Workshops Offered by Marianne Ploger

Musicianship Intensives Summer 2010 Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music 2400 Blakemore Avenue Nashville, Tennessee 37212 – 3499 Marianne Ploger Director, Musicianship Program Telephone: 734.994.5253 Learning to Hear and Recognize Musical Elements in “Real Time” If you have ever lacked confidence in your aural abilities, or if you are interested in having a greater understanding of musical perception, these workshops are for you. Marianne Ploger’s philosophy of teaching is that there is no such thing as a ‘bad musical ear’, only poor training. All musicians can learn to know, recognize and understand what they are hearing in music, at the same speed that they know, recognize and understand what they hear and read in their native language. The key, she believes, is to have correct information and good attitudes. Correct information is an accurate description of the sound properties of rhythm, pitch and interval; a good attitude is a way of holding one’s awareness so that one can perceive accurately in real time. Marianne Ploger’s workshops and master classes are usually described by her students as the opportunity to get “Olympic” level training aimed at getting their minds to move at the speed of their hearing. They offer you an opportunity to get totally immersed in recognizing instantly what you are hearing and knowing what it means. Learning to become mentally fluent in music at the speed of music is the cornerstone of her method. Marianne Ploger’s revolutionary ideas about how the elements of music actually work help you become better at reading, performing, learning, teaching, and composing music. Unlike most theories about music, which are mere verbal descriptions of musical scores, her “theories” are based on how the brain perceives sound, sound combinations (intervals), and sound patterns. All concepts must be practically relevant to musicians of any type. Each Musicianship Intensive includes how to more effectively convey the meaning of music through a deeper understanding of perceptual principles and the implementation of specific skills. Specific techniques are provided that enrich musical artistry and expression and help ensure that audiences feel touched, inspired, and energized by the music they hear. If you are interested to attend the workshop currently being offered, send your email to: marianne.ploger@vanderbilt.edu Marianne Ploger Director, Musicianship Program Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University 2400 Blakemore Avenue Nashville, TN    37212 The following workshops for 2010 will be sponsored by Vanderbilt University and will be held in Nashville, Tennessee at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University. Each intensive workshop takes place on four consecutive days, with 6 contact hours per day for a total of 24 contact hours. The number of participants per intensive workshop is limited to a maximum of 12. These workshops are set up to instill the maximum degree of fluency at three different skill levels. Level one focuses on fluency in recognizing, at the speed of music, intervals, chords, and pitches, as well as developing rhythmic skills. It also introduces participants to basic musical science in terms of how the human brain processes heard sounds and how it makes sense of what is heard. Level Two carries on where Level One leaves off and adds to it tools for teaching this way of understanding and hearing music to others. Level Two seeks to provide participants with a clear understanding of how this method works. Level Three workshops are application oriented. Participants work on improving sight-reading, score reading, atonal hearing, and musical communication skills. If you want to attend a Level Two workshop, you must first attend a Level One workshop. To attend a Level Three workshop, you must have attended workshop Levels One and Two. It is advisable but not compulsory to attend the workshop Levels Two or Three in the same year that you attended the previous workshops in order to not lose momentum. Level Three workshops will be organized based on the number of participants wishing to attend them. Workshop Dates •Level One - May 17th - May 20st •Level Two - May 24th - May 27th •Level Three - May 31st - June 3rd Graduate Credit Available For those wishing to obtain Credit for attending and completing these intensives, Vanderbilt University is granting one Graduate credit hour for each Level One and Two. Cost Per Intensive • Not for credit: $940 • For graduate credit: $1,599 Deposit A $100 deposit should be made as soon as possible to ensure a place at the intensive desired. The deposit fee will be subtracted from the total fee listed above. Mail your deposit to: Marianne Ploger Director, Musicianship Program Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University 2400 Blakemore Avenue Nashville, TN    37212 Housing: Vanderbilt University will provide housing for participants at the rate of: • $22 per person per night for a double-occupancy room, with optional bedding and linen service for an additional $4.00 per person per night. • $30 per person per night for a single-occupancy rooms, with optional bedding and linen service for an additional $4.00 per person per night. Hotels and other lodgings are within walking distance of the Blair School. Vanderbilt has arrangements for discounts with local hotels. Please contact MPloger for more information. Airport Shuttle: inShuttle provides a shuttle service between the Vanderbilt campus and the Nashville International Airport for a fee of $18 per person per roundtrip. Reviews of Marianne Ploger’s Musicianship Intensives For two years I have participated in the Musicianship Intensives offered by the Institute for Musical Perception.  These workshops are true intensives. During the sessions you learn how music is universally perceived. And through the masterful teaching of Marianne Ploger you learn how to immediately implement the knowledge in your own work.  Everything that is presented in this workshop is universal.  Through hard work, the skills that Marianne teaches can be used by all musicians to gain an understanding of the language of music for the ultimate goal of developing the craft of musical communication.  In the advanced session of the workshop, as you refine your musicianship skills, you are trained as well in the craft of teaching these skills to others.  As you gain more understanding, your standards are also raised, thereby training you for the real world of music.  