FLORENCE, KY – Bryan McCartney is the owner and lead teacher at Heartseed Studio, providing private music instruction for students ages 5 through adult. In addition to private lessons, McCartney has taught the music course Guitar Methods at Cincinnati Christian University to music students interested in learning the guitar.
In his time as a music teacher, McCartney has discovered that many students struggle with internal motivation and maintaining a daily structure that allows for dedicated time to improve their musical skills. McCartney has begun his work with The Art of Learning Project with a focus on building his students’ internal motivation. Using the principle of Valuing Process Before Results, he is teaching his students to shift their focus from the end goal of a perfect performance to the incremental steps they need to take along the way. As they meet these incremental goals and see the progress that comes with intentional and focused practice, they will develop a deeper motivation to continue to strive and grow.
Live performances at a local Chick Fil A provide opportunities for Using Adversity and Investment in Loss. The experience of playing in front of an audience gives McCartney’s students the opportunity to practice channeling heightened emotions into higher levels of performance. They have also begun to look at the feedback they have received from these performances to explore how they can continue to improve and grow as musicians.
“One thing that really hit me in The Art of Learning was the idea of finding your inner rest, and creating a series of habits to unlock that rest,” McCartney explained. “I really like this idea of knowing yourself so well, and finding a way to maximize your time when you need to, that you can access calmness in any moment. This is something I hope to teach my students.”