The GROOVE Method— Global Artist Training Program with David Cowan (Berklee College of Music)
The GROOVE Method — Global Artist Training Program
Co-created with David Cowan, Associate Professor, Berklee College of Music
There is a kind of knowledge that cannot be taught in a classroom. It lives in the body — in the split-second decision of when to hit, when to wait, when to let silence speak. It is earned through hundreds of stages, thousands of miles, and the particular courage it takes to play with people whose language you don’t speak, whose culture you don’t share, and whose rhythm you have never heard before.
That knowledge is what The GROOVE Method is built from.
What is The GROOVE Method?
The GROOVE Method is a global artist training program co-created by Ikuyi Minat and David Cowan, Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and co-developer of the methodology.
It is not a conventional music curriculum. It is a full-body, cross-cultural framework designed to build the kind of artist who can walk onto any stage in the world — and belong there.
Rhythm
Polyrhythmic structures drawn from global music traditions, designed to activate the brain and unlock new dimensions of musical expression.
Physical Expression
The body as instrument. How movement, breath, and physical presence shape the music you make and the audience you reach.
Language
The universal vocabulary of groove — timing, feel, and swing that crosses every cultural border.
Mindset
The inner architecture of a working artist. How to sustain a career, navigate uncertainty, and keep creating when the world isn’t watching.
Who it’s for
The GROOVE Method is designed for young artists across Asia and around the world who are serious about building an international career — and who sense that something is missing from their training.
Not talent. Not dedication. But the specific, embodied knowledge of how to move in a global musical world. How to feel the backbeat in your bones. How to hold space with musicians you’ve never met. How to be, not just technically proficient, but genuinely alive on stage.
If you have ever felt the gap between where you are and where you want to be — this program was built for that gap.
The drums saved my life.
Not metaphorically — though that too. Literally: sound was the thread I held onto through loss, through starting over, through learning what it means to build something real from nothing in a country that is not your own.
Over 30 years, across 60+ countries, alongside artists I had never met before the first downbeat — I learned something that no single teacher gave me. I learned how groove works as a universal language. How rhythm connects people who have no other common ground. How the body knows things the mind has to catch up to.
Now, together with David Cowan at Berklee, it is time to turn that knowledge into something teachable. Something the next generation can learn, practice, and carry into their own careers.
Pain, loss, journeys, strength — we are turning all of it into a method. Into training. Into the first chapter of many young artists’ stories.
That first chapter is being written now — here in the United States.
In November and December 2024, The GROOVE Method was piloted with 41 young musical theater performers at Bridge You — a national online performing arts school in Japan, led by Broadway performer Tricia Tanguy.
gained transformative insights into global rhythmic structures
expressed desire to develop world-class expressive power
rated the Rhythmic Differences session as positive
“I finally understood the difference between on-beat and back-beat. I will now listen for these grooves when I hear international musical scores.”
— Junior Artist
“It’s about more than just hitting the notes.”
— Dancer / Singer
Enrollment Coming Soon
To be notified when registration opens, reach out directly.
