Psychology for Musicians: Understanding and Acquiring the Skills.

* Psychology for Musicians: Understanding and Acquiring the Skills, by Andreas C. Lehmann, John A. Sloboda and Robert H. Woody. Oxford University Press (www.oup.com/us; [phone]), 2007. 268 pp. 29.95.

Psychology for Musicians is a reference guide written by a three-member interdisciplinary team (psychology, music education, and musicology professors). The book was conceived as a classroom textbook, organized into 12 chapters with an academic semester in mind. The authors' main goals, as outlined in the first chapter, are threefold: to discuss the findings of scientific research in music psychology and music education and to make observations if/when those findings contradict a practitioner's advice; to understand the mechanisms involved in music listening and music making; and, although focusing on the Western art music tradition, to present information from a cross-cultural perspective.

The book is divided into three sections dealing with music learning (musical development, motivation and practice), musical skills (interpretation, reading, memory, improvisation composition, performance anxiety) and musical roles (teacher, performer, listener, user). While intended for a wide audience, professionals and amateurs alike, it is not an easy read. The topics are certainly of general interest to all musicians, and the authors give clear definitions of technical terms and describe relevant scientific findings using non-technical language. But the topics are complex and, for the uninitiated, will require slow, careful--and probably multiple--readings.

I found the chapter titled "Reading or Listening and Remembering" particularly interesting. The concepts of "chunking" and how humans process information were clearly presented, and several studies about sight reading and memorization were referenced. Since pattern recognition is a key part of sight reading and by ear playing, requiring fast access to long-term memory, these three types of musical skills (playing at sight, by ear and for memory) were discussed in the context of a shared mental mechanism. Often these skills are presented as separate and sometimes mutually exclusive skills, but the authors presented a convincing argument for how these skills, in fact, depend on the same mental mechanism. The cross-cultural perspective in this chapter related to Yugoslavian oral epic singers, who recall thousands of lines of poetry for memory. How we retrieve information from memory (or not) is a fascinating subject, and this overview should be very helpful to teachers and students.

Each chapter ends with a short summary, three study questions and a suggested reading list, making the book very useful as a course textbook. While the authors indicate that they intentionally limited the number of references used in each chapter, the reference list numbers nearly 450 titles, mostly written since 1990. This alone is worth the price of the book.

For anyone interested in comparing their own views about teaching and learning with recent research findings, this book is a must-read and will definitely provide much food-for-thought.--Reviewed by Sue Haug, NCTM, Pennsylvania State University 

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