Robert H. Woody, the Steinhart Foundation Distinguished Professor of Music and Professor of Music Education in the Glenn Korff School of Music, had his most recent book, “Psychology for Musicians: Understanding and Acquiring the Skills” published recently by Oxford University Press.
This 2nd edition is an update to the 2007 book he co-wrote with two other authors, Andreas C. Lehmann and John A. Sloboda.
“There has been a great deal of new research in music psychology done over the last 15-20 years, so the new edition is much more than an editing of the original text,” Woody said. “It is a complete re-write based on the updated body of research. This was no small endeavor. The co-authors from that 1st edition opted out of the 2nd edition re-write because of being busy with other projects, but they blessed my working on it myself, and they ended up writing the Foreword for the 2nd edition, which meant a great deal to me.”
Woody said that while the main target audience for the book is musicians, it is written to be accessible to all kinds of musicians at any skill level.
“I’m proud of the work I did on this second edition and especially pleased with how the final product came out, with the help of the editorial team at Oxford University Press,” he said. “My goal for the writing was two-fold: First, to offer insights into music and music-making that are based on the research, rather than opinions and anecdotal experiences of mine or anyone else’s (there’s already plenty of this in the music world); and second, to communicate these insights in a very readable way. That is, readers need not have psychology training or experience with human sciences research in order to learn from the book. I consider both of these goals equally important.”
Woody said there is great value in looking to research in the human sciences to provide insights into musicality.
“After all, music is made by people for people, so the most important element of music is not pitch or rhythm or performance technique. The most important element of music is humanity,” Woody said. “And that is what psychology is the study of. So when I’m at my boldest, I will assert that musicians who take their craft seriously cannot afford to ignore the insights of psychology.”
Woody’s research deals primarily with the psychology of music. He is also the author of the 2019 book “Becoming a Musician: Inspiration and Guidance for Teachers and Parents of Musical Kids” (Rowman & Littlefield). He is especially interested in the cognitive mechanisms of expressive performance and skill-based factors that contribute to participatory music involvement among people.
His writings have included research reports in “Psychology of Music” and the “Journal of Research in Music Education” and practitioner articles in the “Music Educators Journal” and “American Music Teacher.”
Woody also regularly posts to his blog, “Live….in Concert” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/live-in-concert) on the Psychology Today website.
For more information on the book, visit the Oxford University Press website at https://go.unl.edu/uqvx.