Passionate Practice: the Musician's Guide to Learning, Memorizing, and Performing.

by Margaret Elson. Regent Press (6020-A Adeline, Oakland, CA 94608), 2002. 108 pp., $19.95.

This book has much to offer the thoughtful reader, especially the adult student intrigued by psychological approaches and looking for new pathways to security, flow, self-acceptance and enjoyment in performance. A slender spiral-bound handbook, it also includes a few interactive workbook-type exercises.

There are three main sections: Preparation, Practice and Performance. The author's voice is conversational, confident and chummy--much like a friendly therapist who brings an entertaining personality to sessions with clients. This is fitting, because Elson's professional credentials are mainly in the area of counseling psychology, and counseling forms a significant part of her work--although she also has taught piano for many years.

The book delineates how we can call upon focusing techniques, imagery, body awareness and many other types of auto-suggestion in order to practice efficiently, overcome performance fears and find our expressive voice.

The strongest contribution here is the variety of psychological devices; if one strategy doesn't connect with a reader, it's quite likely that another one will--and this is good, since the dynamics of performance psychology are so very personal. Probably all the book's ideas have proven helpful with various clients in the author's experience, and meditative skills like the ones Elson outlines are always enriching and helpful. Among the handiest notions are the "`Uh-oh' mind set" and the "magic carpet" sensation in the arm. The author delves beyond the conventional in the realm of therapeutic techniques. For a person wanting to feel more bonded with the piano and less intimidated by it, for example, Elson suggests exploring the innards of the instrument with one's hands or telling it a secret. At times the book has a self-help feel to it, as it features unique lists ("The Eight-Point Sensory System") and special terminology ("Using the Calming Light, cue yourself into the R/A state").

The actual nuts-and-bolts practice advice in Passionate Practice covers familiar, traditional terrain, and the memorizing advice is not very comprehensive. Clearly, it was not intended to address rigorous technical issues. One concern about books like this is that serenity and mental focus, as crucial as they are, do not answer every challenge that crops up. Students sometimes experience an even deeper level of frustration when they rely on a holistic approach and it falls short, simply because in that instance a more specific, pragmatic problem-solving strategy was what they really needed.

But the psychological content of Passionate Practice is creative, and its insights may well provide valuable encouragement to many readers. Reviewed by William Westney, Lubbock, Texas.