Are your students realising their potential and getting the most out of their performances? Are they strengthening technical and expressive skills but neglecting to develop the skills needed for performance? Perhaps nerves are inhibiting their enjoyment or impairing their performance? Maybe they find it hard to focus, worry too much about what others are thinking or get thrown by mistakes or memory lapses. The reality is that all students will experience performance nerves to varying degrees and have difficulty managing the demands of performing. As a result, enjoyment of their craft is often severely diminished and many talented students will avoid performing or not achieve their potential.
What can you do to help your students improve the odds of playing well when the moment comes?
theperformancetrain offers individual performance consultation for teachers. You can organise a performance consultant to visit your studio and work with your students on a one-to-one or group basis. Our consultant will give you an overview on the skills required for optimal performance and show you some effective strategies that you can use to help your students play their best under pressure.
Contact theperformancetrain if you would like a performance consultant to visit your studio and work with your students.
Alternatively you could attend our Keys2PlayStudio professional development workshops. These are aimed specifically at music educators and teachers to help their students get the best out of themselves. The workshops provide an overview of the skills required for peak performance and equip teachers with a range of effective strategies to help their students learn what they have to do to play up to their potential. Using proven techniques from both performance and sports psychology these workshops introduce a variety of practical yet simple strategies that will enable students of any age to manage nerves, release tension, stay focussed, cope with mishaps, improve their preparation and develop confidence in order to perform to the best of their ability when it really counts. Prevention is KEY.
Many teachers and music educators may already be aware of many of the skills and strategies needed for mastering performance. However, often these can be quite abstract for students to grasp and it may not be clear as to how to best teach these skills. These workshops offer is a very concrete, structured and systematic approach to learning, understanding and developing these skills through the use of:
- Worksheets to monitor and track student’s progress,
- Audio recordings to facilitate skill development, and,
- Structured exercises and activities to incorporate into lessons, group sessions and practice.
Course Overview
Keys2Play studio offers a range of modules for professional development. Each module targets a KEY performance mastery skill introducing KEY Strategies or techniques for developing that particular skill area. As participants complete or move through the modules they will be equipped with a range of practical strategies that can easily be integrated into practice and lessons to help their students play to their potential. Whilst all of the strategies are effective, maximum benefit is achieved when students have the opportunity to develop a personalised ‘toolbox’ of skills and strategies that can be used in conjunction with one another.
The essential starting point is the KEYS Essential module. Following this the modules can be completed in any order depending upon the needs and interests of the participants. Most of the modules are 40 minutes in length (unless otherwise indicated) so you can structure a workshop that best meets the needs of your group.
All modules include handouts, structured activities for individual or group lessons, strategies for individual practice and a guide to constructing worksheets that will enable students and teachers to monitor progress.
KEYS Essential MODULE (1hr 20 min)
Provides a comprehensive background on critical performance skills, the five key elements to mastering performance and the specific modes of thinking associated with a successful performance. With a major focus on performance anxiety participants will learn how to:
- Recognise and understand the different and subtle ways anxiety can manifest;
- Reduce the effects of performance anxiety;
- Switch from practice (analytical thinking) to performance (inspired, creative) mode;
- *Stay grounded by mastering a quick and effective strategy for starting every performance off on the right foot;
- Introduce and apply these strategies to students of any age;
- Evaluate the critical interplay of various situational and personal factors that may impact students’ levels of performance anxiety; and,
- Build confidence and make performing a positive experience for students.
*Audio recording available
The following table shows the performance mastery skill targeted by each workshop module. For further information, please download our Professional Development Handbook.
| PERFORMANCE MASTERY SKILL | ||||
| MANAGING NERVES | CONFIDENCE | FOCUS | PREPARATION | |
| Modules | Good Starts
Fine Tuning 1 Fine Tuning 2 |
Critic-to-Coach 1
Critic-to-Coach 2 Making the Unfamiliar, Familar 1 Making the Unfamiliar, Familiar 2 Strike a Pose The Confident Performer |
Good Starts
Sharpen Up 1 Sharpen Up 2 Fine Tuning 1 Fine Tuning 2 Making the Unfamiliar, Familiar 2 |
Making the Unfamiliar, Familiar 1
Making the Unfamiliar, Familiar 2 Rock-Solid Memory |
theperformancetrain 