a small commitment will make you less likely to put it off.

You can decide once you are there whether you want to or can stay longer. Don’t push yourself to stay too long beyond when it feels good. Stamina builds slowly over time and is easier once you have a foundation. When everything is new, things feel tiring quicker. You want to make it an enjoyable process. Not only is that so you enjoy it but because your psyche WILL remember if it stopped feeling fun and will want to avoid it next time!

Make a plan that gradually scales in difficulty. 

Don’t plan to do something that feels so taxing that it takes you being at your absolute best to do it. You will grow much faster, from regularly revisiting information than from trying to rocket ahead by overwhelming yourself with information. Ultimately, you want what you learn to be lasting not temporary.

Plan a part of your practice that is just for enjoying what you’ve already learned.

In music this is easy; play pieces you already know and like. If you are learning knitting, this part might just be working on something that has a lot of repetition and isn’t something that requires paying close attention to a pattern or counting. 

Put your new learning into real world use.

Make sure you are using the thing you are learning to accomplish a project and do something in the real world. An important part of understanding and learning happens when you take information or a skill and use it do something. Have you ever read some instructions and think “Oh, this is simple. I got this.” Then you try to do the thing following the instructions and you realize there are some holes in your understanding? Yep. This is normal. You won’t find out where your understanding is murky until you dive in and do the thing!

Real world use is also important because it gives you satisfaction and a sense of purpose for your learning. You need the pay off! I feel super excited and smart when I learn something new and then I’m able to DO SOMETHING I couldn’t before. Especially if I get to create something out of my imagination using this new information. Now I have something concrete to show for my work and I feel good about myself. Those are both things that will help propel you forward for more learning.

Plan part of your time to Drill on information and part of your time to Use it.

Don’t just spend all of your time on either one or the other. Do a little of both. They are compatible with each other and will help you solidify information and be able to do things right away.

Give yourself some flexibility! 

Plan for a maximum and minimum number of times a week. For instance, shoot for five but have your hard goal be three. This gives you some flexibility for things that come up without derailing your whole plan. The upside to this is that if you exceed your soft goal, it feels like you’ve gone above and beyond. You can achieve your hard goal while still giving yourself room for not feeling good or things that unexpectedly come up without feeling like you’ve let yourself down.

Time to get to the details!

Below you’ll find a downloadable worksheet with questions that will help you brainstorm and make a plan. This will help you articulate what you want to learn and how you are going to get there.

Fit Learning Into Your Life Worksheet

After you fill out the worksheet you should have all of the information you need to fill out your checklist.

Fit Learning Into Your Life Checklist

When you’ve filled out the worksheet, look at your calendar (from part one) and see where you can fit your learning tasks in during the week. Here’s an example below of the checklist filled out.

Happy learning!

Posted on

How To Fit Learning Into Your Life (Part 1)

Planning, Motivation and Execution

Figuring out how you will fit learning into your life is crucial to whether you are successful or not. Most people have the capability to learn but the success or failure all lies in the planning, motivation and execution. Although I may use learning music for some of my examples, these principles apply to anything you want to learn.

You Need More Than a Pep Talk!

I want to assure you that this isn’t going to just be a pep talk. I’ll go over general ideas first but then I’ll dive into the specifics. Part One will cover the planning and motivation with some examples from my own learning. I’ll provide a calendar so you can track what actually happens in your week to prepare for fill in tasks. Part two will help you set reasonable goals and decide what’s necessary for your plan. I’ll provide worksheets and a to-do list to plug everything into.  I want you to be able to take what I’ve learned over years of learning and teaching and apply it to your own goals.

I started out as a freelancer and business owner with no investors or assets, except me! The thing I invested in was learning how to learn so I could do the many things I needed in order to create the things I wanted and grow my business. I also wanted to learn better so I could do a better job teaching and be a good example for my students.

Why Should You Want This?

Oh, this is an easy one. Whether your limitation is monetary or time, we all need to keep learning to keep our lives satisfying and healthy. We all have things we either need to learn or would like to learn. It’s easy to not do it because you think you don’t have the time. It might be smart to pass on something that just sounds cool and would make you feel smart. However, there are plenty of other things that you could do that would bring you joy, allow you to do things you want or make you healthier.

