An embodied mindful approach to playing, practice and performance.
STANDARD: ALL
Resident: £402 Non-Resident: £292 (25% off for under 27s) Code: 25/247
Booking for Members opens at 9am on Thursday 12th September 2024
Booking for Non-Members opens at 9am on Thursday 3rd October 2024
For details on how to become a Member to take advantage of early booking, see here.
What is the course about?
Through hands-on experience, Lucy and Ruth offer simple tools to relieve stress, ease tension and suggest strategies to help overcome fear/nerves onstage and off.
Lucy and Ruth are both professional musicians and qualified Mindfulness teachers, who share a dedicated yoga practice. For over a decade, they have been specialising in helping musicians, at all levels, who suffer from tension and anxiety around playing. They will offer the tools that have helped them transform their own relationship to their instruments, whether teaching or performing. There is a kinder, more positively aware, spacious and calm approach towards being a musician.
Tutor websites: ruthphillips.com fitzwilliamquartet.com/lucy-russell
What will we cover?
We will talk about:
Mindfulness of Breath
How breath provides a sense of solidity, an anchor in the present moment which is both calming and grounding and influences our posture, bowing and phrasing.
Mindfulness of Body
How well do we know our bodies from the inside out? When we stop trying too hard, we can find a way of softening and dissolving the tensions which were previously ‘unfelt’ or un-noticed. Developing a greater physical awareness and relationship with our own bodies through grounding and balance.
Mindfulness of Thoughts
Learning how to differentiate between helpful and unhelpful thoughts. Noticing how they have the power to sabotage our practice and performance, and learning how to let them pass and come back into presence.
Mindfulness of Emotions
Exploring how we can meet challenging emotions - like fear, doubt and despondency.
Mindfulness of Intention
How practices such as self-compassion and kindness can help transform our relationship to ourselves and therefore to our audience.
You will embody the practices, share and play, and Lucy and Ruth will demonstrate how each practice relates to the particular challenges of a musician’s life. There will also be the opportunity to explore ways of befriending the relationship we have to our instruments in smaller groups, playing and sharing with each other in an entirely supportive and non-judgmental environment.
What will we accomplish? By the end of this course you will have
By the end of the course you should have enough tools to sustain a regular meditation practice and be able to play with more ease, focus and friendly self-awareness.
The aim of the course is to introduce life-long skills which can promote healthy, happier music-making, prevent self-injury, enhance and sustain the joy of playing music.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is open to all amateurs, students, professionals and teachers of music. Anyone wishing to free up their experience of playing or teaching an instrument.
How will the course be taught, and will any preparation be required?
The course will be taught in a group with the occasional exercise in pairs or triads. Each day will start and end with a guided meditation on a specific aspect of playing and practicing mindfully. There will be an opportunity for talking about /sharing your experiences and for playing to one another if you feel that would be helpful or to build in a 1-1 private consultation if that feels more safe.
There is no obligation to play.
Will music be provided in advance of the course?
N/A.
Is there anything I need to bring?
Comfortable clothing, yoga mat and your instrument.
What previous participants have said about Lucy and Ruth...
"Ruth and Lucy model huge compassion, generosity and understanding as they help musicians like me start to heal from decades of stage fright, physical tension and crippling perfectionism. Their holistic approach encompasses gentle breath and body work as well as beautiful meditations and poetry gleaned from Mindfulness and Buddhist traditions, all of which is gently directed towards how we perceive ourselves as musicians per se but also in relation to our particular instrument. By the end of the weekend, I felt as though I’d had a whole person re-boot, with much to take away and explore: highly recommend!"
"An extremely valuable opportunity to step back, reflect holistically on who we are in relation to making and sharing music and mine the rich depths of mindfulness approaches for ways of being more present, authentic and open-hearted musicians."
"Transformative and very healing."
"This course offered a uniquely holistic approach to music-making. It was the perfect mix of practical and psychological support, covering many things that aren't talked about in music institutions and really should be!"
"I witnessed such an undoing of the damage we were all suffering from."
"This was such a well-targeted course that I noticed several attendees, who had arrived on Friday looking careworn, anxious, suffering from performance nerves and in some cases considering giving up playing, were so transformed by Sunday that they looked much better in themselves and were hurrying home to put Lucy and Ruth's guidance into practice."