010: Making Music with Ease, with Gerald Klickstein (The Musician's Way)

Have you ever wondered if professional musicians have some special ability or received special teaching that helps them be creative, improve faster and be somehow immune to performance anxiety? It turns out there are "under the hood" techniques which any musician can use to gain these same abilities, and transform the experience of learning music into one of joy and ease.

Today on the podcast we're joined by Gerald Klickstein, author of a ground-breaking book which is widely respected in the world of music education: The Musician's Way.

Written as a handbook for the aspiring professional musician it's packed with insights and strategies that can actually empower any musician. It tackles some of the most confusing and frustrating problems that musicians face, regardless of their instrument, musical style or career aspirations.

Topics like: how to design your practice to actually achieve results quickly and consistently. How to gain confidence to perform, even if it terrifies you. And how to nurture your creativity and collaborate well with other musicians.

The book reveals the hidden areas which professional musicians benefit from for learning, playing and performing – but which are generally left out of traditional instrument lessons.

Gerald has extensive experience as a teacher including on the faculty of several US universities – but the book isn't based only on his own ideas and opinions. It's evidence-based, meaning he's drawing on a wide body of research and sharing what has been proven to work.

In this conversation Gerald shares:

• One unorthodox but incredibly valuable piece of advice on how to choose the exercises and pieces you work on.

• A simple but effective way for anybody to overcome performance anxiety using a practical process, as well as a really useful framework for thinking about what's causing your anxiety when it arises.

• A great tip for anyone who's wanted to record themselves playing but found it a really intimidating and stressful experience.

• Plus how the experts take full advantage of their "musical autopilot" – but without leaving themselves prone to performance freeze-ups due to relying on it.

If you've ever struggled to make your practice time deliver real results, or you've had any anxiety around performing music then you're going to love this episode and how it opens your mind in new and useful ways.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 010

Links and Resources

• The Musicians Way book on Amazon

• MusiciansWay.com companion website

• Growth Mindset: Blog post by Gerald Klickstein, Mindset book by Carol Dweck

• Deliberate Practice for Musicians

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