Teacher Training
TTC01 TEACHING TRAINING COURSE IN MULTI-STYLE PLAYING & IMPROVISATION FOR STRINGS *
Open to all string instruments including plucked strings (i.e. harp and guitar). No previous multi-style or improvisation experience necessary.
Pre-requisite: This course assumes an intermediate level or above of instrumental playing skills, and is open to all string players and teachers who want to teach multi-style playing and improvisation.
This is a six month course running on one Sunday each month. There is an intake each February and July.
Contact: To express your interest in this workshop, please contact +61 0413 265 831 or click here to email
Description:
Teacher training for string players and string teachers. This course focuses on how to teach multi-style playing and improvisation in a clear and encouraging, age-appropriate way. It is suitable for string teachers from primary and high school to university and professional levels. Based on a new breakthrough method (see Classical Improvisation above), this practical hands-on course creates the skills, resources and confidence for string players and string teachers to teach multi-style playing and music improvisation in an effective and rewarding way for themselves and their students.This approach is being acclaimed by professional musicians and university faculty worldwide. It can be taught, learned, performed and assessed to the same standards which classical music is normally assessed with.
* All concepts, text, course content, description, including the name Integrated Contemporary Performance are copyright © and remain the property of Sonum Solis Pty Ltd
TTC02 VIOLIN TECHNIQUE, REPERTOIRE & PEDAGOGY*
Advanced professional development in teaching classical string technique & repertoire
TTC03 TEACHER TRAINING COURSE FOR INSTRUMENTAL STRINGS*
This is a six month course. There is an intake in February and July.
Contact: To express your interest in this workshop, please contact +61 0413 265 831 or click here to email
Description:
Setting out and developing your own vision for your string teaching practice, and laying out a fun yet thorough framework (or map) for teaching the sequence of progressive skills and abilities you need students to meet. Then developing a corresponding reference of relevant books, etudes, technical work and repertoire. We will also look at some traditional examples of this, the various approaches used by the more influential schools of string playing as an added support to our teaching practice as needed, while developing our own kit of materials to suit our particular teaching work.
How to translate and convey the fundamentals of playing.
Including preparatory work, repertoire, styles, ensemble playing, interpretations and technique to students of different levels of ability, learning styles and age groups.
Boundaries.
Incorporating into our teaching the parameters of boundaries with students about goals or requirements each term, and the corresponding practice expectations, punctuality and self-discipline required to meet that. Being accepting and encouraging yet setting the limits for students (and parents as often) of what is and what isn’t acceptable attitudes and behaviour.
The role of listening.
How to cultivate musical listening with students to deepen and enhance their musical experience and playing. Listening to music whether live or recorded brings a deepening of our relationship with the feelings, stories, drama, suspension, release and general emotional colour of the music. We will explore first hand listening practice for ourselves, and ways we can bridge this experience into many of these areas of value for our students.
Building more productive relationships with our students and peers.
Learning to accept people as they are and deepen our appreciation of what gifts they do bring, and not to judge or project negatively at them for any perceived shortcomings, yet still challenge them to meet standards expected, and really getting how we all grow, change, and adapt and learn.
Teaching, mentoring and coaching.
Becoming more aware in our teaching approaches and communication with students, parents and colleagues. We will explore the modalities of teaching, mentoring and coaching, and how to use these different approaches in ways which nurture self-esteem and wellbeing, and add value to others’ lives and our own.
A culture of inclusiveness.
Developing a healthy culture wherever we are, of helping students to feel appreciated, respected and accepted; demonstrating a culture of inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness around whatever our perception of excellence may be in learning, teaching, practising and performing music.
Creative problem solving.
Creative problem solving in response to obstacles students may face with technique, style, interpretation, history and theory.
How to recognise faulty technique and reverse-engineer the steps for the student, to give give them reliable step-by-step ‘how to” with positive experiences at each step.
How to recognise any gaps students may have in their training, and develop our own response to that with innovative preparatory exercises as needed to remedy any existing weaknesses in their playing. Also how this can be applied to preparing students for some time in advance, before introducing new technical and musical challenges.
Effective communication.
Effective communication of ideas, instructions and expectations with different age groups, using age-appropriate examples, metaphors, technical explanations, physical gestures, story-telling and imagery.
Exploring and developing a broad palette of simple imaginative yet clear language, in teaching the steps to each skill and ability, in both technique and repertoire.
