The Positive Pianist: How Flow Can Bring Passion to Practice and Performance

by Thomas J. Parente

In The Positive How Flow Can Bring Passion to Practice and Performance , author Thomas J. Parente applies the concept of flow to the practice of piano playing, demonstrating how student musicians can experience enjoyment and confidence from succeeding at something that challenges them to an engaging level. By using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow to musical performance, Parente shows that linking productivity and enjoyment in piano playing has a positive impact on students, motivating them to practice more in order to experience flow again; this creates optimal learning conditions for piano practicing. As the chapters progress, Parente shows students how to evaluate their own progress and offers teachers the tools to impart on their students an optimal practice one informed by flow. Parente argues for an objective, goal-oriented backdrop that will lead piano students to achieve greater confidence, accuracy, and musicality. The Positive Pianist draws on the author's forty years of teaching experience and research to show piano students and their teachers how to develop a productive, focused mental state when practicing the piano.

Genres: Music

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2015

Reviews

[addy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot i enjoyed with this book! I liked the application of flow theory and phases of learning to practicing piano, and i think it could be useful for beginning piano teachers. I found a few sections tedious and repetitive but overall it was a nice outlook on how to practice in a way that is both productive and fun!

[JDK1962 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful. Talks about flow in the piano learning context, but also goes into a lot of depth on how to achieve it: by focusing on learning/mastering small segments and building using those segments. I came out of reading thinking about specific ways I'm going to apply it to tomorrow's practice, so I definitely feel like I got something out of it.

[Amalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book about an approach to practicing the piano. The author broke down his method, reinforced his method, demonstrated how to use it in a beginning piece of music in one chapter, in an intermediate piece in the next chapter, worked on using the method to perform and finally spent time discussing how to use it as a teacher working with young students. I never felt like I was being talked down to. I appreciated his concern for teaching music through love and uplifting mental states of being. I have used many of these ideas in my own practicing and teaching for many years but I appreciated his very codified way of looking at the process and I can't wait to explore this in my teaching.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have read on how to practice the piano, and his advice and techniques mirror the same methods I have used successfully to master piano passages. His main contribution in this book to the field of musical practice is his exploration of "the flow," a state of mind researched in psychology and a term coined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975. He describes in detail the stage of getting into the "flow."