Ploger aims to create musical craftspeople-musicians who clearly understand everything they are doing, who communicate to their audience and are able to get a desired effect every time.  Education in this level of musical craftsmanship is not offered anywhere else. Matt Hellenbrand, French Horn, University of Iowa – Iowa City ------------- It is hard to explain the magnitude of learning, growth, and inspiration that I experienced through the musical fluency intensive sessions. Not only has Marianne Ploger made an astounding number of discoveries as a sort of pioneering scientist in music, she presents this materials in a methodical, highly understandable way. During the sessions, she taught me to hear individual pitches, intervallic relationships, chords, and changing harmonies in a whole new manner--- it was the first time that I was asked to “turn off” my perfect pitch so that I could really listen to what was happening in the sound and in the music. The method programs the listener to truly understand music, and appropriately identify what they are hearing in “real time”. I can remember sitting through music theory courses in university, going through the motions of solfège with moveable “do”, written harmonic analysis, and hearing major and minor intervals played back over and over again, in an attempt to drill the sound of a minor third into my head. Needless to say, I never saw the applicability of any of it, and continued on learning and listening to music the same way I always had. Marianne’s method instills all of this knowledge into a truly fluent musical ability that is applicable and logical every step of the way. My performance, my listening, and my teaching have all been transformed by Marianne’s method. For the first time, I have an understanding of what music is like to listen to, and learn, for people who don’t have absolute pitch. I have a logical way of explaining the most basic concepts--- reading music quickly and accurately, and hearing the music based on the score in one’s own ear----to all music students. I have a more efficient way to practice the piano and learn music, and have thousands of musical insights and directions through the connections that Marianne makes between affect and sound. Most importantly, I understand why music is so important as an art, and as an emotive medium. Stephanie Gurga, Pianist, Depauw University - Greencastle, IN ------------- Marianne Ploger provides the most meaningful and complete musical training workshops I’ve ever witnessed. In my estimation, she is the foremost musical scientist of our time and her teaching methods produce astounding results in a minimal amount of time. Learning from her seems effortless. Her knowledge of musical perception is absolutely impeccable. Her demeanor is nurturing, loving and highly focused. I can only imagine that studying with her is akin to what it must have been like to study with Bach. I owe any success that I have had as a composer and teacher to the training I’ve received from her during the past 15 years. At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Pointwe have built a Composition and Music Theory/Musicianship curriculum based upon her discoveries and teaching methods. This has one of the most exciting things I’ve witnessed in my career as a professor. Run to sign up for her workshops. Taking one is the best investment in your future that you could possibly make. Dr. Charles Young, Professor of Composition, University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, WI ------------- It is always such a pleasure to spend time working with Marianne. Her understanding of music is truly profound and her love and thirst for knowledge is truly contagious. Her pedagogy is extremely successful because she presents music as both a language to master and a transcendent art. You will be astonished by your newly acquired skills and by the integration of Marianne's curriculum. By the end of the week everything she teaches just kind of fits together in an amazingly clear but dimensional way. Her teaching continually inspires me to bring as much meaning and competence as I can to all that I hear, perform, compose, and teach to others. Aaron Marx, Composer, Violinist, Bowling Green University ------------- I attended Marianne Ploger’s four day Level One Intensive class in June of 2006 expecting a refresher course in basic aural skills. The class began with interval study, and proceeded through scales, modes, rhythm, and other basics. This material is important, to be sure, but what makes study with Marianne Ploger so meaningful, is how she teaches the student to relate these basic skills to the listening and performance of music. Marianne is one of those very few teachers whose skill and passion for teaching transcends her subject matter. As a result of this four day class, I am now hearing and understanding music on a new level. This has not only helped my own performance, but I am confident I will be a more effective teacher as well. I am eagerly looking forward to continuing my study with Marianne Ploger, and am encouraging my colleagues to begin study as well. Dr. John Weigand , Extra Clarinetist, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Professor of Music (Clarinet and Conducting), West Virginia University ------------- I think I can speak for everyone who attended Marianne Ploger's Level One Workshop when I say that we wish we could go back in time. Unanimously the sentiment was - "if only we could have learned this years ago!"  Marianne is nothing short of a genius.  She addresses an area of music education that is undernourished in almost every professional musician - that is complete fluency and flexibility with the fundamentals of music.  She is a consummate musician - pianist, conductor, composer, scientist, and pedagogue.  Her knowledge of the brain as well as her understanding of the human mind's intersection with spirit is inspiring.  Ultimately, what she teaches is incredibly valuable and meaningful because they are not just "Marianne Ploger's" ideas.  When  thanking her for this information, her response was "Thank Nature!"  Marianne brilliantly, yet simply, reveals the underlying structures of music so that the "Music of the Spheres" becomes inspiring in pragmatic application in daily life as a professional musician. Joel Schoenhals, DMA Associate Professor of Piano, Eastern Michigan University Piano Faculty, Chautauqua Institution