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

Gerald Klickstein
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 3, 2009 0195343131 978-0195343137
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.

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The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness + Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within (Book + CD set) + The Inner Game of Music
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Editorial Reviews

Review


"One of the most important books on musicianship in recent decades." --Joseph Docksey, Director, Lamont School of Music, University of Denver


"I predict that The Musician's Way will be an instant classic. It is the most useful, comprehensive book I have ever read on developing the skills of a successful performer. Every music lover--student, professional, amateur, and teacher alike--should own this book." --Jeffrey Solow, Professor of Cello, Temple University; President, American String Teachers Association


"The entire music profession has received a great and much-needed gift from Gerald Klickstein. The Musician's Way is a landmark and essential guide for every serious musician."--Barbara Lister-Sink, Professor of Piano, Salem College; author, Freeing the Caged Bird DVD


"The Musician's Way is the brainchild of an experienced and insightful teacher who has thought long and hard about how musicians can maximize their artistic success while coping with the stresses of music making. In clear and engaging language, the author leads us down the complex pathways navigated by musicians and provides sound directions at every turn." --Alice G. Brandfonbrener, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Founding Director, Medical Program for Performing Artists, Northwestern University Medical School


"You owe it to yourself to read this book." --The Classical Guitar Blog


"A wonderful tool for all aspiring musicians." --Music Ed Magic


"A rare example of clear, concise and useable information on music practice...If I read a better book on practice this year I'll be surprised!!" --HowtoPractice.com


"Mr. Klickstein presents so much helpful information that you will be itching to sit at the piano with his book beside you while you practice....A tremendous resource that would benefit any music teacher." --MusicMattersBlog.com


"The Musician's Way is strongly recommended for its focus on mental imagery and the role of the mind in effective practice...A holistic approach to teaching, The Musician's Way should be on the shelf of every aspiring professional musician and every serious music educator." --Clavier Companion


"Klickstein covers the gamut of issues, tips, and ideas that make up the world of the serious musician....Students hunger for this kind of knowledge." --Notes


"Klickstein takes a common-sense approach and works his way through techniques for improving every aspect of a performer's life, from ways to memorise a piece to dealing with performance anxiety. . . . It's all very well thought through and an interesting read." --The Strad


"A comprehensive guidebook from an experienced, insightful musician....You must read this book." --Stringendo


"Wonderfully thought-out and organized...a book to keep around and to constantly refer back to as you develop as a musician...'The Musician's Way' is a book that will benefit any musician. He touches on aspects of all performers, from guitarists to violinists to drummers to vocalists, and has plenty of tips for everyone...Regardless of what instrument you play or how long you've been playing or what level of musician you consider yourself to be, you will find a tremendous amount of beneficial material in this book. I can't recommend it enough." --David Hodge, GuitarNoise.com


"Engaging and well-written and a valuable resource for every performer seeking to develop their craft and maintain career longevity." --Psychology of Music


"Provides a wealth of information that would otherwise take years to accrue." --British Journal of Music Education


"Articulates both an artistic approach to attaining mastery of an instrument/voice and a practical approach to achieving professional goals....Uniquely holistic." --Philosophy of Music Education Review


About the Author


Gerald Klickstein (@klickstein) is a veteran performer and educator with more than 30 years of experience on the concert stage and in higher education. In July 2012, he was appointed Director of the Music Entrepreneurship and Career Center at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. From 1992-2012, he was a member of the distinguished artist-faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His book The Musician's Way and its extensive website MusiciansWay.com have drawn global praise for their insightful handling of the issues that today's musicians face.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 360 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 3, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0195343131
  • ISBN-13: 978-0195343137
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gerald Klickstein (@klickstein) is a veteran performer and educator with more than 30 years of experience on the concert stage and in higher education.

Director of the Music Entrepreneurship and Career Center at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, he was previously a member of the distinguished artist-faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is also a sought-after speaker, writer, and music career coach.

