The Secrets of Experts (Part 3)

The world is your stage!

The third part of Adina Mornell’s course teaches you how practise maintaining a reliable, positive mindset, even during live performances, while reshaping your attitudes toward listeners and taking steps towards playing for others with confidence. In short: How you can create your own stage!

Frequently you can hear the myth that performance practice makes perfect. Some scientific literature even misquotes the results of empirical studies claiming that a fear of spiders can be overcome through step-by-step de-sensibilisation! Unfortunately, the opposite is often true: When performances go well, some musicians believe that their luck will run out next time, and they become even more anxious!

What has been shown to work, is to address performance preparation professionally, rather than hoping that enough regular practice will solidify your skills to the point of security. Strategies that take the performance experience head on not only make for interesting preparation methods, but also allow you to enjoy the "additional ears" of an audience.

Over the course of three workshops interspersed with practical exercises, you will be given tools that will allow you to tweak and enhance your performance preparation strategies for more enjoyable experiences in front of audiences of any size!

What you’ll learn

• Which elements of performance are not covered by repertoire practice, how you can work on these to hone your stage skills using rehearsal methods that suit you personally.
• Beyond lucky charms: How to create your own pre-performance and performance rituals that increase security and best prepare you for those moments "that count".
• How to use the material presented to date to create your own, customised, recipe for performance success enabling you to experience the thrill of sharing your music with others with more security and less stress.

The first workshop will take place on Wednesday 21st May and focusses on turning your practice room into your own “stage” to enable you to work on feeling comfortable in a performance setting. Click here to book your place or click here to find out more about the full course.

Course structure

Workshop 1: Creating a Personalised Set of Learning Strategies

Building upon the scientific information and practical strategies provided during the first two parts, this third part starts by consolidating that knowledge and providing you with some additional tools to enable you to envision yourself as a performer in "everyday life".

By expanding on the techniques and ideas from previous sessions, at the end of this workshop, you will have created a personal catalogue of practice techniques that help ensure that your time at the instrument is challenging, enjoyable and fruitful.

Workshop 2: Customising Performance Rituals

Since we can’t expect to do something on stage we haven’t prepared at home, this workshop will focus practising for performance. It will enable you to work on being “on centre stage” in non-threatening and even non-musical situations, giving you the opportunity to observe and adjust your behaviour.

You’ll learn how to fine-tune your appraisals of your performance in low-level stress situations and rehearse feeling confident about your abilities. This in turn will allow you to experience the joy of performance by focusing your attention on musical communication, leaving the fear of wrong notes and public scrutiny behind.

Workshop 3: Creating a Recipe for Performance Success

Using techniques discussed and rehearsed in the first two workshops, this final session will show you how to take charge of your own practice time, shaping it not only towards musical and technical progress, but towards performance skills. You’ll learn how to use your imagination to surround yourself with an invisible "superhero coat" of protection from extraneous thoughts and self-deprecation.

We will revisit attentional focus, memorisation and recall strategies, as well as practice performance techniques. Build your own set of self-affirmations for performance, rehearse these off-stage, identify skills that can be improved and choose the appropriate learning strategies that will bring you forward. The result: You’ll be more ready than ever to play for others!

This series of three workshops presents an innovative approach to performance practise and the practise of performance. Join us to collect even more ingredients for your own recipe for enjoyable performance and discover how you can be authentic and positive, even in front of an audience!

About Your Presenter – Adina Mornell

Adina Mornell, classical pianist and recording artist, received her PhD in Music Psychology and Instrumental Pedagogy in Vienna. As professor at the music university in Munich, she conducts empirical studies in the field of musical performance science. Her teaching and research focus on deliberate practice, attentional focus and the intersection of neuroscience and music psychology. As a solo pianist, she has had several CDs released worldwide; her books and articles (in English and German) address performers and teachers.

What participants have said about the course so far...

“Adina’s course is excellent – I’ve learnt so much and can’t wait until the next session!”

“Thank you! This has been so enlightening to me and incredibly helpful for my teaching too!”

“I’ve discovered so many useful insights and tools to help me overcome things holding me back!”

“The distinction between deficit and growth focus is a game changer for me!”

“This course presents fascinating research in a way that you can implement in your own way.”

---

Workshop sessions & dates

Workshop 1: Creating a Personalised Set of Learning Strategies (21 May 2025 @ 17:00 BST (GMT +01:00))

Workshop 2: Customising Performance Rituals (11 Jun 2025 @ 17:00 BST (GMT +01:00))

Workshop 3: Creating a Recipe for Performance Success (02 Jul 2025 @ 17:00 BST (GMT +01:00))