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Starting a book by singing one's praise is already dubious. Then you come across this >(...) Mental Play (...) It is almost unbelievable that such an essential

• DixieDev 5y ago
  In the context of practising a piece initially much slower than it's intended to be played: > The probability of playing incorrectly is nearly 100%, because there is almost an infinity of ways to play incorrectly but only one best way. I'm sure this book has some useful information within, but my 5 minutes spent checking out different parts have so far left a very poor impression. Combined with its verbosity, it's hard to justify giving it serious attention...
• arxanas 5y ago
  The book uses a lot of hyperbolic wording, but the techniques in the book are generally sound. Mental practice in particular is an established pattern for top performers across sportive disciplines.
• packjaddison 5y ago
  Astoundingly, I have never heard another source advise doing this, and this includes professors at Juilliard. I don't work on all my pieces using pure Mental Play as frequently as I should, but trying to 'play on phantom limbs' without being at the instrument is like trying to remember the exact details of a painting you have looked at. Though there are many parts of the book that are a bit more... cranked.