Becoming the Instrument

Book excerpt: In 1994, jazz musician and composer Kenny Werner released his landmark book, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within, which freed artists around the world to reclaim their love for music and find the power within their art. His seminal book led to his work as the artistic director of the Effortless Mastery Institute at the Berklee College of Music, a leading observatory for training the world's greatest musicians.Now Werner has written the perfect companion-Becoming the Instrument-where he shares profound insights and uplifting anecdotes based on his 40 years of experience to teach musicians, artists, athletes or even business people how to lift their performance to its highest level and showing us how to be spontaneous, fearless, joyful and disciplined in our work and in our life. In Becoming the Instrument, Werner teaches us that mastery is not perfection, or even virtuosity. It is the gift of self-love, forgiving your own mistakes, and not allowing the world to diminish your own divine gifts. And you don't have to be a musician to have the experience.