Examples of Things I’ve Learned and Why

Piano– Can’t say enough about this one. I loved it so much that I became a piano teacher. Piano has been a life-long friend that is there for me no matter what and no matter how I’m feeling. That sounds sad; like I don’t have friends. I guess I didn’t describe in enough detail why piano is a really GOOD friend, but that’s a topic for another time.

Music– It feels wrong to just plunk this down here as a little thing but this whole list could just be music related if I didn’t. So here’s a quick musical recap: singing, songwriting, composing, piano (mentioned above), guitar, bass, drums, recording. The main reason? Music completes me and gives me meaning. I feel like it’s made me a more balanced person as well as been a refuge for me when I needed it. It motivates and inspires me. The euphoria I feel in the midst of a song always makes me feel thankful to be on the planet. Now you see why I want to share it with others and why I’m so motivated to teach.

Teaching-This has been something that I’ve learned organically as I’ve gone along but it’s something where I’m constantly making an effort to improve. I’ve spent time learning about memory and the brain in order to apply that to teaching and writing curriculum. I also problem solve how I can help a student or other teachers get past an obstacle. I found that it was not only good for me to grow as a learner but that it feels amazing to help others. It is the main vehicle that I get to share something that has been life-changing for me (music).

Yoga- So many reasons! Where do I start? Taking care of my body, alleviating pain and stress, getting perspective, slowing down and shaping my body. It feels good to like how my body looks and feels and know that I helped make it that way through my effort! The most important reason though is that your body is your vehicle for life. If you don’t take good care of it, you can’t go anywhere or do the things you want to do. There is no point to living to 90 if you’re stuck in an old jalopy that won’t go anywhere.

Indesign- Gave me the power to write and design my method books and integrate images, print and sheet music. It probably doesn’t sound exciting but it’s been key in being able to create quality looking content. Sometimes you have to focus on what the thing you are learning is going to do for you when it doesn’t excite you all on its own.

Quickbooks- I totally grumbled the whole way, but now I’ve got a great handle on what my finances and business are doing every day, month and year. That actually feels really good. It’s important in order to build a sustainable business model and financial stability. I feel like I owe book keeping an apology for being such a resentful learner. It’s like that moment when you figure out that your parents were totally right about something and begrudgingly admit it as you roll your eyes. It might not have had to be so torturous for me if I had focused on how much it was going to improve my financial life and give me the security of knowing that everything was planned for.

Sometimes you need to learn something because not knowing it seriously limits getting the things you want.

Marketing- I kept saying I was bad at this until I decided I needed to stop making excuses and learn! Sometimes you need to learn something because not knowing it seriously limits getting the things you want. I stumbled into a teaching business without trying but at a certain point I needed to grow. I also wanted to learn how to sell the things I create. Now I’m actually super excited about it because although creating for my dog is nice, he doesn’t really get how brilliant the thing I made is. I’m pretty sure he’d love it even if it was bad. Being able to have a job I love and get paid to teach and create? Best job ever. You really can’t create in a vacuum and feel fulfilled no matter how amazing your creations are. We all need some love.

Building a Website– I tried letting others do it for me but they didn’t really understand what I wanted to make. I always have some crazy, specific idea when I create something and often others don’t think it makes sense until poof! Sometimes that poof is because I blew something up from not knowing what I’m doing but eventually it’s a magical poof. (Think fairy godmother) Now I’ve built suzanstroud.com which has a ton of tools and resources that I can plug into lesson plans and really add to the experience of my students.

Chinese– This is an example of when I wasn’t realistic in what I expected from myself compared to the goals I actually set. I wanted to be fluent even though that wasn’t the goal I set. It wasn’t a reasonable goal that I could fit it into my life. I can have a simple conversation and read and write a little but I’m not fluent. My original reasons for learning were to help my daughter in Chinese school. I more than met the goal I set and could have felt satisfied with that if I had kept a healthier perspective. Instead, I felt disappointed in myself because I was subconsciously holding myself to a bigger goal than I set or planned for. It’s not easy to keep your perspective focused on what you logically know make sense. Sometimes that dreamy part of you takes over. It doesn’t care about the details required for the vision it’s playing through your head, it’s just focused on the romantic notion of what you could have. It’s important to give that dreamer a little reminder at times.

