book review: Mastery
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard, is not a music book. But it is full of powerful advice for musicians. Leonard brings his experience as a student and teacher of Aikido to the examination of how we learn, and what the learning process holds in store for the learner. If you struggle at times with the desire to practice, you should read this book. If you would like to make your practicing more effective, read this book. If you’ve ever thought about quitting your instrument because you aren’t good enough, you should read this book. If you’ve ever looked for a shortcut to getting really good, you should read this book (hint: there’s no shortcut to getting good in the book).
This book will be filed with the self-help books, but it really stands out in that genre. It’s brief, easy to read, and incredibly pertinent for anyone serious about playing an instrument. And it contains no specific musical instruction of any sort. How can that work?
This book is about how we learn. The benefit of understanding how to learn is that you can then practice much more effectively. If you had a great teacher, you probably already absorbed a lot of that sort of information from her. But for the rest of us, getting an idea of what to expect on the road to mastery is quite powerful.
The book is arranged in three parts. The first part decribes the idea of mastery and explains why contemporary American culture is at odds with the very idea. Consumerism is built on a series of climactic moments delivered in rapid succession while mastery is built on the idea of a plateau. Our culture of consumerism doesn’t value deferred gratification.
The guts of this book is the five “master keys,” each of which gets a full chapter of discussion in the second part of the book. They are:
- Instruction
- Practice
- Surrender
- Intentionality
- The Edge
Then in the third part, Leonard presents a list of tools for mastery. This final section is sort of a collection of lists.
From a musical perspective, this book is completely applicable, despite not containing any specific musical information. It instructs the reader how to practice. Specifically, the idea of a plateau, and the need to love the plateau. A few nuggets from the practice chapter:
- Practice is the path upon which you travel, just that.
- The master of any game is generally a master of practice.
- “The master,” an old martial arts saying goes, “is the one who stays on the mat five minutes longer than anybody else.”
Now in case this begins to seem a little too much like the Karate Kid for you, I acknowledge that the heavy reliance on martial arts for examples does color this book somewhat. But there are plenty of examples and narrative along the way so you’ll feel like this is not a martial arts book.
The chapter on surrender contains some real insight. There is indignity involved with mastering any skill. Before you get better, you may have to get a little worse than you are. He tells a story about two Karate black belts who were in one of his Aikido classes. One surrendered to the Aikido instruction fully while the other was reluctant to let go of the things he was taught in Karate classes. The point of the story is that there are no masters only learners.
This idea appeals to me deeply. I recognize that I am on a path of musical learning. I’ve lately done all I can to surrender and enjoy the time spent in practice for its own sake. The new viewpoint has helped me make advances I never imagined possible.
Not all of us are working with teachers. It can really be difficult to manage your own journey on a mastery path. But there are useful tools in this book for doing that. I view my practice as work spent improving my ability to realize my intentions. I strive toward reducing the distance between what I hear internally (mental audio imagery) and what I can play on my instrument. This book helped me a lot with that, first by helping me to see the task in this way, and then by equipping me with specific information that helps me find fulfillment in what can at times seem like plodding practice.
There’s one glaring omission from this book. I plan to do a whole post on it, but I am shocked that a book about learning written by a teacher didn’t mention the value of teaching as a learning tool. Other than that, this is a great map for how to live the life of a learner.
