Making Music for the Joy Of It
by Stephanie Judy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephanie JudyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-10-01
ISBN: 0874775930
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Tarcher
Book Reviews of Making Music for the Joy Of It
Book Review: A rich resource for late learners of music
Summary: 5 Stars
I've wanted to learn to play music since I was a toddler, but Santa Claus ignored my letters about that desire. Singing in choirs kept that desire alive rather than satisfying it. Around age 39 or 40, hearing Hannah & Michala Petri on an NPR show "St. Paul Sunday Morning," I went out and bought myself a recorder and did my best without help to teach myself to play it, but was frustrated to find only children's music for recorder. If I had had this book then, I might have had the resources to continue with it then. Finally, encouraged by some musician friends at age 56, I began taking clarinet lessons.
Two years later, I come out of every lesson feeling ecstatic, and no matter how frustrating a practice session can get, I come away from it grinning like the Cheshire cat. I sleep more soundly than ever before. I listen to music with an altogether new set of ears, inquisitively. JOY is indeed what this adventure is all about! I love challenges, and it has challenged me at every turn. My thumb gets quite sore if I don't restrain my practice time. I have been working hard at learning how to sustain "rhythmic stability" (a term I learned from this book), with a variety of very helpful strategies I have learned from my teacher, and this book has a wonderful section on that topic. Working myself over each learning hurdle is a thrill. Nonetheless, throughout the two years since beginning to learn how to play the clarinet, I have been searching for a book just like this one. I am fortunate to have a teacher whose pedagogy reflects a generous perspective much like this book's, and am sure he will appreciate the credible affirmation this book gives to the intelligence, skill, and ingenuity in his approach, as well as its guidance concerning my optimal learning from it.
When I first began lessons with him, he recommended that I read Leonard Wibberly's AH JULIAN!--a beautifully inspiring narrative that Judy has included in her book's bibliography. I loved Daniel Levitin's THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC and Christopher Small's MUSICKING too, and I have found especially useful both Green & Galwey's THE INNER GAME OF MUSIC and Amy Nathan's YOUNG MUSICIAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE (the latter also recommended by my teacher, even though I am not young). Stephanie Judy's book is something like these last two, except, unlike any other book I have found, it recognizes the peculiar contextual situations and needs of adults who come late to music learning. For example, Judy recognizes adults' challenges finding adequate practice time, even to the extent of having none at all for long periods of time. I cannot imagine myself wanting lessons without practicing! But I have certainly had a work-week here and there or have taken a trip out of town that has prevented my practice before a lesson or three. Judy's guidance about making the most of lessons when one's adult life requires one to sacrifice practice time is fabulously useful.
I agree with Judy that music is a profoundly spiritual practice in its disciplined "dailiness" and demand for commitment, with its "routine that becomes ritual" that opens and fills the heart, offering discovery, humility, challenge, expression, renewal, ecstasy, liturgy, initiation, and "celebration of the best in ourselves." I am grateful for her book's highly specific reassurances, encouragements, extensive explanations, and concrete instruction. This book has blasted myths that fueled my secret self-doubts & undermined my self-confidence and has helped me understand more fully my teachers' wisdom, advice, and strategies as well as my own challenges, which turn out (much to my relief) to be common experiences. The many quotations in its margins and its substantial bibliography add even more value to the text.
I cannot imagine teaching myself to play the clarinet without a very good teacher, but I can now imagine returning to my earlier project of teaching myself to play the recorder. This book offers excellent guidance to adults approaching such musical learning challenges as beginners with and without teachers. No less basic than the standard beginning method books for whatever instrument one is learning, it should be a standard required text in every midlife music learner's library. I expect to read it and reread it many times, trying its various learning strategies as I continue this exhilarating journey toward becoming an amateur musician.
Summary of Making Music for the Joy Of It
Starting from the belief that we all have musical ability, Judy challenges popular assumptions about musicality and shows how to remove self-limiting beliefs and avoid frustrations as you discover and express the musician within, whether you want to play classical, jazz, pop, be-bob, old time, or new wave.History & Criticism Books
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