Robyn Costa 10/21/25 Robyn Costa 10/21/25

Everything is Practicing! How Being a Bad Swimmer Helped Me With Performance Pressure

Learning to swim as a grown-ass woman in her fifties is no joke - or rather, it is, but…

What in the world does being bad at swimming have to do with performing on stage? Have you ever thought about your stages of stress? I realized that my stages of stress were the same, regardless of what activity I was doing. Here’s my story about how learning a new skill (swimming) and not being good at it, helps me handle when things don’t go as well as I’d like on stage.

At first, I thought the directions I was giving myself was about gaining control, but now I realize that I was giving myself the support I needed to continue.

Robyn Costa 4/4/25 Robyn Costa 4/4/25

How to Have a Good Practice Session When You Sound Like 💩

Sometimes, you just don’t sound good. Here’s how I had a great practice session even though so many things were going wrong.

Robyn Costa 3/1/25 Robyn Costa 3/1/25

The One Thing That Most Musicians Don’t Do Well

There’s one thing that musicians all over the world consistently do not do well: have hobbies.

Hobbies can help you to become a better musician. Here’s how:

Robyn Costa 1/13/25 Robyn Costa 1/13/25

The Gift of Presence - a Labor Love Story

I don’t know about you, but I hate labor stories. They’re so traumatic, and bloody… But this isn’t that - I promise. My daughter gave me the beautiful gift of presence.

Anyway, this is for all of you future labor journeyers or labor-adjacent journeyers out there.

Robyn Costa 1/13/25 Robyn Costa 1/13/25

What to do When You Have to Practice-Cram

What do you do when you have to cram and learn your music more quickly than you would like?

Truth be told, I don’t always have the luxury to ease back in to practicing. When that happens, here’s what I do to make practice cramming more efficient and injury free.

Robyn Costa 1/10/25 Robyn Costa 1/10/25

Struggling With Getting Back Into Practicing After a Break?

Taking a break is wonderful - and necessary. But sometimes coming back to our instruments is a struggle. Here’s what I did recently to help me get back into the swing of practicing.

Robyn Costa 12/29/24 Robyn Costa 12/29/24

Does walking down stairs hurt?

Does walking down stairs hurt? It doesn’t have to. Here are three simple ways to make going up and down stairs easier and pain free.

Robyn Costa 11/25/24 Robyn Costa 11/25/24

Are you a road warrior? Finding more comfort in the car.

Have you ever had the experience of stopping for gas after a few hours of driving and found that your legs didn’t work? Here are a few common points of tension while driving and easy steps to address them.

Robyn Costa 10/23/24 Robyn Costa 10/23/24

Simple trick to holding your instrument without pain

So, this question has been coming up a lot lately in my workshops: how do we hold our instrument without pain? Short of tying helium balloons to your clarinet, here’s a simple trick to make your instrument feel lighter…

Robyn Costa 9/22/24 Robyn Costa 9/22/24

Snake in a Can

How wonderful it would be if our bodies came equipped with a little button that we could push to automatically release the compression that we inevitably revert to? Like that Snake in a Can toy!