The Soulful Musician™
Performance Immersions

The School for Soulful Artistry™ is committed to creating a safe environment for student musicians to explore their unique approach to performing and to discover how to communicate their musical artistry while performing under pressure. With this goal in mind, the school offers weeklong performance immersions which combine performance skills education, daily mock auditions, and one-on-one mind-body coaching sessions. The immersions are designed to work with eight to ten student musicians at a time.

The educational components include learning the techniques offered in the PTPM program, mental resiliency training, and movement & self-regulation routines. The mental resiliency training utilizes tools developed by Dr. Ferguson to help musicians manage the mental aspects of performance preparation and execution. Two important outcomes from this training are the ability to transform the mind’s limiting and distracting self-talk into greater clarity about one’s personal artistry, and understanding how to create a deeper connection to the repertoire being prepared for an upcoming performance or audition.

The movement and self-regulation routines are designed to decrease the potential for physical injuries (especially carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and bursitis), improve mental clarity and breathing, enhance mind-body communication, and manage performance anxiety. These routines not only optimize the learning process during the immersions, but also serve as pre-performance routines for future auditions and high-pressure performances.

The daily group mock auditions give participants the opportunity to explore their newly learned skills while performing under pressure. They also help to build listening skills which enhance performance and audition preparation.

The one-on-one mind-body coaching sessions combine mind-body practices and kinesiology (muscle response testing), with traditional coaching techniques to access the deep wisdom that lies beyond a musician’s conscious awareness. With this approach, Dr. Ferguson can quickly and effectively uncover the beliefs, patterns, and subconscious stresses that are holding a musician back from demonstrating their potential on a consistent basis and from performing their best when it matters most.

For more information about Dr. Ferguson’s mind-body coaching work click below.

All the educational components taught during the immersions are applied, practiced, and fine-tuned during the mock auditions and individual coaching sessions.