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One of the most rewarding parts of being a musician is enjoying the success that comes from the long trek of lessons, practices, rehearsals, and performances.; however, musicians often go through long periods of not being able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Because this happens so often, it is important to be able to enjoy the journey just as much as the success. This picture portrays the life of a musician as a road trip. Each exit would be a minor success along the way. Each mile marker would be a lesson, practice session, rehearsal, or a performance. It's more important to enjoy the journey than the successes.
The book hits on every fear musicians experience that hinders their future in performing. During auditions and competitions, most musicians find themselves complete wrecks both before and after due to their fear of rejection. This book provides methods of coping with this fear and the idea of, "So what? You were a Flop." Musicians with this in their head practically have a permanent, non-oral drug for anxiety.
To achieve true musicianship, one has to think of the music as its own entity, and not constrict it.
~Visualization
~Fear of Rejection
~Enjoying the Journey
~Setting the Music Free
~Quality Over Quantity
As musicians, people feel the need to practice for unreasonable time spans, especially strings and piano; however, this is refuted in Ristad's method. Ristad proves that it is not the quantity of practicing that improves a musician, but the quality of the practicing. For example, musicians often find themselves practicing a sixteenth note run for hours, but it does not improve. One reason for this spawns from the musician's internal belief that when something goes well in the music, it is a mistake. Another reason comes from the fact that when one practices with the same bad habits over and over again, that is the way one will preform; there is no escaping this fact. To relate to the advertisement, think of the vodka as the practicing, and the Gorilla as the bad habits. While it is easy to acquire a hefty amount of low quality vodka, it will result in bad habits and mistakes (ex. sleeping with a Gorilla). If one ventures to seek out quality vodka, they will find the experience much more enjoyable. It is the same thing with music. If one practices for hours with the same existing bad habits, it is likely that they will end up frustrated with more bad habits and not accomplish anything. If one practices for a shorter amount of time, aiming to eliminate the bad habits and visualize the music, they are likely to improve tremendously, and come out of the practice room feeling accomplished.
Ristad proves that actually visualizing music helps improve consistency in tone, intonation, phrasing and interpretation. While precision is an important aspect of music, it is also a major hindrance in the progression of many musicians. Instead of focusing on being completely accurate 100% of the time, Ristad suggests that the artist visualize the shape, color, and performance of each passage. The picture relates to this in the way that there is a clear depiction of the instrument, so that one won't get completely lost in the art form, yet there is also an element of artistry, which is the way music should always be practiced and performed.