How to Start a Performance with More Accuracy (Without the Onstage Warm-Up)

The Bulletproof Musician by Noa Kageyama

Jan 18, 20267:55Science & Medicine

One of my teachers often used to say that no matter what you’re playing, when you’re on stage, the beginning of a piece is always the hardest part. Not because the opening is more difficult technically, but because we’ve...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from The Bulletproof Musician.

2026.8 Lorna McGhee

Aug 2, 2026 - 54:11

Do elite performers actually feel as confident as they look? In this conversation with Boston Symphony pr...

Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse: The Science of Sleep for Musicians

May 10, 2026 - 43:05

What if one of the most overlooked factors affecting memory consolidation, emotional regulation, practice...

Paul Baxter: Why Bad Habits Keep Coming Back (And a Faster Way to Change Them)

Apr 6, 2026 - 35:10

Have you ever had the experience of fixing something in the practice room…only to have it come back in pe...

Micah Killion: The One Thing Artist-Level Musicians Do Differently in the Practice Room

Mar 8, 2026 - 61:06

How should musicians actually practice to improve faster? In this conversation with researcher and trumpe...

When You Can’t Get Yourself to Start Practicing, Try This

Jan 11, 2026 - 7:57

In some years it feels easier to begin the new year with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Other years, it...

The Central Strategy Expert Musicians Use to Practice Difficult Passages

Dec 28, 2025 - 9:26

We all get stuck on problem passages from time to time. And it can be very natural to simply throw more r...

How a Small Change in Self-Talk Could Improve Performance Under Pressure

Dec 21, 2025 - 8:26

The voice in our head can be an asset at times - but also kind of a jerk at the worst possible moments. A...

A Learning Method That Outperformed Traditional Practice

Dec 14, 2025 - 9:58

A few months ago, when a sportswriter published an article in The New York Times about an unusual and “re...