About Me
Welcome! My name is Alison Maerker Garner, and I am the creator of Musical Minds. Musical Minds is a revolutionary new instrumental music learning curriculum for children and a holistic wellness program for musicians. As a Somatic Attachment specialist, NLP Coach and aesthetics-based educator, I integrate sensory experience and aesthetic response with deep learning, nurturing well-being and sustainable growth through music. My approach addresses what is lacking in our own training as musicians. These include:
- Body Awareness, Healthy Functioning and Use
- The Integration of Mind, Body and Heart within Learning
- Nurturing the Evolution of the Individual through Compassion, Connectivity and Creativity to Cultivate Solid Psycho-Emotional Balance
- Joy in Curiosity and Discovery, both within One's Own Growth and Musical Development
- Experience-based Education as Opposed to Instruction-based
- An approach whereby well-being is foundational to education
- An approach that initiates the sensory-somatic SPARCK using contemporary findings in how children learn best
Musical Minds: COMPASSION, CONNECTIVITY, CREATIVITYTM offers musicians, creatives and teachers powerful ways to unleash their full potential through 1:1 coaching and lesson sessions, free classes and workshops, courses, videos and books. I am committed to serving you--the artist, the educator--to create the reality for which you are intended.
My bio:
- BM Violin Performance, Indiana University, 1985 (Biss, Gingold)
- MS Music Education/Child Development/Inter-related Arts Education, University of Tennessee, 1993
- Certified in Suzuki, Orff, Kodaly; training in Dalcroze-Eurhythmics, MLT, and CAD
- Certified coach in NLP, IPNB, Polyvagal practices, Somatic Attachment, and CBT; training and/or lessons in Primal Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Till Project, body mapping, EMDR, Jungian individuation, Developmental (Neurocellular) Movement, Transformational coaching, and mindfulness practices. Currently training in Timani and Franklin approaches, both are based on anatomical functioning, visualization, and newly minted ways to creating flexibility, strength, and ease while playing.
- Performance experience in violin and piano from 1970-present including chamber music, tenured orchestra position, solo, Baroque violin and Irish fiddle.
- Teaching experience 1983-present includes private, group Orff/Kodaly classes, classroom Dalcroze curricula, and Musical Minds.
- Published peer-reviewed articles in various journals including ASJ, MEJ, ASTA, Clavier Companion, Kodaly Envoy, and Teaching Music. Published fourteen Musical Minds books.
- Presented Musical Minds workshops in national and international conferences.
Every approach I’ve learned, studied and/or performed has influenced Musical Minds both in the educational curriculum and in the coaching/teaching that I do.
My belief is this:
Through our reconnection with ourselves— the passion and curiosity that brought us to music—we can grow into our full potential.
Taking that innate curiosity, igniting it through aesthetic experience, and creating something unique and vibrant…it is something of which we are all capable.
It begins with a compassion toward oneself, the connectivity that evolves from shared experience with others, and results in the flow of creativity.
This is Musical Minds.
Welcome!
Whether you are looking for private coaching packages, teacher training, group wellness workshops or materials, you can find it here in Musical Minds.
Private Coaching and Lesson Packages
Available in 24 session, 12 session, 6 session and single session packages.
If you are interested in quickly improving yourself, your life or your performance through safe, innovative somatic practices, you may benefit from private, 1:1, sessions. My clients range in age from 16 to 75, are professional musicians, teachers or amateurs who choose to focus on anything from psycho emotional challenges, such as stage fright or imposter syndrome, to pain-related issues. Many want to create more clarity in a life path, while others are needing to find more agency in their lives.
My way of handling coaching sessions is like this: we have a meeting that investigates why you are seeking direction or guidance, we have a follow-up session to assess greater clarity and growth. Both are free. If you choose to have a third session, we talk about possibilities in working together over a period of time. That, too, is free. I want YOU to be sure of what you would get from me, and I want to be certain that I can provide it. Once we have a written and spoken agreement of what that is, we can begin. This ensures your desires are protected, and you feel in control of the process.
Teacher Training Courses
Learn ways to expand your teaching to include elements of Suzuki, Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Musical Learning Theory, Child Development and Appropriate Practice, and a safe, compassionate, connective, and creative environment from which to grow. As an aesthetics-based, experiential approach, Musical Minds courses guide teachers in how they can create an environment that supports flexibility, strength, awareness, and creative flow in thinking, expression and in functional movement for their students. Pre-instrumental students are introduced to aural, mental, imaginative, and movement practices that promote the embodiment of concepts and music-making before bow touches string. Beginning students are encouraged to explore and discover that naturalness and ease of their bodies without the instrument to the instrument. This stage of their evolution sets students on the course of healthy, self-motivated engagement with music from the very beginning on through advanced levels. The Musical Minds books include violin, viola, cello and piano.
Wellness Workshops
How well can we perform, teach and balance our lives without solid grounding, resources to regulate ourselves, and opportunities to learn the ways we best rest and restore our bodies and our minds? It takes our own awareness, intention, and ability to allow understanding and practice in the areas of self-care. Where do we learn that in our musical training? As a teacher and performer, you will learn not only how to take care of your body when it is stressed, manage your thinking in a way that supports your well-being instead of sabotaging it, and align your feelings with your doing, but you will be able to give this to your students, your loved ones, and those with whom you come into contact. Self-awareness and self-care is a gift…and a power.
MAP and other wellness group workshops for musicians offer and practice ways to access, develop and sustain flow with resilience in life and in your music making. These opportunities are relevant for all musicians, professional or otherwise, allowing you to safely investigate fresh new perspectives in body use and function, performance practices, and integrating somatic elements that radically improve your playing and your experience.
Ebooks, Publications, CDs, Audio Links
Publications, CDs, and link downloads are available in the Store. These include: Musical Minds, Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 Text, Reading, and Resource books with accompanying audio; Engaging the Musical Minds: a Handbook for Teachers; Multicultural Songs, Games, and Dances for Children; and the three chamber music compilations for intermediate and advanced level string and piano students. These are Piano Trios, String Quartets, and Baroque ensemble. Each book, song, chamber piece, and lesson begins with where the student is, expanding and building on what they aleady know. They offer multiple ways of embodying information, concepts and understanding so that learning becomes part of the natural evolution of playing an instrument.
For more information on coaching and lesson packages, classes, workshops, courses and the purchase of Musical Minds publications, ebooks and CDs, visit the pages here or message me below.
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