Product Description

"Relax your shoulders." "Let go of tension." "Look at the music." "Don’t look at the music." Look at the keyboard." "Don’t look at the keyboard." "Listen to the music." "Don’t think, just play." Every music student has heard such suggestions, and they all hold some truth. But the challenge is: how? This book is a gentle, progressive guide in exactly how to relax, focus, listen, and feel the music and how to harness them to work together, automatically and simultaneously. Its innovative approach combines special relaxing and behavior modification exercises that foster concentration, focus, security and passion in performance.

The book, user-friendly, comprehensive, and filled with witty illustrations, can also be used as a key tool for psychotherapists working to help clients detoxify trauma, especially that associated with performing issues.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160920 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 108 pages

Review
"Passionate Practice" ofers a comprehensive and positive path toward authentic musicality. -- John McCarthy, Director of Prepatory & Extension Divisions, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Simply stated–this book is terrific. It reads beautifully and will help not only pianists but other performers as well. -- Diana Darby, Ph.D., Pianist, Composer, Inventor, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Music, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

There are rich implications here not only for artistic development but for the psychotherapeutic treatment of blocks to creative expression. -- Louise Bettner, PhD., Clinical Psychologist, Classical Pianist, Faculty, John F. Kennedy University

About the Author
Margret Elson’s dual careers span 30 years of teaching and coaching pianists, vocalists and ensembles, and 25 years as artistic counselor to artists and performers. She is a licensed psychotherapist and was certified as a hypnotherapist. She has performed as a soloist and in ensemble, and in 1993 she and her piano partner Elizabeth Swarthout received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce the CD, Twentieth Century American 4-Hand Piano Music, issued on the Laurel Record label. Ms. Elson’s musical background includes ten years as a piano scholarship student at Juilliard, Preparatory Division, and studies in the San Francisco Bay Area with Marjorie Petray and Alexander Libermann. In addition, she has masters degrees in Psychology, Journalism and Political Science. In 1983 she opened the Center of Artistic Counseling in Oakland, and has presented her innovative work at international conferences such as The Biology of Music-Making (Denver), and The First International Conference on Mind, Body and the Performing Arts (NYC), and in Oslo, Norway and London. Throughout her work, she seeks to maintain her sense of humor.

Customer Reviews

"Therapy" (with a musical spin)
This is a typical self-help book: a lot of "therapy", that is to say mystifying nonsense and psychobabble. I had my suspicions immediately upon getting to the Introduction page: here we have an epigraph from one "Guru Nanak The First Sikh Guru"; goes like this [capitalisation preserved]: "Divine Music is heard in every soul, Continuous, resonant, self-sustaining". Boy, that's deep, that truly expresses ... something. OK, now, quick to the bibliography at the end: here my suspicions were further augmented by the presence of Coelho and Arundhati Roy among the sources. Intelligent people don't read this kind of stuff. OK, moving on to the bio blurb on the last page: a nice picture of the author here -- and a list of accomplishements worthy of a Benvenuto Cellini, including, among other things, not one, not two, but three Master's degrees -- in Journalism, Political Science, and Psychology. One wonders how this is possible and how meaningful all these are ... and in addition, the book is somewhat poorly written, at least for a Master in Journalism. Strangely, no music degrees are listed; this is unusual for someone teaching music (and who, in addition, had the time to obtain three unrelated Master's degrees).

A few specific examples of:

(1) Mystifying drivel, p. 27 "Picture a point of light at a spot in your abdomen and watch yourself breathing to that spot, lighting it up". That's good guidance! -- Deepak Chopra himself couldn't put this better.

(2) Strange grammar and usage, p. xiii, "As a teacher it became my goal to put all the components [...]". I can see HW Fowler spinning in his grave... More of that, p. xv, "This book contains the means to free yourself from [...] As you traverse the road ahead, please bring along ...". Travel, perhaps? Traverse would mean to cross the road; hardly the intended meaning. Page 41, "... notice the minimum amount of energy you need ...". Amount can be of sugar, but not of energy -- energy is an abstract noun. Master's in Journalism, huh.

(3) The book is full of pseudoscientific and/or cutesy little magic words (very typical for the bs-rich self-help genre) -- "Magic Carpet", "Eight-Point Sensory System", "Puppy Dog Hands", "Uh-oh Mindset", "At-one-With-the-Universe" this and that, "R/A Response", etc.

I'm being pedantic, I know.

The bottomline:

I'm not sure if Regent Press is a vanity publisher, but this book feels self-published. OK, tastes differ, fine: suppose you're curious, so check it out and if you find it helpful, god bless -- but do check it out. New-Age "therapeutic" types might like it... As for me, it's not enough (charitably) substance and too much formulaic tripe, so I'm sending it back.

---

PS. This review was originally posted on August 31, 2006, and since then accumulated 40 our of 67 helpful votes. Yesterday it mysteriously disappeared, along with the comments. Why? Well, think of it. Negative reviews on Amazon just have this tendency to suddenly and totally silently disappear. Strangely, this never happens to five-star ones. Anyway, here's a repost. Enjoy. (Comments, as always, are welcome, especially if relevant and cogently expressed.)

It Works!
If anyone had told me five years ago that I'd be playing my own recital, I would have doubted their sanity. BUT, by following the guidelines in this book I was able to overcome my deep seated anxieties about performing and actually play an entire program. The recital was a great success and, amazingly, an enjoyable experience for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers from stage fright. IT WORKS!

Excellent self-help for musicians and others
While the book is clearly titled to attract musicians who aim to hone their practicing and focusing skills, I found this book useful for a completely different reason. When I read it, in place of "learning a piece" I read "speaking in public" and really benefitted from the awareness and focusing techniques that are emphasized. Since the book is an easy read, useful ideas and skills can be extracted by reading just a few paragraphs. On the other hand, the depth of the book, and integral and fundamental role of many of its teachings makes it the kind of book you can learn even more from by going back and reading it again, picking up on things you missed the first time. I recommend this book for people interested in learning new techniques for improving their skills, focus, and confidence. It has a very natural flow that makes it an enjoyable read as well.