Customer Reviews

Practicing for Artistic Success: The Musician's Guide to Self-Empowerment

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I have studied music for years, and only recently started to produce the outcomes I have desired. When I stumbled upon this book while minding my teachers two cats I knew I had found the secret ingredient missing in my practice routine. I knew I could improve my planning, but I didn't know how. This book puts it right in front of you in easy to follow techniques. Also, the ideas on expectations are great. Just keep improving, one step at the time, and success will eventually follow. The way he puts it is, again, easy to understand and follow. "Better is perfect, and PERFECT is irrelevant!" If you ever want to make the most out of your practicing buck, this book is a must!

As a long-time music teacher and professional musician, my own experience confirms the dismay I see on the faces of students confronting the task of practicing. This book is, to say the least, extremely helpful in clarifying the practice process. More to the point, it is inspiring, insightful, and, I believe, essential to students of all levels. Wanting to learn music brings us together, but understanding and communicating how to do it is a gift from a Mr. Kaplan.

This book is great for those musicians that need more encouragement, that also need a guideline on how to practice efficiently, and who want to learn how to prepare themselves to become successful musicians.

Need help making your practice load fit the time allotted? More to the point do you feel that the time you spend is just not productive? Are you practicing more and enjoying it less? This book will help with these and other problems and explain why the negative things that happen during practice can often be signs of positives if we react to them in the correct way. Baffled by this double speak? Get the book and by all means do what it says - the author points out that for the system to work it needs to be followed - give it a chance - it will free up your practice tremendously.

This book is fantastic - it has helped me get back into my practicing with great results. I have been playing violin for 3 years, and have improved just by playing my pieces a bunch of times each week. However, I was getting to the point where I stopped improving so much just by doing that. I bought this book, and read it all, marking some tips that I thought would be helpful. I ended up marking a lot of tips. I've started incorporating them, and the first week my teacher said "whatever's in that book, just keep doing it!" It has given me a focus for my practicing, and helped me to figure out what I want to accomplish with each piece. Plus, it's very motivating to follow the plan and see results. I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking to make their practice sessions more productive.