Best Practice: A Book for Trad Players to Help Us Get Better

[Judy Minot]

Best Practice: Inspiration and Ideas for Traditional Musicians

 

Practical Advice for Adult, Self-Taught Musicians

 

Available from Amazon, in Paperback ($19.99) and Kindle ($9.99)

and through direct order
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"Practicing" is a Practice

Turn practicing into a joyful activity you engage in for its own sake.

Work Efficiently, Progress Faster

Practice more effectively, using the advice of great teachers and scientific learning.

Become Your Own, Best Teacher

Identify the traits of the best teachers, and use them to teach yourself.

Integrate Mind and Body

Learn practical methods that will help you play with ease and fluency.

Start with an Intention

Begin each day’s practice with a concept to help you stay focused and positive.

Play More Musically

Learn to make your playing more musical, engaging, and listenable.

A Chapter for Every Day You Practice

197 self-contained chapters each offer a single idea or technique. Read one whenever you practice, or once a week, or whenever you want. Read them in order, or pick one that looks interesting.

 

Musicians' Praise for Best Practice

"This is a fabulous book! Judy makes us want to apply her methods, often right after reading a sentence. The bonus is that the tools she gives us for practicing music can really apply to myriad areas of our lives. This is the kind of book I imagine every musician will enjoy."
Liz Carroll

 

"Filled to the brim with practical insights, solid advice and wisdom that will benefit all traditional musicians, regardless of instrument, style, genre or skill level. There are vast wells of information in these pages that you can dip a toe, swim or dive deeply into. This is a rich and finely wrought work and I highly recommend it."
Happy Traum

 

"A very lively, entertaining and friendly book which I'm sure will be a boon to players everywhere. Contains a wealth of exceptionally useful advice for musicians of any level."
Kevin Burke

 

"A wealth of ideas and tools for making progress as a musician, all presented - in keeping with the book's own advice - in small, clear, achievable steps."
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, founding editor, Acoustic Guitar magazine,
author, The Complete Singer-Songwriter

 

"A veritable bible of a practice guide. Players of all levels and all styles will benefit from reading this very well thought out, very thorough and accessible approach."
Natalie Haas

 

"A highly organized, empowering approach to the practice of practice."
Shannon Heaton

"As a resource for any musician who wants to improve on their own, this book has it covered. A treasure trove of ideas in a concise and easy-to-access format."
David Leonhardt, renowned jazz pianist

 

"Having this guidebook is a godsend. I highly recommend it for all musicians, regardless of instrument, level or genre."
Mary Flower, award-winning guitarist

 

Buy direct: wwww.judyminot.com/bestpractice [free shipping on U.S. orders]

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[Jim Besser]

Highly recommended for trad musicians who - like me - never learned proper practice techniques.

[d.elliott]

Is this 'Trad' as in the Jaz movement, or Trad as in folk and traditional music?

[Don Taylor]

2 hours ago, d.elliott said:

Is this 'Trad' as in the Jaz movement, or Trad as in folk and traditional music?

From the Introduction:

 

Best Practice is written for non-professional, adult musicians, of any experience level, who play traditional music. The term traditional music can refer to regional musical styles from any part of the world. A defining characteristic of these styles is that they have historically been learned and transmitted person-to-person, by ear, rather than through written music. The focus is often on playing for dancers or on playing together as social event in itself, rather than playing for paid audiences. Traditional musicians of many styles have started to refer to their music as “trad,” and that’s the term I use most often in this book.