Mind Body Music School
June Term at MBMS
Two Intensive Online Courses for Musicians
A note: this is an early preview for subscribers of MBMS and Mari Hodges. This page is a work in progress but hopefully enough information for you to make a decision to take advantage of the tuition savings.
Register by April 30 and save $100 on either course.
Start Here
General Course Info
Each course, while sharing the same structure and format, will have a slightly different feel.
Playing With(out) Pain is designed for musicians who are currently hurting, either from acute injury or chronic pain. We want to create the safest, most intimate space for real healing to occur. If you’re a teacher who meets this criterion, you’re welcome to join us.
With Performing With(out) Fear we are swinging the doors open wider. That course is for any musician who wants to approach their performing from a different joy-based perspective. And for music teachers seeking deeper ways to help their students with their fear and anxiety challenges.
At this time, we are asking that people sign up for only one course. This is mainly due to space limitations. But also the fact that each course will be going quite deep. If spots remain within 2 weeks of the term’s start, we’ll open up the option to take both.
Course One
Playing With(out) Pain
The Alexander Technique & Pain Science for Musicians
If pain is getting in the way of your music-making, let me first say that I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. I know firsthand how frustrating and even demoralizing it can be when it hurts to do the thing you love most.
Second, please know you’re not alone. Consider this shocking stat: 90% of instrumentalists will experience pain at some point in their career.
That’s more than just data. That’s an occupational hazard.
Yet, how many musicians are taught the truth about pain, why it happens and what to do when it shows up? This is a MAJOR gap in our music education system.
There were 2 turning points in my pain journey that changed everything:
- Discovering and studying the Alexander Technique in my early 20s, which helped me recover from severe lower back pain
- Learning about modern pain science about 18 months ago, which is now helping me recover from chronic tendonitis
Those two experiences are the foundation of this course.
I’m glad to be teaming up with Alexander teacher and pain therapist Mari Hodges (who co-taught that pain science course I took in 2024) for this brand new online course.
What You’ll Experience
This course is about creating new, hopeful possibilities for your music-making. We aren’t promising all your pain will be gone in 3.5 weeks. But we will help you move towards a future where you feel safe in your body, even when pain shows up. Where you look forward to practicing and rehearsing with anticipation instead of dread. And where you feel like playing your instrument is a source of joy again.
You’ll get the latest research and thinking from modern pain science in this course, no doubt. But the real impact is in the experience. Where you’ll actually begin to feel more safety in your body, the essential ingredient in playing with less (or no) pain.
Who This Course Is For
This course is for musicians who want more than coping strategies and pain management tips. It’s for people who want to do the deeper work of exploring the root causes of their pain. And who understand that real change takes time.
It’s also for musicians in pain who have been frustrated by the standard interventions for pain and injury. And who are open to different ways of thinking about and exploring pain recovery.
This is not a quick fix course. The nervous system may fire fast but it changes slow. If you’re ready for that kind of work, we’d love to have you in the Zoom room with us.
The Curriculum
Each class pairs a pain science theme with a mind-body practice informed by the Alexander Technique.
Class 1: Rethinking Pain
- Common ways of thinking about pain that may not be accurate or useful
- The biopsychosocial model: a whole-person framework that goes beyond the separation of mind and body
- Practice #1: Centering – Getting Oriented Toward Safety
Class 2: The Nature of Pain
- The multidimensional nature of pain including its sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions
- The relationship between pain, attention and suffering
- Practice #2: Breathing – The Great Unifier
Class 3: What Contributes to Pain
- Mapping the lifestyle factors that contribute to pain
- Noticing where you perceive danger, where you perceive safety, and where you can do less
- Practice #3: Befriending – Exploring How You Relate to Pain
Class 4: How Pain Becomes Chronic
- The physiology of pain and how a sensitized nervous system keeps producing pain after tissues have healed
- Pacing, graded exposure, and finding your sweet zone of activity
- Practice #4: Choosing – Daring to Play
Class 5: Stress and Agency
- The stress-pain connection and what agency really means in recovery
- Building a personal flare-up plan
- Practice #5: Coordinating – How to Harmonize with Your Body
Class 6: Learning & Unlearning
- Non-reactivity and learning new response patterns
- Attentional biases and habitual patterns that keep the nervous system in protective mode
- Practice #6: Resting – The Art of Just Being
Class 7: Integration
- Bringing it all together: understand, feel, and be safe to move
- Building your personal recovery roadmap
- Practice #7: Shapeshifting – Allowing for All Kinds of Movement
All participants will receive a substantive course handbook, Playing With(out) Pain, co-authored by Mari and Peter.
