The Inner Game of Music

The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green, with Timothy Gallwey15 chapters225 pagesThis book is based on Gallwey's quite successful title,  The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance . What is striking and admirable is that Green didn't just write a knockoff cribbed from Gallwey's book. After meeting with Gallwey about the project, they decided Green should live with (and teach) the principles and then write the book. Three years later, Green was ready and this book is the result.As you might guess, the book is about how to think about- and approach playing music and music practice. There is a lot of useful information in this little book, and it's clear that Green--a professional symphonic bass player and university teacher--knows what he's talking about and writes clearly about it.He starts with an overview of Gallwey's approach, namely using the "Self 1" and "Self 2" aspects of our thinking. Green immediately points out that this doesn't necessarily conform to the popular "left-brain/right-brain," and other ideas from psychology (for more on this, read Pinker's good book,  A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future ). S1 and S2 are simply a conceptual tool to help "describe the ways in which the incredibly complex human being is 'wired and programmed.'" (p. 17). Self 1 is the rational, analytical, judgmental self, while self 2 is more holistic, body-centered and emotive. Green shows how both selves are essential, but each has its place and role. Our culture focuses much more on S1, and Green takes us through ways to bring out the strengths inherent in S2. The first part of the book introduces us to "Inner Game" principles and how he's applied them to music.One of the most valuable parts of the book for me was the advice throughout the book on awareness. Awareness not only as a musician, but especially as a teacher (Chapter 10), and the teacher's role in evoking deep awareness in students by avoiding the "Do this" approach and adopting the "Be aware of..." approach . Other valuable chapters for me were CH11: The Inner Game Listener; CH8: Coping with Obstacles; CH9: Improving the Quality of Musical Experience; and CH7: Letting Go.The weaknesses of the book lie in its classically oriented, Western-art-music-is-best approach, though this is a minor concern as most of the principles in the book can be applied to any type of music. To be fair, this bias is, I think, not a result of any overt agenda on Green's part, and I'd bet his musical tastes are far-ranging and varied, but because of his own immersion in that tradition, his writing is bound to come off with a bit of this flavor. I found value in all but one of the chapters, CH 15: Improvisation, Composition, and Creativity, which gave shallow treatments of each subject. Putting all three of these complex and useful musical tools into one chapter does a disservice to the topics and the thoroughness of the rest of the book. In fact, each topic could easily support an entire chapter (or book!) of its own.Despite these minor flaws, it's a great read for anyone interested in playing music, or anyone with a child interested in music. The book is rarely dry or pedantic and makes frequent use of real-world anecdotes to illustrate points. Using examples like this make the book an enjoyable read and may help the reader to apply these principles and philosophies to his or her own situation. The book has something for everyone: players of any level, parents of players, and teachers at any level. Highly recommended.Have fun, and good luck with your practice!

It was a bit tough, as a rock guitarist, to get around the performance examples for classical music players.. A), none of which emphasized the concept of 'Improvisation' which is a big part of performance.. Classical players, generally, read what's on paper, or play what they memorized..I found the emphasis on the '1st' voice '2nd' voice (in our heads) definitely makes sense as this is applicable to ALL situations in life.. We, as humans, tell ourselves (via the '1st' voice), everything 'wrong' with our playing, everything wrong in our lives, or whatever. This distractive (and usually very LOUD) voice in our minds is what causes any failures in life.. some call it Ego, some call it Super Ego.. It is important to dismantle it's affect on you when you play.. play as if you are a beginner all the time, it tends to humble us, and we learn to let go and let it flow.. The voice ('2nd') voice is usually yours, and it whispers against the louder '1st' voice.Another great book for guitar players is "Zen Guitar" by Philip Toshio Sudo.. great book, highly recommended for all students of music.. Very similar ideals, more for the guitar player, but equally adaptable to all musicians.. We are human, and most humans get in their "own" way.. this is the same for every day life.. it's a good and very FAST read. .. you can read thru it a few times, or read a section and just ponder it for the day.. it's a mental training exercise.. but the freeing effect is worth the time..Have great PHUN (i just saw that spelling on the net, cute.. but then.. when you get the ZEN.. there is not right or wrong, it's all what YOU desire..

Love it.

It is amazing book that I would totally recommend. It made me think about and approach learning music in totally different way. It gives you the tool to be successful and reach your goals so much faster than you would think possible. The tools it teaches you is not only applicable in music but in you day to day life and what ever goal you have in life. I can’t express enough how instrumental this book has been to me!

As the other reviewers have mentioned, this book will not only help you with your musical performance and how to practice, but also how to deal with other situations in your chosen career (be it music or otherwise) and everyday life. I've read through the book only one time and I'm now planning on reading through it again. I have pages marked and highlighted that pertain particularly to the situation I'm in so I can concentrate on them more. The book states from the outset that there may be certain areas that don't pertain to everyone. That has been the case with me, but it's still interesting to me to read through these areas to see what other musicians might be struggling with or find useful. Who knows. Those areas may become pertinent to me in the future. This book was recommended to me because I struggled with performance anxiety. Since I've read through it, my private teacher has noticed a big difference in my abilities.

More than one friend of mine recommended reading this book as a way to get past my "inner critic" - the voice that interrupts performance and throws you out of the moment - and combat "impostor syndrome." There's some helpful information here, and the suggested responses to performance anxiety can help, but I was irritated by the author perpetuating a number of fallacies (particularly the howler "we only use 10% of our brains") in explaining the basis of his approach. Motivation, attention and focus are covered in a largely superficial fashion. But the book suffers most from a truly abysmal conversion to Kindle format. It is literally riddled with typos, frequently several to a page. It's the most error-riddled eBook in my collection.If you want a meatier, deeper, and, I'd argue, more satisfying examination of competence and mastery you'd be better served reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book on "flow" which covers much of the same ground.

A good book for both beginning and experienced musicians, it highlights potential areas for self improvement and awareness using easy to understand and practice exercises.Downside - the book has multiple errors in spelling which often detract. It also, probably a little dated given the body of research in performance in the last 20 years.

This is a great book. Although this particular version is aimed at musicians who struggle when performing live or for others the principles apply to all walks of life.the book describes some of the science of how our brain works to send messages to our subconscious which make us hesitate, question ourselves and make us shy away from giving our best.You may want o look at similar titles rather than go for this specific version if you're not someone who performs in front of others (or who wants to do so)

Do read it as it is so useful for musicians and performance conditioning. Best if followed by the 'mastery' version for further updates. Great little books and recycled - thank you 'WeBuyBooks'

This book was ‘thrown together’ with little thought to the effect that layout and typesetting would have on the reader. It undermines the otherwise inspirational work, and hindered my enjoyment of the book. M