The Musician's Mind: Teaching, Learning, and Performance in the Age of Brain Science

by Lynn Helding

Where does learning begin and how is it sustained and stored in the brain? For musicians, these questions are at the very core of their creative lives. Cognitive and neuroscience have flung wide the doors of our understanding, but bridging the gap between research data and music-making requires a unique immersion in both worlds. Lynn Helding presents a symphony of discoveries that illuminate how musicians can optimize their mental wellbeing and cognitive abilities. She addresses common brain myths, motor learning research and the concept of deliberate practice, the values of instructional feedback, technology’s role in attention disorders, the challenges of parenting young musicians, performance anxiety and its solutions, and the emerging importance of music as a social justice issue.More than an exploration of the brain, The Musician’s Mind is an inspiring call for artists to promote the cultivation of emotion and empathy as cornerstones of a civilized society. No matter your instrument or level of musical ability, this book will reveal to you a new dynamic appreciation for the mind’s creative power.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Education, Audiobook

350 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 27, 2020

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Musician's Mind was a somewhat interesting read at times, but the author ultimately failed to produce a properly coherent finished product, IMHO...

Author Lynn Helding serves as a professor in vocal arts and opera and coordinator of voice pedagogy at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

Lynn Helding:


The book is a bit slow right out of the gate, with an intro that was both long-winded and muddy. This proved to be a harbinger for the rest of the writing to follow...

Carrying on, I felt that much of the rest of the book also lacked clear and engaging communication. The thesis was never properly laid out. Sadly, I found much of Helding's writing to be lacking direction as well as overly verbose. She goes off on way too many long-winded esoteric tangents here; managing to thoroughly irritate me as the book progressed.

She does lay out the aim of the book early on:

"This book is a result of more than nine years of research that follows these lines of thinking. It is my hope that readers will find this research as illuminating, stimulating, and useful as I have in my life as an artist, a musician, and a teacher."

The book begins by giving the reader a brief history of psychology; behaviourism and B.F. Skinner are briefly touched on. Martin Seligman's famous learned helplessness experiments and positive psychology are also mentioned, in some interesting writing.

Sadly, as touched on above, although the book contains a great amount of very interesting subject material, it seriously lacks decent formatting. The writing jumps around way too much, without proper consideration for continuity and flow.
Further to the above point, the book has a good bit of writing on how learning works:

"How Learning Works
Step One: Attention. This is the prerequisite condition for learning. Learning cannot happen until and unless one first pays attention. Note: Attention has a limited capacity in the human brain.
Brain Activity—Biochemical changes, specifically the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. In the early stages of learning, the synapses (the gaps between brain cells where chemical messages are exchanged) are temporarily destabilized.
Step Two: Learning Itself. This is the dynamic process whereby new information is first absorbed (called short-term memory), sorted and manipulated (called working memory), and then combined with what we already know (called constructive memory).
Brain Activity—More release of neurotransmitters. With repetition, the number of synaptic connections in the brain begins to stabilize. This process is called memory consolidation.
Step Three: Long-Term Memory. Once a thing has been learned, it has exited the realm of learning (short-term and working memory) and exists in the realm of long-term memory. Long-term memory is like a treasure chest where things of value are stored and from which they can be retrieved. The evidence that a thing is learned is its repeatability. In the motor realm, this is called automaticity.
Brain Activity—Anatomical changes in brain tissue are observed. The brain has reorganized itself."

Unfortunately, the problems with narrative flow did not get better as the book progressed... Despite the title of the book being about music and the brain, the author goes off on way too many long-winded segues, that leave the reader lost in the woods more often than not. This is unfortunate, as I feel that a more rigorous editing, focused on producing a better overall finished product could have mediated this issue to some degree.

I'd be willing to cut a shorter book a bit more slack in this area, but this book clocked in at a hefty 13+ hours in the audio version that I have. This made getting through the writing here an arduous trek. I found my attention wandering numerous times, due to the author's lack of a coherent narrative progression...

Some more of what is covered here includes:
• The Mozart effect; neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.
• The left brain - right brain dichotomy; the theory of learning styles.
• Practice; deliberate practice, visualization, controlled processing and automatic processing.
• Performance Studies; the concept of "talent" vs practice.
• Grit. Mozart and the 10,000-Hour Practice Rule.
• "Fixed" vs. "growth" mindsets; Carol Dweck's work.
• "Choking"; solutions. Explicit Monitoring Theory.
• The Digital Brain; social media. Digital media "addiction."
• Emotion, Empathy, and the Unification of Art and Science.


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Despite being excited to start this one, it ultimately did not meet my expectations; for the reasons mentioned above. It was also way too long. I definitely would not recommend it.
1.5 stars.

[Liz Pearse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be indespensible reading for anyone in the profession of teaching musicians, and on the required reading list of university-level applied pedagogy courses.

Helding digests a staggering breadth of research in service of illuminating the art, science, and related processes that are involved in teaching music. Though her experience is as a vocalist, the concepts she presents are immediately applicable in applied music studios of any kind - discussing the know-HOW, versus just the know-WHAT, involved in studio music teaching.

[Kaitlyn Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Really a series of essays rather than a book. At times, I found the information very interesting, and at times I was annoyed by the seeming strong bias of the author (not supported by her writing or researched argument). At times hard to follow, I think she could have used a stronger editor.

[April R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have learned a lot of very helpful tools and information from reading this book. Things that will help me in my own practicing, playing, and performing, as well as things I can use in my teaching studio. One of my favorite takeaways is that “learning is messy.”

[Sydney Swearengin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot of good information in here. All of it relevant? Absolutely not. I wish Helding had a better editor when it comes to this book. I think this would be better as a textbook than for reading for the normal studio teacher.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapter 6 - the chapter on music performance anxiety - is a game changer for me and my students.

[Elida Wadsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great information, skimmed some of it but kept lots of notes!! Will definitely be looking at this book again.

[Shannon Coates · Rating 3 out of 5]

excellent primer RE motor learning and how current understanding of learning can be applied to learning (and teaching) music

However, be prepared for somewhat uneven writing (as if the author can’t decide whether the intended audience is academics or general population) and prescriptive application