Creative Music Courses For Schools
Developing and implementing creative activities, exercises and games for creative music in schools. This fits and works well in both classroom and instrumental music programs.
Ensemble skills.
Understanding the real fundamentals of ensemble music making, and building our own platforms to meet the diverse needs which we encounter working with schools and community learners. Includes insightful teaching tips, rehearsal approaches, and arrangement building through listening, for imaginative and creative (and fun) chamber music interaction.
How to practice.
What to look for in setting practice tasks, and what makes practice really productive (the art of smart practice).
Recognising the need and correct timing for preparatory exercises, and achieving a healthy balance between technical and musical content and focus, so as to maintain enjoyment and low-stress experiences.
Showing students exactly what to focus on at any moment in their playing. We learn to pay attention to specific aspects of playing, what each step of preparation needs to be to achieve the goal, and how this approach makes everything learned to work reliably at home, in rehearsals, and in performance.
Playing music as a feeling and intuitive process as much as an informed, trained and stepwise one. This is where we explore music as a more meditative experience, with more emphasis on following our ability to feel and intuitively sense the nuances in the music, as much as knowing “what to do”.
Engaging with the real meaning and value of music history and theory.
We spend some time developing innovative approaches to making music history and theory come to life. We explore ways into deepening students’ musical imagination and experience of playing, through imaginative and inspired ways of conveying the human implications of the world and the composer’s life at the time the music was written. We look at how we can express these emotional implications and bring the power of those feelings to life, through being aware of (or emphasising) the use of certain intervals and notes used in the score.
Healing stage-fright.
This is the big one for many students and teachers alike. We get to play our instruments, explore, and try out practical and encouraging approaches and ways into the music, for more enjoyable fulfilling experiences of practice and performance, even under demanding circumstances.
The place of wellbeing and meditation in music study and performance.
We explore self-esteem, wellbeing and meditation approaches, especially in relation to examples from the martial arts and their understanding of “being in the zone”, how to tune in, develop self-discipline, and a real deepening and maturation of our character. As well, we gain experience in various approaches to meditation which can be used to help clear our minds through the day and gain even a few moments inner peace before our next lesson starts.
Technique for tone, phrasing and expression.
How to use and teach technique as the vehicle for tone, phrasing and expression, rather than merely as “developmental exercises”. Feeling safe with the place of feelings and emotions in music, and how we wish to access and let them express in music is one thing. But also knowing the concrete steps of how to translate each of them into musical magic, through an acute awareness of which technical execution causes what emotional colouration of the music.
Experiencing and being able to convey and teach rhythm.
The “feel” and timing in playing music is such a make-or-break component of deep music making. We will be playing our instruments while we explore the flow of rhythm in music as an instinctive awareness, arising from deep in the physical body, and the ways the body helps us register rhythm instinctively in different shapes of movement from different centres in the body, depending on the tempo.
Communication, inclusiveness and ethics.
Developing and bringing to music teaching and performance a culture of professionalism, respect, discipline and good boundaries, side by side with values of listening, nurture, compassion and service to humanity. We explore the role of boundaries in our lives and teaching, and each come to as much clarity as we can around ethical behaviour, responsibility, communication in a culture of inclusiveness, yet which has firm safeguards to protect everyone concerned.
Setting up your teaching business.
The concrete details of setting up your teaching business. Good teaching requires as much deciding the terms, setting the rules on attendance and payments, what constitutes acceptable practice, and what clearly breaches these standards, as much as it does the actual musical instruction. Teaching music is a wonderful way to give back to humanity, but if any of those involved don’t uphold their end of the bargain, it can become very lop-sided and even cause personal stress and financial loss. We look at how to create a supportive framework for our music teaching practice, which keeps the real purpose of passing on all the wonderful stuff which we have, to younger generations, without unnecessary stress or hindrance.
This course is an opportunity to further your ongoing professional development in technical and musical teaching skills as well. Includes exactly how to properly prepare and execute all bow strokes, apply a step by step sequential development through particular technical etudes/studies and concert repertoire, as well as correct preparation and practice for reliable right hand and left hand technique. Includes a reliable framework for posture, bow holds, bow strokes, intonation, shifting, vibrato, double-stops, harmonics and stop-harmonics, and how to teach tone, phrasing, articulation, intensity, and projection, from beginners to a soloistic level. It is suitable for string teachers from primary and high school to university and professional levels.
* All concepts, text, course content, description, including the name Integrated Contemporary Performance are copyright © and remain the property of Sonum Solis Pty Ltd