music!
your
charge
Super
Performance Coaching for Musicians
with Dr Robert Szymanek PhD MISM
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My work is about helping people to flourish and find satisfaction, joy and success in all aspects of their musicianship - from learning, practising and performance, to composition and teaching.
With over 20 years of professional experience as a musician, and 10 years teaching and coaching musicians at all levels, I know for sure that when we feel good in ourselves at the instrument, we play great!
By ‘feeling good’ I mean a sense of wellbeing in mind and body. That in turn is really a balance between many different things: we are relaxed yet adequately energised; at ease while also up for the adventure; grounded yet open-minded - and hearted.
So in every session, we work to find and strengthen the things that bring you more wellbeing during your learning, practice and performance.
It's very much a whole-person approach.
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We nurture your personal interests and values. We think about next-steps and goals that are in tune with your needs. We find the things that motivate you during practice and give you encouragement on your path.
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We work with gesture and movement to release tension and play more freely. We use your senses of touch, sight, hearing and your felt sense to free up the mind and connect with the music. We use positive imagery and role play to get you in a good state for playing well.
If any nerves, stress or doubt disrupt or inhibit your ability, we find ways to be with and soothe vulnerabilities. We work to activate self-forgiveness and compassion and approach difficulties and setbacks with kindness and understanding. We then find a way forward that feels good for you in the moment and reconnects you with your love for music.
We build this positive framework of positive thoughts and feelings that helps you feel good about your playing and enjoy it in the here and now.
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With that calmer mind, you'll find you can then learn, practice and perform better. You will have more ability to think clearly, and become more physically relaxed. This will allows you to play with improved technical facility. You'll also find there's more headspace for creative thinking, and that you can connect more easily with the music, so your playing can become much more expressive and spontaneous. That's when you can really shine as a musician, surprising even yourself.
The same approach - called Schema Coaching - has transformed my own playing. I used to suffer terribly with nerves and stress at the piano and in teaching. But those days are gone, and now I work to help other piano players train their minds and bodies to think and feel calm, free and happy in their music-making.
I have seen the techniques bring long-lasting positive change in clients. It is very rewarding to see people overcome their difficulties, enjoy their playing so much more, and perform highly engaging, imaginative and indeed moving, powerful music.
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If you'd like to know more, I'd love to hear from you: rob@feelgoodplaygreat.com