Course Two
Performing With(out) Fear
Choosing Joy, Courage & Connection in Musical Communication
Fear is a real joy killer.
But if you deal with performance anxiety you likely already know that!
Performing-related fear and anxiety is probably the #1 issue that musicians struggle with.
One of the main reasons is that, like pain education, performing skills are largely absent from most musicians’ training. And so instead they get fed the same old stale advice: relax, calm down, take deep breaths. And then there’s this gem: imagine the audience in their underwear (which has to be the stupidest piece of advice ever given!).
Over twelve years of coaching, I’ve learned that what performers really need is a performance plan grounded in reality. And to learn how to skillfully engage with an audience and bridge the chasm between the practice room and the performing stage.
This course is about making that shift.
What’s Possible
There’s a moment that almost every performer knows. When you’re no longer playing but being played. Not singing but being sung. You’ve transcended yourself and disappeared into the music.
You are now a medium that sends the music directly to the hearts and souls of your listeners.
You’ve made the leap from fear and worry to service and connection.
That’s what’s possible. And that’s what we’ll be exploring.
Who This Course Is For
This course is open to musicians of any musical style or skill level who are ready to address the root causes of their fear and anxiety in performance. And for music teachers who want evidence-based, stress-tested ideas from the field of Alexander Technique and positive psychology to help your students in a deeper, more lasting way.
Like the pain course, this one is about fundamental change. We’ll be doing deep, personal work. On your identity as a musician, the stories you tell about yourself (that may or may not be serving you) and how to work with your whole self in performance. If you’re ready to engage fully in this process, I’m confident you’ll begin to experience a major shift in how you approach performing. Something you can build on for the rest of your performing career.
The Curriculum
This course is built on two things working together: a complete performance framework and live performance coaching with me.
The Framework: 6 Lenses on Performance
Every performing moment has at least six dimensions happening simultaneously:
- The Spiritual Lens: the deeper meaning and larger purpose of your work
- The Physical Lens: knowing how to somatically work with performance energy
- The Emotional Lens: why you don’t need to feel the emotion you’re expressing (though you might!)
- The Mental Lens: how to think consciously, clearly and constructively
- The Musical Lens: knowing what you want to express, in advance and in the moment
- The Social Lens: how you relate to the other humans in the room (colleagues and audience alike)
We’ll spend the course exploring each lens in depth as well as how they come together as a whole. You’ll also learn how to use the 6 lenses as a diagnostic tool.
Live Performance Lab & Coaching with Peter
Every class will include a performance lab open to volunteers who want to receive real-time coaching with me. You may also request input from your fellow participants. I know, I know. Receiving input from classmates is delicate work. But it can also be extremely valuable. We never really know how we occur to others unless we ask them. How to handle group input is something I’ve thought a lot about over the years and have devised ways of doing it for maximum impact and minimum bruised egos. 😉
The coaching is where the 6 lenses framework comes alive. You’ll get to see how you can apply the lenses whether you raise your hand to perform or just prefer to observe.
All participants will receive a substantive course handbook, Performing With(out) Fear, written by me.
If you’re seriously drawn to one of these courses and currently under-resourced financially, please be in touch. We’ll see what we can work out.