His book The Musician's Way (Oxford 2009) and its extensive companion website have drawn global praise for their insightful handling of the issues that today's musicians face. Learn more and join the conversation at MusiciansWay.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
67 of 68 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Practice, Performance, and Wellness February 4, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The subtitle of the book is an outline of what you'll find inside. Part one deals with, "practicing deeply." It begins with the necessary, but mundane, subjects of organizing practice time and creating a supportive practice environment. Klickstein divides practice into five zone: new, developing, and performance material along with technique and musicianship. Some of these are self-explanatory, others explore ares few people venture. How much of your practice includes sight reading and ear training?

The following chapters look at how to work with material in each practice zone, and cover things such as mental practice, selecting repertoire, memorization, interpretative issues, and taking breaks in practice. The material is necessarily general. A book could not contain specific practice suggestions for every major piece in every instrument's repertoire. I consider the generality of this advice a strength. The practice concepts in The Musician's Way could be easily integrated with whatever your private instructor is giving you.

I have always thought that there needed to be a good, lengthy book on practicing, but I'd never found one I liked. It had gotten to the point where I thought of writing something myself. Now I don't have to. The The Musician's Way fills that gap.

Part two deals with performance issues. It begins by discussing anxiety's effects on our bodies, and continues with, "five facets of preparation," and issues of backstage and pre-performance routines.

What I like most about the section on performance is its practicality. In short, Mr. Klickstein is not afraid to discuss what most people consider trivial issues. Are your clothes prepared? Do you have the music? How do you start and end a piece? How do you walk out on stage? So much preparation goes into the music itself, but nothing goes into stage deportment or easy issues that, if dealt with, can help a performer be less worried and more focused.

Part three covers, "lifelong creativity." This section is a discussion on injury prevention and how to succeed as a student. The injury prevention section deals with, among other things, an issue that musicians don't like to talk about: hearing damage. Simply put, this section is terrifying. I'd never even thought about most of the things the book covers, but I'm certainly glad I know about them now.

The portion on succeeding as a student covers things such as the student-teacher relationship and dealing with criticism.

--Quote Junkie--

One of my favorite things about this book is the relevant quotes placed before each section.

--Strength in Formatting--

When I first started reading The Musician's Way, I was a bit put off by the numerous lists put in boxed out asides.

Over the course of the book, I realized that these were a strength. The formatting and lists allow quick reviewing, making this book a solid, easily-scanned reference.

If you are...

* a music student
* a professional musician
* a serious (or not-so-serious) amateur musician
* anyone else, really

You owe it to yourself to read this book. The concepts found in it might seem like common knowledge, but there are is some powerful gems contained within the pages of The Musician's Way.

The Musician's Way and The Savvy Musician make a formidable duo of books for any musician. Together they fill major holes in any music curriculum, and offer a wealth of knowledge collected in a few hundred pages. I can't recommend either highly enough.
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The most solid book out there on music practice April 23, 2010
Format:Paperback
The Buddhas do but tell of the way; it is up to you to swelter at the task. ~Gautama Siddharta (c. 563-483 BCE)
---------------------------------------------------
I've read (and re-read in many cases) most books out there on practice and this is one of the best, hands down. Klickstein is a classical guitarist who performs throughout the U.S. and internationally and is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

My favorite 2 aspects of the book are the well-chosen quotations sprinkled throughout, and the use of solid research to inform and back up what Klickstein puts forth. The bibliography is solid and well-chosen. The book is fairly comprehensive, covers the nitty gritty of practice, and includes concrete things to actually do, which mostly means strategies for excellent practice, but there are other worthy tidbits, too. The second section of the book is all about performance and the strategies you can use to include performance as another aspect of your practice. Klickstein also covers aspects of the body that are important to good practice: physical warm-ups, injury prevention, resting. The final part of the book covers injury prevention and valuable advice for the student. More specifics on each section are below.

Part I: Artful Practice (6 Chapters, 124 pages)

This section is organized to reflect Klickstein's method of organizing practice. There is basic introductory stuff like definitions, creating a great practice environment, planning and scheduling and Klickstein sets up his method, the "Five Practice Zones" (new material, developing material, performance material, technique, musicianship). Each following chapter is something of an elaboration of these zones. At the end of the first chapter is an excellent guideline for a warm-up. Included in following chapters are tips and strategies for memorization, problem-solving, interpretation, skill maintenance, mental imagery, motivation, and evaluation. The final chapter of Part I deals with collaboration which for Klickstein means playing in ensembles.

