4 Week Mastermind Group
Saturdays
11am – 12:30pm Pacific Time
90 Minutes
4/1, 4/8, 4/15, 4/22
(Limited to 10 spots)
Here are the main themes for our four meetings. We will also respond to the group dynamic by adding any areas that become important for us through discussion.
I’ll start with a brief presentation on the weekly theme and we’ll start discussion. We will discuss much more than the theme – take notes in your teaching or practice and bring questions, ask about the science or anything else that is on your practicing mind. We’ll solve problems and clarify thought.
I will be available to clarify, steer the discussion and answer questions, and we will have the experience of the group in their own learning to understand individual insights from which we can all learn.
Please join us!
Mindset – Setting the tone for deep, meaningful and rich discussion
This is the perfect place to start – with an understanding and development of a growth mindset in order to have a rich and meaningful exchange of ideas.
Mindset is much more than the cliff notes version about making mistakes that is in the popular understanding. After all, Carol Dweck has been studying this phenomenon for 40+ years. There is much to understand.
We will learn about an all-time great athlete who could have been much better if not for a small mindset problem that was under his control. If that can happen then what can happen to everyone else?
We’ll see it at work in other situations. It is not hard to slip into a fixed mindset. It happens to all of us.
There is a misunderstanding in our schools that has turned mindset into a feel good trope making it ineffective. We’ll take a look at some of the misinformation and mythinformation that can confuse the issue so we can understand and use it to improve.
Memorization
It is the invisible skill that we seem to only be able to test in performance, and then it falls apart. There are answers.
How does this elusive state work? It is easier than many think. Sure, there is plenty of information – Studies, videos, ‘landmarks’, books, etc. – maybe too much, but it too often does not solve the problem.
The thing is that perfect recall of any amount of information by any healthy human is entirely possible. This has been demonstrated again and again by all sorts of people.
Too many of us rely on things like the old ‘memorizing by accident’ model I used when I was learning and, unfortunately, relied upon with students for years. I even found a solution once, used it once, played really well in concert once and didn’t use it again for over a decade. This type of thing is more common than we may think.
Understanding the larger picture of how this works takes memorizing form accidental and temperamental to elemental and transcendental!
It has a pretty amazing effect on stage fright as well!
Teaching and Learning Creativity/Improvisation
There are different kinds and levels of creativity and they are all learned skills. The soft skill of improvisation is nonetheless a skill that can be developed.
We are so very creative in so many ways every day, yet we take these things for granted because they are common skills we’ve all developed. In them we have the blueprint to learn to be creative in anything including music.
Whether it is improvising, writing our first song, or orchestrating a masterpiece, the way to do this can be learned from this blueprint, but we don’t realize it.
Embedded in the principles of learning IS the act of learning creativity. We’ll take a look at what they are, how they work and how we can use them to our advantage in helping ourselves and others learn to be creative.
Since improvisation has been a frequent question I’ve gotten we will spend time discussing what that learning process really is so that we may see a path to our goals.
The Gap
Why is it so hard to understand and incorporate the best information in learning science?
Like many learners who want to improve as musicians and/or teachers over many years, I cobbled together an understanding of certain techniques, tips, and tricks that helped. I now realize that I was just being given fish and not taught to fish.
Then about 13 years ago I got blindsided by the whole cognitive science thing as a result of reading a book. It became an obsession, and it was also hard, pretty boring at first, and kind of grueling to begin reading formal research in a field in which I had no experience.
There is a gap between the research community and the education/learning community. I live in this gap and it is a desolate place. We will look at why this exists and how we can make up for that in our own understanding.
We’ll also learn how to begin to be able to understand how to read the research without having to do it the hard way like I did. Well also learn to cut through the misunderstandings and neuromyths that are in the common understanding of learning.
Like many things I’ve learned, I wish I knew this 13 years ago. It would have made the complicated information I was seeking much easier to understand.
Depending upon the discussion, other areas of consideration can be introduced such as diving deep on deliberate practice, the many creative interventions that can be used for contextual interference, the connection between music and academics, and the many ways to apply retrieval practice are just a few.
There will even be a Facebook group exclusive to the members of this mastermind group.
I hope this offers a way for those who want to learn more, but are not able to do Practice Coaching, as well those who have done the coaching and want to continue their growth.
I want to make it accessible to all so while the price of a single hour long, one to one session is $250/hour, I’m going to offer this mastermind package for $179.
But I’ve got an even better offer for those who want to be in the very first group.
I value your feedback and opinions, so I’m going offer this for $149 for four 90 minute weekly sessions with a small group limited to 10 people. Everyone will get a chance to ask questions and participate in the discussion if they wish. It will be a learning experience you can take with you long after.
The Facebook group is exclusive to members of the 30 day mastermind group. We can share in between sessions and use some of that to fuel our discussion when we meet.
Enrollment is strictly limited to 10 people for better learning. Enrollment ends this Friday at midnight and the first meeting is Saturday!
Please join me for the launch of my first mastermind group – 30 Days to Better Ways!
Unfortunately there will be no recordings available. That would defeat the goal of full participation in powerful learning through real time observation, thought and exchange. The fun, and the learning, will occur in that dynamic environment!
Due to limited availability of 10 spots there will be no refunds once registered.