The ideal book on how music has helped you through tough times.
“If Music be the food of love, play on.”
For all that we serve, as musicians, what serves us?
I did not enjoy reading Mozart in the Jungle. It depressed me in its confirmation of all the dysfunctional behavior within the music industry
I also hate reading the celebrity musician memoirs. Equally depressing, for all the gratuitous self-fawning of the tours and repertoire that we average professional musicians will never get to do. And don't get me started on the "teachings of" books by star musicians who have never had to teach in the trenches. As my colleague Sarah Minette quips (and has made presentations and publications about), "Teaching Isn't Telling."
Thus, when a fabulously authentic musician cobbles together their story of getting through something, or they disclose a #MeToo story (i.e. Lady Gaga "Til it Happens To You), I am genuinely interested in hearing what helped them.
Then there are books on how to get through the dissertation process, how to recover well from injury, how to address performance anxiety. I don't need to go into the Sierras for a Healing Vortex; but I do need to learn more about the how/why of EMDR because dang it really worked for me!
Musicians have so many different needs...how, and why does music heal us? How can it harm us - is it the music or the music industry that does the harming?
I'd love to hear from you on this topic!