Part II: Fearless Performance (5 Chapters, 70 pages)

Everything you might expect is in this section, from preperformance routines to developing stage presence, to dealing with nerves, performance glitches and how to deal with them and concert design. Again, to help you organize your thoughts about this important aspect of music-making, Klickstein reveals his 5 facets of performance: artistic, technical, mental/emotional, physical, and organizational. He includes some helpful information about highly stressful performances such as auditions and competitions, too.

Part III: Lifelong Creativity (3 Chapters, 80 pages)

The first two chapters of this part deal with injury prevention, something important to consider when we're repeating actions over and over for long periods of time. Repetitive stress injuries are common among instrumentalists and Klickstein introduces us to ways to prevent these through posture, good planning and hearing protection. The most valuable chapter in this section however, in my opinion, is the final one, titled Succeeding as a Student. It's filled with excellent advice for students of any age or level and includes strategies for choosing teachers, dealing with fair and unfair criticism, building community and good advice to general approaches to being a musician.

It's difficult to find any fault in the book, and I think anyone will discover much that is valuable within its pages. My only criticism is that it's approach is solidly centered in the Western Art Music tradition and all that entails. Thankfully, solid practice advice transfers to any type of music, but if you're interested in playing punk rock, or perhaps using the computer as an instrument, many of the musical examples won't help you much. That relates to another (very minor) criticism: the musical notation examples are fairly sophisticated and require good note-reading skills. This isn't really a criticism, as Klickstein's intended audience is quite clearly well-trained classical musicians, but for those less able to read music, this might be a stumbling block. A final shortfall for me was the lack of discussion of other tools to help with practice, things such as metronomes, software, and web resources.

As a whole, this is a most excellent book to add to your collection if you're interested in practicing more efficiently. Very highly recommended.

Have fun, and good luck with your practice.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and thorough February 1, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Musician's Way is an immensely useful book. Gerald Klickstein covers just about every aspect of musicianship imaginable in a concise and thorough way, very much in the holistic manner of his guitar teaching. The book is geared particularly toward young musicians in music school, but can be useful for anyone who wants to improve as a musician. There are specific instructions and suggestions that make the challenges of being a musician much easier to conquer because there's a clear plan. If you have any questions about the book or something not covered in the book, you can go to the website. Kudos and thanks to Mr. K for his dedication and enthusiasm!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive approach to thorough learning, practice and...
I so wish I had this information when I began learning music two years ago! I cannot imagine any music student who would not benefit from understanding how to approach a new... Read more
Published 8 days ago by melissa
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a MUST.
An absolute must for all musicians!!!
I am learning so much with this book.
This is helpful for any instrumentalist, at any level of skill.
Published 12 days ago by Erico M.
5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT book for musicians
I got this book for a required text for a college class. It is great for anyone who wants to discover more about how to learn music and perform music more skillfully (which should... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Rachel
2.0 out of 5 stars Great start, but a little lacking
This book is a great resource for a classical musician, but not as much for jazz performers looking to do a lot of career development.
Published 1 month ago by KM
4.0 out of 5 stars Well done
Klickstein is a colleague, and has surely done his work in preparing this book. This is required reading for our music majors.
Published 2 months ago by n3ptune
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, very detailed and comprehensive
This book is a great overview on the habits and mindset of the studying and thinking musician. I'd highly recommend for anyone who wants to move past aimless noodling.
Published 2 months ago by Ground Pounder
5.0 out of 5 stars It is a must read.
I found in this book so many, help that no one of my teachers told me never. It really help to understan how to study to perform.
Published 3 months ago by Julio Unzueta
5.0 out of 5 stars very practical for music performance major students and teachers
This book describes very much in detail how to practice step by step.
It is important to apply each chapter during actual practice, such as making practice logs or writing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by piano teacher
4.0 out of 5 stars Lafian
This book really taught me how to value and maximize my rehearsal time. You can't regret having this among your collections as a musician for real. Superb!
Published 3 months ago by lafian
1.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment
Drink plenty of water, sit properly, if you're feeling pain see a doctor. Do not over practice to the point of exhaustion. Take a break, go for a walk... Read more
Published 3 months ago by slate
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