Read the Book Instead

This book has good content but didn't maximise the potential in an audio book format to incorporate the additional musical elements without having to constantly refer to the books website. This made for a less satisfactory listening experience.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

Listened Twice without a break

Would you consider the audio edition of The Practice of Practice: Get Better Faster to be better than the print version?

This might be better in print, because there are pictures and graphs. Everything is available on line though.

Would you recommend The Practice of Practice: Get Better Faster to your friends? Why or why not?

I already have recommended this to my musician friends. This is a very informative and entertaining book for musicians. I noticed that friends who regularly listen to the music of others were interested. As expected, they are also the best musicians.

What about Jonathan Harnum’s performance did you like?

I generally avoid author narrators, but Jonathan Harnum obviously understands perfotmance. I like narrators who blend into the background, and allow you to concentrate on the book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but it is just fine to put down. It is divided into discreet sections, so it is easy to put down at the end of one and the beginning of another.

Any additional comments?

Many musicians get in their own way, and this author does a good job of addressing that. There is probably room for a follow up book on this topic alone. He reviews neuropsychology, and some studies are less than solid research, and not sufficient to draw conclusions. The author usually mentions that, and the studies are interesting and entertaining. I enjoyed the use of Youtube links for the performers he reviews. I didn't follow links for performers I already knew. From the authors discription of the others, I expected more.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

Great Listen

This book was awesome! It has expanded my music perception ten fold. From great mindsets, to practice habits, to resources, to humorous stories, this book has tons of useful information. I recommend it to all musicians, novice to expert. I look forward to listening to it again in a few months to see what else I can discover. Thanks for a great book Jonathan.
Ollie

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

Must read for all musicians

This book was very eye opening and inspiring to me. It provided a lot of great ideas on how to practice my instrument and to improve. I only wish I would have had this book when I was younger. I will be putting the techniques to the test and look forward to having a lot of fun making music!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

Really Helpful

I really liked this. Helped me come up with some ideas for practicing my bass. Some of the links on the website could be updated (some are expired) but otherwise a great listen.

The part that explained taking things very slowly and doing them right the first time was the most helpful. Knowing that my brain will "learn" to make the same mistakes over and over was an eye-opener.

Thank you.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

Excellent book, author gets it. Thank you!

Exactly what I was looking for in a book on music practice. I love it when the author is the narrator, they're able to convey the emotion of their own words in a deeper way, many times.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

A book about everything but practice

This book had decent reviews but I'm starting to question if they are real. you will be 5 chapters in before you get your first tip on practice. it's one sentence and the advice boils down to practice slow enough to be perfect. 95% of the words are about other things like how human hearing works or how the brain wirks and even how NASA conducted the search for explanets. thus one really had me scratch my head and went on so long that I though the subject of the book had changed entirely to space. He finally tried to tie it back to practice by saying NASA tried looking for planets one way that gave poor results and then they launched a probe that was better so of course that shows that there are better and worse ways to practice something. It feels like the author had a list of 5 items actually about practice and whole bunch of other subjects he was more interested in. He found a way to turn that into a book that could chew up a few hours of your time. Thankfully audible has a great policy of letting you return books and that's what I'm doing with this one. There is in reality, about as much useful information in this review on practice as you will get reading this book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

An Excellent (and Useful) Book

I went into this book with high hopes, and those hopes were exceeded. Harnum covered many more aspects than I expected and in thorough (but not boring) detail.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Where is the website for this book?

The author keeps referring to a website in connection with the text of this book. I am unable to locate this web site and it seems to be essential to the text. Can Audible respond to this?

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

I really enjoyed this book. learned so much!

I learned so many great techniques that I will use for the rest of my life from this book. I am also a teacher and will incorporate it into my teaching methods. I recommend this to anyone not just musicians - anyone.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful