Customer Reviews
How to Practice 
2008-03-03
This book is a bit didactic in its approach, and it reads as if it's aimed mainly at musicians who play symphonic instruments (I play electric bass guitar). Nonetheless, it provides a number of tips to help make your practice regimen more efficient, less effortful, and more productive - including breathing and stretching exercises, and mental methods designed to help you approach practicing with a new and revitalized mindset.
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Good Musicianship is in the practice room 
2007-08-27
This book is written to help you improve your ideas and mental outlook toward daily practice.. Ms. Bruser goes into the importance of technical correctness, including posture and movement, but she really inspires us to approach practice with a different attitude. I play the tuba as an amateur. After reading her book, I began to practice more, but I actually may spend less time playing notes. Musicianship implies technical expertise, but this book is really written to help you improve your artistic musicality and learn to make music with passion, intelligence and sensitivity. To do this, you must approach each practice much like a performance, or a master class with you as your own clinician. Practice is not just face time with your instrument..
A wonderful insight into making music 2007-01-19
There are some incredibly useful insights into making music. Madeline Bruser suggests getting into a routine and following it daily. Much emphasis is on avoiding practice-related physical and mental injuries. For serious musicians, it eliminates much of the angst surrounding each practice session and brings back the joy that ultimately is the fundamental reason to play.
Another book to check out: Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner (an absolutely killer jazz pianist)
on amazon and elsewhere: [...]
The Art of Practicing 2006-11-05
Inspiring, readable book with wonderful advice for improving musical performance through physical, intellectual, and emotional exercises. Visualizations are simple and effective. I'm recommending it to all my serious piano students.
A valuable resource for all musicians 2006-07-19
Madeline Bruser's compendium on her Art of Practicing seminars will prove valuable to all musicians who feel that the physical/mental stresses of life affect their playing. For a long time I suffered from a sore left wrist after a several hour practice session at the piano which was a result of built up tension and using inefficient motions. After correcting the height of my bench (to be higher) and studying Bruser's text (specifically the chapters on stretching/basic mechanics) I have begun to learn to play in a much more relaxed and efficient manner. Her book is inspiring and full of radiant ideas. I would recommend it to anyone who feels that their practicing has become stagnant or whose expression and speed is being held back by forceful and tense playing.
A must have for serious teen music students 2006-02-28
This landmark book enlightens amateur and professional musicians about a way of practicing that transforms a sometimes frustrating, monotonous, and overly strenuous labor into an exhilarating and rewarding experience. Acclaimed pianist and teacher Madeline Bruser combines physiological and meditative principles to help musicians release physical and mental tension and unleash their innate musical talent. She offers practical techniques for cultivating free and natural movement, a keen enjoyment of sounds and sensations, a clear and relaxed mind, and an open heart and she explains how to
Prepare the body and mind to practice with ease
Understand the effect of posture on flexibility and expressiveness
Make efficient use of the hands and arms
Employ listening techniques to improve coordination
Increase the range of color and dynamics by using less effort
Cultivate rhythmic vitality
Perform with confidence, warmth, and freedom
Photographs show essential points of posture and movement for a variety of instruments.
Pointless reading 
2003-10-06
I bought this book at a time when I was experiencing some unexpalinable losses in my control of the instrument and other strange stuff that happens from time to time to a music student who must churn out weekly papers at Juilliard instead of practicing diligently. I have read it twice, trying to find anything of value. I found nothing. Much of her pedagogy is either common knowledge or just hogwash, presented as if it were precious kernels of divine wisdom.
Paraphrasing Liszt, there is much good and original in that book. However, whatever's good is not original, and whatever's original is not good.
Many pages are devoted to relaxation/stretching exercises. Big deal, anyone would notice that one plays/sings better after spending some quality time at the gym. Yoga will do even better, for some. Yet, her stretches are not instrument-specific. Should you be interested in this topic, there is a wonderful book by Schmitd-Szklowska, a Russian piano pedagogue, where a terrific system of corrective exercises is given, just for hands and arms. (I don't think this book is translated; if interested, find a Russian-born pianist and ask if they have a copy AND if they'd be willing to make a quick translation for you, or at least verbally describe the routine)
Finally, ask yourself, "Is Madeline Bruser a well-known pianist, with a great technique, awsome repertoire, wonderful tone, whose musicality and imagination have captured audiences' hearts?" You wouldn't know... for obvious reasons. Be my guest, search the internet for any evidence of her alleged concert career, you won't find any. Can she actually play piano? Any evidence?
Didn't serve my needs 
2003-04-25
It is conceivable that some might find this book inspiring or useful, I was disappointed to find new insights fairly sparse. If you already recognize the importance of becoming spiritually and physically connected to your instrument, then this book will not be very satisfying. It is largely one person's experience (the author's) and the extent to which this might be useful to others is, well, variable. I can only remember two things about the book despite having re-read certain sections several times in search of possibly missed revealations: 1. too much time was devoted to relaxation exercises, and 2. the interesting brief anecdote about Rachmaninoff practicing. The latter item helped me envision what I would view as a more useful book: one that surveys the practicing approaches/methods used by a wide variety of effective musicians. This sort of book would give the reader a wide array of tried and true practicing approaches to experiment with.
the Heart of the matter 
2003-03-19
The srength of this book lies in its ability to inspire and offer some very practical approaches to becoming more self-aware both in practicing and performing.
I liked the chapter on stretching and also the question and answer sections.I enjoyed alot of the stories that the author shared-one in particular on page 61 ..."Once, when the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky were about to go onstage to perform, one of them said to the other,"How are you feeling?" "Terrible," he answered, "because I'm no good." "I'm no good either,"the first said,"but we're no worse than the rest of them. Let's go."
The weakest parts of the book for me as a professional musician and pianist(BM and MM in Piano)were those parts dealing with specific piano repertoire, musical analysis and technique.The writing pertaining to technique and analysis is very dry, unclear, and misleading in parts.Most of that could have been left out with no harm done to the book.
There is nothing like a good teacher to make things clear, direct, and straightforward.
That aside there is much in the book that can point the way to more freedom and inspiration in practicing and playing.
The Zen of Practicing! 2003-02-24
This book relieved me of so much anxiety and negativity! Though I spent years studying the piano, I always viewed practicing as a chore and would drive myself into a nervous, sleepless, frenzy of practicing before every recital. My final recital was twelve years ago -- I had worked myself into a horrible state, had come to despise the piece I was preparing (Beethovan's Six Variations), gave a lousy performance, quit my lessons and got rid of my piano. When a friend asked me to store his piano in our home I started playing again and was amazed to find that I still felt anxious although I was not preparing for any performance.
My son's violin teacher loaned me this book and I must say if I'd read it twelve years ago I never would have given up the piano. Using this book I analyzed my physical approach to playing for the first time and realized my posture was horrible and I was actually clenching my teeth when I played! Now I am enjoying myself so much more and I feel so comfortable that I have started playing as an accompanist.
There's much that's useful in this book though you may (like me) skip a lot of the technical information or parts that seem geared more toward professional musicians. I especially recommend this book for anyone with performance anxiety.
