PracticeMind:

The Complete Practice Model

By Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk

Buy any two Ovation Press books and receive 20% off your order!
FREE SHIPPING anywhere in USA

For a limited time, each purchase of PracticeMind comes with a free bonus article bundle download.  These articles will support and guide your journey through PracticeMind.

LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK →

Shopify.AddToCart

How this book will help you...

  • Improve your practice and performance with proven methods backed by decades of teaching experience and research.
  • Build practice skills and habits that will elevate your playing (and teaching) to new heights.
  • Harness the power of your practice mind to improve the effectiveness of your daily practice and bring joy to the process of advancing your abilities as a musical artist.
  • Using proven methods backed by extensive research and teaching experience PracticeMind provides a complete model for improving and sustaining an effective practice routine.

Instructions to receive free bonus article bundle:

  • Get your copy of PracticeMind
  • After completing your order check your email for the articles!

When you buy the book here you will automatically receive these free Bonuses:

Bonus Guide: S.M.A.R.T goals, a great system for organizing your practice!
The concepts behind this system are readily applied to instrumental music practice. Organizing your goals with this method will make your practicing process more organized and will eventually lead to a much more focused and successful effort.

Bonus Guide: 10 Tips for better concentration!
PracticeMind has numerous ideas that will help increase focus and quality of your practice. This article has 10 great practice tips and is a great preparation for your journey through PracticeMind.

Bonus Guide: A poster of The Complete Practice Model
A color poster that you can view on your phone/tablet/computer or print out. A great daily motivator for your practice sessions. 

Bonus Guide: Practice cheat sheets that will make you practice better
This short guide has 6 smart problem-solving tips to help structure your approach to solving your daily practice problems.

Violinist

12 Things This Book Will Teach You

  • How to develop great practice habits
  • The secrets behind successful goal setting
  • How to become much more patient
  • How to become stronger and deal with setbacks
  • A simple but smart method for mental practice
  • Effective problem solving techniques
  • The value of fundamental practice
  • The reason that the Deliberate Practice Method is so important
  • The importance of score study
  • The many ways of listening
  • The significance of intuition for musicians
  • The urgency and importance of recording yourself

Praise for PracticeMind

"Hans Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk have crafted a beautiful, fascinating, and of course, brilliant guide to practice and musical problem solving. No stone has been left unturned. I love this book and will refer to it over and over again."

- David Kim

Concertmaster, The Philadelphia Orchestra

"In “PracticeMind”, Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk have made a huge contribution to the art of stringed instrument playing.   What makes this so innovative and powerful is their in-depth holistic approach.  By combining the physical, psychological, and emotional in the study of a stringed instrument, they have addressed the full human being.  This holistic approach is crucial for success as an instrumentalist as well as for anything else one wants to accomplish in life.  I wholeheartedly endorse “PracticeMind” and congratulate Jensen and Mycyk on their artistic and educational vision!"

- Daniel Heifetz

Concert Violinist, Founder, Heifetz International Music Institute

"Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk have successfully undertaken an incredible challenge, for both authors and readers— that of managing our “Practice Mind”. For musicians, self-management of this critical element remains highly valuable throughout their student and professional lives. This volume lays out a definite path, breaking down the multi-faceted task of efficient and productive practice. PracticeMind guides us step-by-step to a functional and successful “Practice Mind"."

- Paul Ellison

L. S. Autrey Professor of Double Bass
String Department Co-Chair
Shepherd School
Rice University

"PracticeMind is a staggering achievement, one of the most well thought-out and comprehensive books on music pedagogy I have ever seen. Though specific to string music instruction, the practical and philosophical lessons in this book read like a blueprint for success in virtually any field. Highly recommended!"

- James Ehnes

Grammy award winning
Concert Violinist
Artistic Director Seattle
Chamber Music Society

About the Authors

Hans Jørgen Jensen
Professor of Cello, Northwestern University
Bienen School of Music

Hans Jørgen Jensen, Professor of Cello at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 2010 Artist Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the Presidential Scholars Program Teacher Recognition Award from the US Departmentof Education, and the Danish Music Critics Award in Copenhagen, one of Denmark’s most prestigious awards. Professor Jensen has performed and taught master classes across the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Europe, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. Many of his students are first prize winners in numerous national and international competitions, as well as members of major US orchestras and leading music schools. Professor Jensen is also a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada, and the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, New York. Jensen has published the following books: Fun in Thumb Position, The Galamian Scale System for Cello: Volume I and Volume II, CelloMind, and ViolinMind, the latter two books published by Ovation Press. Jensen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Denmark with cellist Asger Lund Christiansen and at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. 

Oleksander Mycyk
Cellist, Toronto Symphony

Canadian cellist Oleksander Mycyk enjoys a multifaceted career as a solo, chamber, and orchestral performer and teacher. He is completing a Doctorate in Musical Arts at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music with Hans Jørgen Jensen and was recently appointed as section cellist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He finished the Certificate in Performance program at Northwestern while a full-time member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and regularly performs as a substitute cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously, Oleksander received a Bachelor of Music Performance degree at the University of Toronto studying with Simon Fryer and David Hetherington and a masters in Solo Performance at McGill University under the guidance of Matt Haimovitz. He has performed in master classes for cellists such as Lynn Harrell, János Starker, Laurence Lesser, and Aldo Parisot. As part of a collaborative duo, Oleksander was a top prize winner in the Canadian Music Competition and currently teaches applied cello at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago alongside his diverse performance schedule across North America.