I want to point out that I didn’t become a master at all of these things. Some things I really went in depth to learn but other things were for a specific purpose and my learning was more shallow. We’ll talk more about that below.

The dreaded “P” word…

Practice is a regular commitment to using information or working with a skill and it’s a big part of learning. Already, some of you heard the word ‘practice’ and are ready to bolt. Wait, don’t leave yet! I promise it doesn’t need to be so difficult. The important thing about practice is making a plan that doesn’t make you unhappy and that you can actually stick to. I’m going to help you figure out how to work practicing into your life in a way that is completely reasonable.

Learning will be more effective if it’s fun.

Your brain releases chemicals to help you pay attention and help encode memory when you are interested. Your brain showing interest is nature’s way of helping you learn and remember things that will help you survive. For instance, your brain would want you to pay attention to the tiger that is eyeing you like you are dinner. That’s no longer a problem we usually have to face but our brains are still designed to work that way. It doesn’t mean you are spoiled or lazy because you want the experience to actually engage your interest. Go ahead and use the way your brain naturally works to your advantage. See? Now you don’t have to feel guilty for wanting to enjoy yourself. You’re welcome.

Customize your Plan To Your Goals

If your entire life is not going to center around the thing you are learning, stop thinking you need to master the entire subject! Determine what things within the subject are necessary and relevant to what you want to do. Learning plans should be adjusted to what you can commit to and what your specific goals are. If you don’t do this, you are not going to feel fulfilled or be motivated. You will probably feel unsatisfied because you imagined yourself doing something way different than what you actually end up doing. Yep, you can refer to my Chinese learning above for an excellent example of what happens when you try to do too much and don’t keep your plan to your goals. Try to think if you have something like this that you’ve done. Learning should make you feel proud of what you’ve accomplished, not make you feel like a failure because you didn’t do more. You can always decide to learn more in your subject later and then you will have already built a foundation making it easier.

The next step is going to be laying out what happens in your calendar every week. As we fill out the worksheets in part 2, you will be able to use it to help you figure out how learning can fit into your week. There are different things we will consider as we decide where to put learning tasks, so don’t fill in that part yet. Just track what happens in your week. You may want to also pay attention to how many unexpected things pop up in your week. If unexpected things happen regularly you need to figure out where they usually happen so they don’t derail your whole plan. Download the Calendar below and start tracking!

Weekly Calendar and Checklist

Stay tuned for How to Fit Learning Into Your Life Part 2 which is going to dive into the details and give you some worksheets (and examples) you can fill out to figure out how this can work for you.

Posted on

My guest blog post featured on Musical U!

Since 2015 Musical U website dedicated to helping students to become more musical through a series of training modules and apps, as well as the supportive community they've created and continue to foster. They contacted me this past March asking for permission to link to an article of mine about sight reading versus playing by ear. That led to an opportunity to do a guest blog for them which is featured this month (May 23, 2018).Continue reading

Posted on

Why Hybrid Pianos Solve The Digital Vs. Acoustic Debate For Most Buyers

More Choices Than Ever

Hybrid pianos represent an exciting new option for piano buyers. The technology is still fairly new, but hybrid pianos give the best of both worlds when it comes to pianos and keyboards. There are still few models to choose from and they are still relatively expensive but I believe they are poised to take over the market as musicians and teachers discover and work with them. Continue reading “Why Hybrid Pianos Solve The Digital Vs. Acoustic Debate For Most Buyers”

Posted on

How Do We Change Music Education To Be Effective For All Learners?

One-on-one lessons should have learning plans tailored to meet students goals and pace; not be a pre-packaged process where the teacher teaches everyone exactly the same way with the same music. Students are often taught in a way that is not only unexciting but isn’t designed give them the specific tools they’ll need to do what they want to do with music.      Continue reading “How Do We Change Music Education To Be Effective For All Learners?”