Mindfulness, Confidence & Performance
\Madeline Bruser and our certified teachers offer workshops in Mindfulness, Confidence, & Performance at college music departments, high schools, music teachers’ organizations, and other institutions. This training can be taught in four one-hour modules, which can be expanded, combined, or adapted to meet the needs of students.
Each workshop includes:
- Instruction in a specific technique
- A question-and-answer session
The four modules are:
1. Mindfulness-Awareness Meditation
Mindfulness-Awareness Meditation workshops teach mental techniques for establishing basic presence of mind.
Technique: mindfulness of breathing
Results:
- Clears the mind and opens perceptions and intuition for practice and performance
- Reduces stress
- Increases mental focus
- Strengthens stage presence
- Familiarizes musician with state of flow that happens in performance
2. Body and Sound Awareness
Body and Sound Awareness workshops focus on a combination of two techniques using one’s instrument.
Techniques: body scan and mindfulness of sounds and sensations
Results:
- Connects the musician to full capacity for appreciating sound while playing
- Enriches sound quality
- Allows musician to play with more emotional intensity yet less physical tension
- Creates more engaged and engaging performance
- Strengthens artistic conviction
- Deepens familiarity with state of flow, contributing toward confidence in performance
3. The Performing Beyond Fear exercise
The Performing Beyond Fear exercise is a 7-minute technique for rousing confidence. Click to hear the new audio.
Technique: contemplation
Results:
- Increases expressve power
- Shifts mental focus from self-consciousness to generosity onstage
- Transforms stage fright into confidence
4. Focusing
Focusing is a mindfulness technique for developing awareness of visceral and emotional energies used in making music.
Technique: mindfulness of inner body sensations
Results:
- Increases availability of emotional energies for making music
- Increases range of emotional expression
- Clears negative energies that block musical impulses
Teacher Training
The Institute trains teachers in instrumental instruction through private sessions and workshops conducted by Madeline Bruser and Certified teachers at our individual studios and online.
Certification Process
For Pianists:
Founding teacher Madeline Bruser offers Teacher Certification for pianists, with training online or in person in Philadelphia.
Pre-Certification Training
Prior to Certification Training, pianists focus on basic techniques of the Art of Practicing. This study includes:
- Private lessons or participation in the Transformative Piano Master Class Series with Madeline Bruser
- Practicing teaching basic techniques of the Art of Practicing in one or more Piano Teachers’ Workshops
Certification
Certification focuses on developing more advanced skills as a teacher of the Art of Practicing. Underlying this work is the theme of working with the student as a whole person and deepening one’s understanding of teaching as a creative dialogue. Participants will:
- Participate in an 18-week Advanced Piano Teacher Training program.
- Explore and study the practice of mindfulness and its relationship to artistic and educational processes
- Conduct a seminar on the Art of Practicing
- Conduct workshops on Mindfulness-Awareness Meditation for Musicians, Body and Sound Awareness, and the Performing Beyond Fear exercise.
For Non-pianists
The Art of Practicing Institute also offers a Teacher Certification program for non-pianists, each of whom can focus either on teaching their own instrument, or on applying the Art of Practicing to teaching all instruments,
For more information about Teacher Certification, please email Madeline Bruser at madelinebruser@gmail.com