Customer Reviews

For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals

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The writer focuses on his experiences as a cellist in amateur chamber groups and expands from that subject to address the concept of 'amateuring', that pursuit of an activity at which one knows one will never be more than merely adequate, the drive to persist 'for the love of it', for the sense of community with other amateurs. This certainly struck a responsive chord in me, an amateur musician whose love for music-making far exceeds his abilities.

It seems that most of those reviewing this book missed the point of it, which I thought the author made clear over and over again. It’s about doing something as well as you can for the enjoyment it brings – as an amateur. Although the book could have been half its length and been more effective, he did achieve his goal, which was to discuss what being an amateur is, where this fits into life and our culture, why being a professional at something symbolizes our goal-oriented society and our value of doing things for money, and why being an amateur is rewarding, satisfying and even noble.

The shortcomings of the book are probably the result of his being a professor of literature, causing him to expend space on quotes and discussions that are more peripheral to the topic than enlightening. He doesn’t disparage other forms of amateur endeavor, such as painting, but does spend most of his time relating his cello playing experiences with his life and what those experiences brought to him. It’s what he calls amateuring. This book is not about how to play the cello better.

I think the real value in the book is about how someone loves what they do for a hobby, is pretty good but not great at it, and finds practicing both valuable as an activity and essential to developing and improving one’s skills. His discussions about playing with others and in front of audiences are enlightening and raise valuable issues in terms of the experience of playing a musical instrument. These discussions are worthwhile enough to justify reading the book.

He gives hope and encouragement to being an amateur. In a world in which fame and fortune seem to be the most desirable goals, he makes a very good case for enjoying what you do for its own sake.

This has got to be the "feel good" book of the year for amateur musicians. Professor Booth, time and again, puts his finger on the many reasons why we spend all those hours and muscle pains to end up being second-rate at best. Yes, the latter chapters may go a little overboard, but enthusiasm is one of the things it's all about. There are some very poignant moments and some downright hilarious ones. I'm recommending this one to all my music-making friends.

I was prepared to warm to this book because of its promised inclusion of other amateur endeavors besides the cello. But to these he gives barely a nod. The writing blends self-centered prattle with compulsive journal entries. Another disappointment--rather, jolt--was his two brief paragraphs about painting on pages 184-185. Given his sympathy and respect for amateur musicians, I anticipated a reflection on painters who, like myself, struggle to express in our work a hard-won understanding of color, two-dimensional space, depth and authenticity. Instead, he writes, "Well, there are so many amateur painters around, and their stuff is generally so awful, that they almost tempt me to cancel this book..." Thus, I could not recommend this book to amateur cooks, painters, photographers, writers, tennis players, gardeners--or anyone other than amateur string players who don't know how they feel and need someone to tell them. For the rest of us, our time is better spent doing what we love rather than reading about it.

The premise of this book is compelling. There need to be books written about the dignity and deep rewards earned by the true amateur. Unfortunately, this book lacks that depth. The author robs himself of dignity with complaints at great length about partners, teachers, and even the instrument. In a chapter titled "Seduced By the Cello," he speaks only of it being comparatively easier than his other options. Nowhere does he even describe the cello: its sweet-sad character, its almost human tone, the surprising sensations it gives to players and audience of its power, the fascination and variety of its repertoire, etc. In a chapter called "The Zen of Thumb Position Maintenance," he does not even define or describe thumb position or how to maintain any of cello's skills.
I am a cellist and teacher. I often look for books to encourage, inspire adn sometimes console my students of all ages. I hoped this book could help me articulate for students the true rewards and healthy attitudes of a good amateur musician, and even to redeem the connotations of amateur. It tries to do so, but is too much a personal diary and too self-referencing. As yet my best discoveries for adult students are still "Making Music for the Joy of It," by Stephanie Judy (1990), and the perennial classic "Playing the Piano for Pleasure" by Charles Cooke (1941).

I recomend this book everyone who loves playing the cello.
This book will make you smile.

Having played chamber music as a seriour amateur most of my life, I recognized with a smile some of the anecdotes which the author recounts of his musical evenings. This is 5% of the book.
The rest is overblown pretentious musings on the nature and value of amateurism with a watch-me-go display of unpersuasive humility and academic erudition about other irrelevancies.
If you've played, you know the few charming parts already. If you don't, this book is largely filler.

As an amateur cello player, who picked up an instrument for the first time 3 years ago, I looked to this book for inspiration and enlightenment. It is represented as an amateur exploration of music, the discovery of real music later in life. Fact in point, the author is an amateur only in the sense that he does not tour or get paid to play his instrument. However we quickly learn that this author has been playing one instrument or another since childhood, and could at one point almost have made it as a clarinetist. This book quickly turns into a "dig me" diatribe which left me in disagreement with the author: despite his best efforts, I was not ultimately convinced that he was a "cool guy" -- which is really all he's trying to communicate. For my purposes, this book was unmitigated tripe.