The Musician's Way : A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness

The Musician's Way : A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness
Author: Gerald Klickstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2009-08-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199711291

In The Musician's Way, veteran performer and educator Gerald Klickstein combines the latest research with his 30 years of professional experience to provide aspiring musicians with a roadmap to artistic excellence. Part I, Artful Practice, describes strategies to interpret and memorize compositions, fuel motivation, collaborate, and more. Part II, Fearless Performance, lifts the lid on the hidden causes of nervousness and shows how musicians can become confident performers. Part III, Lifelong Creativity, surveys tactics to prevent music-related injuries and equips musicians to tap their own innate creativity. Written in a conversational style, The Musician's Way presents an inclusive system for all instrumentalists and vocalists to advance their musical abilities and succeed as performing artists.

The Inner Game of Music

The Inner Game of Music
Author: Barry Green
Publisher: Doubleday
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1986-02-21
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0385231261

Suggests techniques for overcoming self-consciousness and improving musical performances, shares a variety of exercises, and includes advice on improving one's listening skills.

Effortless Mastery

Effortless Mastery
Author: Kenny Werner
Publisher: Alfred Music
Total Pages: 192
Release: 1996
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781562240035

My story -- Why do we play? -- Beyond limited goals -- Fear, the mind and the ego -- Fear-based practicing -- Teaching dysfunctions: fear-based teaching -- Hearing dysfunctions: fear-based listening -- Fear-based composing -- "The space"--"There are no wrong notes" -- Meditation #1 -- Effortless mastery -- Meditation #2 -- Affirmations -- The steps to change -- Step one -- Step two -- Step three -- Step four -- An afterthought -- I am great, I am a master -- Stretching the form -- The spiritual (reprise) -- One final meditation.

The Practice of Practice

The Practice of Practice
Author: Jonathan Harnum
Publisher:
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9780970751218

talent means almost nothing when it comes to getting better at anything, especially music. Practice is everything. This book covers essential practice strategies and mindsets you won't find in any other book. You'll learn the What, Why, When, Where, Who, and especially the How of great music practice. You'll learn what research tells us about practice, but more importantly, you'll learn how the best musicians in many genres of music think about practice, and you'll learn the strategies and techniques they use to improve. This book will help you get better faster, whether you play rock, Bach, or any other kind of music.

The Perfect Wrong Note

The Perfect Wrong Note
Author: William Westney
Publisher: Amadeus Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2006-06-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1574673890

(Amadeus). In this groundbreaking book, prize-winning pianist and noted educator William Westney helps readers discover their own path to the natural, transcendent fulfillment of making music. Drawing on experience, psychological insight, and wisdom ancient and modern, Westney shows how to trust yourself and set your own musicality free. He offers healthy alternatives for lifelong learning and suggests significant change in the way music is taught. For example, playing a wrong note can be constructive, useful, even enlightening. The creator of the acclaimed Un-Master Class workshop also explores the special potential of group work, outlining the basics of his revelatory workshop that has transformed the music experience for participants the world over. Practicing, in Westney's view, is a lively, honest, adventurous, and spiritually rewarding enterprise, and it can (and should) meet with daily success, which empowers us to grow even more. Teachers, professionals, and students of any instrument will benefit from this unique guide, which brings artistic vitality, freedom, and confidence within everyone's reach.

Practicing

Practicing
Author: Glenn Kurtz
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2008-11-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0307489760

In a remarkable memoir written with insight and humor, Glenn Kurtz takes us from his first lessons at the age of eight to his acceptance at the elite New England Conservatory of Music. After graduation, he attempts a solo career in Vienna but soon realizes that he has neither the ego nor the talent required to succeed and gives up the instrument, and his dream, entirely. But not forever: Returning to the guitar, Kurtz weaves into the narrative the rich experience of a single practice session. Practicing takes us on a revelatory, inspiring journey: a love affair with music.

Playing (less) Hurt

Playing (less) Hurt
Author: Janet Horvath
Publisher: Playing (less) Hurt
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2002
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0971373507

How can musicians express themselves and recreate the great masterworks with ease and expressiveness and yet avoid injury in the process? Musicians face many challenges: a highly competitive environment, performance anxiety, demanding repertoire, years of solitary practice, and awkward postures. The hectic pace of rehearsals and performances when added to the mix often results in the very real risk of physical pain and injury. This book is a readable and comprehensive guide and reference for all concerned with pain in musical work: professional and amateur musicians, teachers and students, doctors and therapists. This book is essential for all musicians. String, keyboard, percussion, harp, brass and wind players will play better and feel better. Read about: Why it may hurt to play; Injury susceptibility quiz; Risk factors & danger signals; Hearing, back, disc, arm and shoulder problems; 10 onstage tricks; TMJ, teeth, larynx and joint laxity; Stretching & strengthening; Rehabilitation & work-hardening; Musician's survival kit; 10 do's & don'ts; Instrument modifications; Guide to safe practicing.

Indirect Procedures

Indirect Procedures
Author: Pedro de Alcantara
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199874824

A musician's life is filled with many stressful situations: passing auditions, rehearsing and performing with difficult partners, sitting for long hours in uncomfortable chairs, going on stage to face audiences large and small, who may or may not be receptive to the performance they are presented. And yet many musicians are able to surmount these looming obstacles with grace and balance, to find satisfaction and artistry in their music and build productive and lasting careers. Indirect Procedures will guide you around these obstacles and along that path to becoming a balanced and successful musician. Based on the work of Frederick Matthias Alexander, this book is a thorough and practical approach to the issues of musicians' health and wellbeing. Author Pedro de Alcantara introduces concepts and exercises for musicians to let go of excessive tensions, stay focused, and direct their energies as they handle the challenges of practicing, rehearsing, and performing. Complemented by an extensive, easy-to-use companion website, and working alongside Integrated Practice, this new edition of Indirect Procedures is an invaluable and essential resource for today's musicians to learn to sing, play, and conduct with less effort and stronger results.

The Mindful Musician

The Mindful Musician
Author: Vanessa Cornett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2019-05-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0190864605

In The Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance, author Vanessa Cornett offers guidelines to help musicians cultivate artistic vision, objectivity, freedom, quiet awareness, and self-compassion, both on- and offstage in order to become more resilient performers. Contrary to modern culture's embrace of busyness and divided attention, Cornett's contemplative techniques provide greater space for artistic self-expression and satisfaction. With the aid of a companion website that includes audio files and downloadable templates, The Mindful Musician provides a method to promote attentional focus, self-assessment, emotional awareness, and creativity. The first of its kind to combine mindfulness practices with research in cognitive and sport psychology, this book helps musicians explore the roots of anxiety and other challenges related to performance, all through the deliberate focus of awareness.

The Balanced Musician

The Balanced Musician
Author: Lesley Sisterhen McAllister
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2013
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0810882930

Organized into four main parts, this book first explores the mind-body connection and then separately discusses the mind, body, and soul of musicians, scholars, performers, and teachers of all voices and instruments. With terms, questions for reflection, and assignments at the...