Effortless Mastery
by Kenny Werner · first published 1996
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Focuses on the mental side of playing music: dropping self-criticism and performance anxiety, and rediscovering the joy of play. It suits musicians and anyone stuck in a creative or skills rut.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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The Jazz Theory book - Mark Levine High Performance Browser Networking - edit: Ilya Grigorik Effortless Mastery - Kenny werner
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗…hardest things to be satisfied with every time... I recommend this book. It talks about perfection and fear and inadequacy. Just took it off my bookshelf to random-access read again. http://www.amazon.com/Effortless-Mastery-Kenny-Werner/dp/156...
on “Miles Davis – blind listening test” ↗…software can learn from how musicians practice and get better and don't or do get in a creative/skills/motivation/passion/Groundhog-Day rut... One of the most interesting books I have in my library is "Effortless Mastery". Recommended by a musician and artist. http://www.amazon.com/Effortless-Mastery-Liberating-Master-M...
on “Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People” ↗Effortless Mastery, by Kenny Werner. The Music Lesson, by Victor Wooten. Both of these are about music, but are really about mastery. Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford. This is a much more philosophical/academic…
on “Ask HN: How to learn best practices when you have no one to teach you?” ↗…jazz musician in my early 20s, I did a lot of negative self-talk on gigs. "Oh, that was awful! Oh yuk, Argghh that sux. Nooo...Terrible" etc. It made me sound terrible. Self-torture. Then I read a book Effortless Mastery, from which I learnt Never criticize yourself on gigs. The time for that is when you practise. And since then I never do that. I just enjoy myself and play. It really changed my life. And also learning…
on “Clive James Got It Right” ↗…good, versus allowing it to be child-like play. If you're able to suspend the need to be good for a moment, you can start to experience again the joy of playing, inventing, letting go. Kenny Werner's book Effortless Mastery is a great reference for this.
on “Douglas Adams' note to self reveals author found writing torture” ↗…musician, and often used to do a lot of negative self-talk while playing in public. Like "Oh no, omg that was terrible, oh yuk, oh geez I can't play at all, oh that sounds awful!" etc. I read this book Effortless Mastery that mainly said, never criticize yourself on a gig—do that when you practise but never ever on gigs. So I stopped, and ever since have just had fun. The change was amazing. I'm not sure but I think…
on “Ask HN: What do you do socially that you learned from a book?” ↗…experiences. Being high is a ticket for introspection where you revisit what caused the barriers to exist in the first place, accept it and then move on to be freely creative. You might also want to check out Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. He talks in depth about the psychology of our own mental barriers and how to overcome them. If you think of weed as a magic thought enhancer, it's not. It's a magic introspection device…
…me how! By then I'd already read and got a lot from some of the useful books in the field - Awaken the Giant Within, Life 101, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The New Guide to Rational Living, Effortless Mastery, The Art of Possibility etc. For the kind of success I value most, I've been inspired for decades by, and owe the most to, writers such as Robert Fulghum, SARK, and most of all, Emerson.
on “How to Be Successful” ↗Another recommendation: for musicians, Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery" talks about this as applied to playing piano.
on “Thinking on Your Feet” ↗…very structured allocations of time, recording all practices and journaling their progress, some said they put their entire being into practicing one tune at a time. I recommend reading Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery, which is probably in your public library if you're in a big city, and also the interviews in Wernick/Trischka's Masters of 5 String Banjo, currently going fore absurd asking prices on Amazon and hard…
on “Advice on Getting Better from an Accomplished Piano Player (2011)” ↗Wow, never expected The Jazz Theory Book or Effortless Mastery to show up on HN. I'll add The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine and Jamey Abersold vol. 1 How To Play Jazz and Improvise
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗I recommend Effortless Mastery to help with performance anxiety. It really resonated with me. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effortless_Mastery
on “Patrick Stewart on the teacher who spotted his talent” ↗…vein of the motorcycle and archery books, like long tones/long bows/drone notes/son filé (the last is Galamian's term, his violin technique book highly recommended). Kenny Werner, http://www.amazon.com/Effortless-Mastery-Liberating-Master-M... (recommends pianists practice long tones ?!) Sterner: http://www.amazon.com/The-Practicing-Mind-Developing-Discipl... Bruser: http://artofpracticing.com/book/ (Gerald Klickstein'…
on “The Science and Art of Practicing” ↗This is similar to an anecdote in Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. Would you mind sharing what those exercises were?
on “Circle of Competence: Avoid Ambiguity Traps” ↗