Hi. Jon Harnum here. I’m an avid and critical reader, and recommending books to others is not a task I take lightly.

The following books have had a significant impact on me, both personally and professionally, and I highly recommend each of them. If you’re looking for a good, interesting read to take your understanding of practice further, start with these.

I’ve ordered them from “most useful” at the top to “still quite useful” at the bottom.

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The Musician’s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness

by Gerald Klickstein

One of the best practice books, hands down. Klickstein is a classical guitarist who performs throughout the U.S. and internationally and is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

My favorite 2 aspects of the book are the well-chosen quotations sprinkled throughout, and the use of solid research to inform and back up what Klickstein puts forth. The bibliography is solid though not comprehensive. The book covers the nitty gritty of practice and includes concrete things to actually do, which mostly means strategies for excellent practice, but there are other worthy tidbits, too.

Part I: Artful Practice
Part II: Fearless Performance
Part III: Lifelong Creativity
MY REVIEW

Hardcover: 360 pages, 14 chapters
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 3, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0195343123, ISBN-13: 978-0195343120
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (56 customer reviews)

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Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

by Kenny Werner

This book came along at just the right time to make a big impact on me and because of this, I had to revisit it as I thought about The Practice of Practice. In my re-reading of Werner’s book I see again a wisdom and a reverence for Music that still shines through. I still recommend the book highly.

Especially useful in this book are Werner’s thoughts on how fear can (and usually does at some point) affect one’s playing, and even the way one listens to music. If you can get a handle on fear early in your pursuit (or at any phase of your journey), you’re better off than most.

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Jamey Aebersold (January 9, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 156224003X ISBN-13: 978-1562240035
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (98 customer reviews)

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The Inner Game of Music

by Barry Green, with Timothy Gallwey

Barry Green’s book is based on Gallwey’s quite successful title, The Inner Game of Tennis. What is striking and admirable is that Green didn’t just write a knockoff cribbed from Gallwey’s book. After meeting with Gallwey about the project, they decided Green should live with (and teach) the principles and then write the book. Three years later, Green was ready and this book is the result.

Hardcover: 225 pages, 15 chapters
Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (February 21, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385231261
ISBN-13: 978-0385231268
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

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The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills

by Daniel Coyle.

You’ll see another great book by Coyle further down this list. This little gem here is short, sweet, and just about small enough to fit in most instrument cases, and it’s a hardcover, so it’ll take a beating if necessary.

Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (August 21, 2012)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.7 x 7.5 inches
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)

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Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

by Stephen Nachmanovich

Pages: 197
Chapters: 22
Back Matter (10 pp): notes/sources, bibliography, illustrations list, bio
4 Sections: The Sources; The Work; Obstacles & Openings; The Fruits

(At the end of my review of the book is a link to an mp3 of my improv group Meh! playing an improvised story with Nachmanovich.)

Free Play doesn’t deal directly with music practice, but it is nevertheless an important book for anyone interested in music (or other arts, or life). I strongly believe that improvisation benefits practice. To me, improvising is an essential musical skill, one possessed by musical greats (Hussain, Bach, Shankar, Beethoven, Duke, Mozart, etc.), and is practiced in musical traditions all over the world, as well as by young children who haven’t developed some of the fear associated with improvisation in those overly focused on the written notes. Remember when you drew letters over and over as a young child, taking great care (or not) with the shapes? Now imagine that despite all that practice time forming letters and sounding out words, that you never (ever) spoke extemporaneously. Crazy, right? To me, that’s about the same as practicing scales over and over until they’re memorized, but then never using that tonal material to improvise.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Tarcher; Reprint edition (May 1, 1991)
ISBN-10: 0874776317 ISBN-13: 978-0874776317
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)

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The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How

by Daniel Coyle.

This is one of the most engaging reads that tackles practice in general, and what’s happening in the brain. Coyle uses anecdotes and interviews with experts to help the reader understand how people get better and what’s going on in the brain.

My review of the book goes into more details. Highly recommended. ~$15

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (April 28, 2009)
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars (103 customer reviews)

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