I am about halfway through the book, and it is exactly the sort of medicine I need, to deprogram myself away from the fear-based paradigm that Werner describes that taints my relationship with music and my instruments of choice. It's not rocket science, and he doesn't beat around the bush. It takes work, and sacrifice, and compromise, but anyone willing to put in the honest effort will reap a reward. It's that simple. Not easy, but simple. He lays it out. The book starts with his own compelling story, and then an overview of the fear-based paradigm that we are all trying to transcend. Then it gets real practical in the second half, which I am just about to start, and am really excited to do so.
The book is music focused, but I share it with anyone who seems to struggle psychologically or emotionally with any sort of craft or practice. It's 90% relevant to anything, not just art and certainly not just music performance.
I would deduct a half star, as the audio recordings are great but have some quality issues with pops and distortions that really have no reason for existing. During a meditation those artifacts can be distracting, but really if you *get* the content that you are studying, it's another opportunity to practice the concepts that you are learning :) But as amazon doesn't allow half a star, I am rounding up to 5 stars again :)
This book belongs in the heart and mind of anyone who cares about understanding and embodying the concept of "mastery" in their own life.
As a side note, I find it (perhaps unintentionally? but Werner seems to have a bit of tongue in cheek to his communication style) varying degrees of entertaining to hilarious to read and hear Werner talk about mindfulness and other concepts from his east coast blue collar cultural background. Not being elitist, just enjoying the busting of the stereotypes that you can't be a zen muthaf***** with a Brooklyn accent. Werner is plenty of proof that you can, and I appreciate the groundedness of his upbringing and story make mindfulness more accessible culturally for me. It's like mindfulness for "real people" and not just the "eat pray love" of unexamined economic privilege.
So if you've been wanting to check out mindfulness, but get turned off by so much of the implicit economic elitism in so much of it (also like that with yoga) I recommend this book for that reason alone, as well as the Mindfulness app that is put out by the VA which is also really good and accessible (and free!) without being froofy. Maybe that doesn't make it "intellectual" enough for others, but I find it is plenty intellectual, just presented in a more direct and down to earth sort of way. Werner has a lot of really interesting ideas about music, performance, jazz, etc that I find challenging and provocative but ultimately can find little or no fault in when I put my own ego and insecurities aside.
This book is helping me find peace with myself and my own musical practices. Can you put a price on that?
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Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within
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Reviews with images
Maybe the most prolific book I’ve Read
“The mind is always supplying a steady stream of these illusions of limitation”That is just one of the brilliant insights from the book. To set the stage, I’m 59, a guitarist and an engineer.This book was seemingly written directly for me with all of my perceived limitations and unquiet mind - the effects of which have led to great episodes of struggle with both music and electronics.I’m only 23% into reading this book, and it is certainly the single most important book of my lifetime - and I have a read a crapload of books. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Top reviews from other countries
Paolo Picutti
Un Viaggio Profondo nella Realizzazione Personale attraverso la Musica e la Meditazione
Reviewed in Italy on November 10, 2023
Irongirl
Brilliant approach to music mastery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2023