Musical Excellence. Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance

Contains new reports on the efficacy of strategies and techniques drawn from exercise science, psychophysiology, sports psychology, cognitive science, and medicine for enhancing musical performance, serving as a valuable reference source for researchers and research students
Includes practical recommendations drawn from the findings of scientific research. Assisting musicians in enhancing their practice and performance and in managing performance anxiety. Also serves as a source for new approaches for those teaching and training performers
Contains comprehensive research reviews, accompanied by schematic diagrams, allowing performers and teachers to think about practice and performance in new ways and to conceptualize the available practical advice within the context of theories of human performance and cognition
Musical Excellence offers performers, teachers, and researchers, new perspectives and practical guidance for enhancing performance and managing the stress that typically accompanies performance situations. It draws together, for the first time in a single collection, the findings of pioneering initiatives from across the arts and sciences. Specific recommendations are provided alongside comprehensive reviews of existing theory and research, enabling the practitioner to place the strategies and techniques within the broader context of human performance and encouraging novel ways of conceptualizing music making and teaching.
Part I, Prospects and Limits, sets out ground rules for achieving musical excellence. What roles do innate talent, environmental influences, and sheer hard work play in attaining eminence? How can musicians best manage the physical demands of a profession that is intrinsically arduous, throughout a career that can literally span a lifetime? How can performers, teachers, and researchers effectively assess and reflect on performance enhancement for themselves, their colleagues, and their students?
Part II, Practice Strategies, presents approaches for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of practice. These are examined generally for the individual and ensembles and specifically for the tasks of memorizing, sight-reading, and improvising music. Musicians spend vast amounts of time and energy acquiring and refining their skills, but are there particular rehearsal strategies that they can employ to produce better performance results or to achieve the same results more quickly? What implication does existing knowledge of human information processing and physical functioning have for musical learning and practice?
Part III, Techniques and Interventions, introduces scientifically validated methods for enhancing musical achievement, ordered from the more physical to the psychological to the pharmacological; however, they all address issues of both mental and physical significance for the musician. Collectively, they stand as clear evidence that applied, cross-disciplinary research can facilitate musicians' strive for performance excellence.
Throughout, the book highlights ways for musicians to make the most of their existing practice, training, and experience and gives them additional tools for acquiring and developing new skills. Each chapter is underpinned by physical and psychological principles relevant to all performance traditions that demand dedication and resilience, unique artistic vision, and effective communication.
Readership: Music psychologists, music educators, musicians

CONTENIDO

Part I - Prospects and Limits
1. A. Williamon: A guide to enhancing musical performance
2. R. Chaffin & A. F. Lemieux: General perspectives on achieving musical excellence
3. C. B. Wynn Parry: Managing the physical demands of musical performance
4. G. E. McPherson & E. Schubert: Measuring performance enhancement in music

Part II - Practice Strategies
5. H. Jorgensen: Strategies for individual practice
6. J. W. Davidson & E. C. King: Strategies for ensemble practice
7. J. Ginsborg: Strategies for memorizing music
8. S. Thompson & A. C. Lehmann: Strategies for sight-reading and improvising music

Part III - Techniques and Interventions
9. A. H. Taylor & D. Wasley: Physical fitness
10. E. Valentine: Alexander technique
11. J. H. Gruzelier & T. Egner: Physiological self-regulation: Biofeedback and neurofeedback
12. C Connolly & A. Williamon: Mental skills training
13. P. N. Juslin, A. Friberg, E. Schoonderwaldt & J. Karlsson: Feedback learning of musical expressivity
14. R. West: Drugs and musical performance

Epilogue: a note on future directions for enhancing musical performance