Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner

Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner is a great book for musicians! It's written by a jazz pianist, but is helpful toward any player of any instrument.

Anyone?

It's one of a few books I'm reading right now. I managed to get about 80 pgs. into it and haven't picked it up again in the past few weeks. I've gotten a lot from what I've read, already!

I picked this book up from a recommendation from another thread on it on this forum. It's a great book! I'm taking it slow to really digest it. Read a chapter or two again and again for about a week. When it starts to sink in, it really changes your outlook on music and life! I'll probably be coming back to this book for the rest of my life...

I just ordered this. Took Caddys advise and went used. 7.50 USD, at barnes and noble .com (www.bn.com)

Looking forward to start absorbing

larryace said:

Took Caddys advise and went used.

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...nice! HA!

2 to the 0

I love this guy and this book! It's really helped me enjoy music more, get out of my own head, be less judgmental of myself and just be thankful for every chance I get to play.

I saw him do a masterclass a couple years ago and he was talking about how musicians are so afraid to reveal weaknesses in their knowledge or their playing. To prove it, he asked "how many people lose the form sometimes?" A few hands went up. "How many people lose track of the downbeat sometimes?" A few more hands go up. "How many people masturbate?" Everyone's hand goes up. The fact that a room full of musicians are up front about masturbating and secretive about sometimes screwing up in their playing says something, and Kenny outed us all.

I've read it twice now. Apart from the mystical stuff, which I try to ignore, there's much wisdom in those pages. The attitudinal aspects are great.

However, I was wondering if anyone who has read this book has actually really applied his approach - the meditations, then going through each of the stages exactly as he prescribed? No shortcuts.

My feeling is that almost everyone would take bits they liked from it but not gone the whole hog to achieve that effortless mastery.

Wow, I was just about to make this thread. I got the book yesterday, and reading through it. It's amazing how right he is about the fearfull practicing and the ego. I hope that this will make my playing better and take away some of my anxiety when I'm playing for people. I know some of his quasi-religious views can be alittle hard to swallow though.

Pollyanna said:

I've read it twice now. Apart from the mystical stuff, which I try to ignore, there's much wisdom in those pages. The attitudinal aspects are great.

However, I was wondering if anyone who has read this book has actually really applied his approach - the meditations, then going through each of the stages exactly as he prescribed? No shortcuts.

My feeling is that almost everyone would take bits they liked from it but not gone the whole hog to achieve that effortless mastery.

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That's the great thing about being able to think for yourself, right?

I took some bits and pieces, and even did the meditations for a while, and it seemed to work a little, but not by an amount even close to proportional to the amount of time I invested. I got more out of Philip Toshio Sudo's book "Zen Guitar", personally.

Wow, I just read my previous post in this thread. This book was really impactful for me for a while. Maybe I should revisit it...

Pollyanna said:

I've read it twice now. Apart from the mystical stuff, which I try to ignore, there's much wisdom in those pages. The attitudinal aspects are great.

However, I was wondering if anyone who has read this book has actually really applied his approach - the meditations, then going through each of the stages exactly as he prescribed? No shortcuts.

My feeling is that almost everyone would take bits they liked from it but not gone the whole hog to achieve that effortless mastery.

Click to expand...

I've come to believe that the meditations are an aside to the real message of the book, being to practice something until you can do it without thinking about it. After all, if things in your repertoire are rehearsed to that extent, you leave no room for nerves or lack of confidence come performance time.
The meditations could be useful in creating a better head-space for practice sessions; as appealing as the thought is, meditating isn't going to act as a shortcut to becoming a better player, only practice will do that.

It's a great book for provoking an honest examination of yourself as a musician.

Yeah Thaard, he really captures some of those dickheady feelings musos have at time.

Jones, I don't just mean the meditations. That's the start. Then you have the four stages, all featuring not playing cool stuff and the minute you start trying to play cool stuff you have to step back. There's his diamond diagram with effortlessness as the comppulsory bit and then ... scratchy memory ... I think it's speed, accuracy and playing the whole thing through and you can pick any of those two other corners of the diamond.

As I was reading the other day I just had the feeling that hardly anyone would follow those instructions all the way, worthy as they appear to be.

Caddy, I haven't heard of Zen Guitar. A similar kind of book?