Effortless Mastery Quotes

“The thing that becomes true about you is the thing you think the most often.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“hell on earth is waking up with expectations every morning and going to sleep disappointed in yourself every night!”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“We are all part of a universal game. Returning to our essence while living in the world is the object of the game. The earth is the game board, and we are the pieces on the board. We move around and around until we remember who we really are, and then we can be taken off the board. At that point, we are no longer the game-piece, but the player; we've won the game.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

“The easiest way to do art is to dispense with success and failure altogether and just get on with it,”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“Ultimately, musicians of the world must come realise the potential of their calling.
Like the shamans, we may serve as healers, metaphysicians, inciters, exciters,
spiritual guides and sources of inspiration.
If the musician is illuminated from within,
he becomes a lamp that lights other lamps.
Then he is serving planet and its people,
healing what ails us. Such music is truly important.
It is said that “only one who obeys can truly command.”
When the artist is immersed in a services,
giving himself up over and over again, another paradox occurs:
He is being seen by all others as a master.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

“I don’t want to play the way Monk played, I want to feel the way Monk felt when he played.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“Seeking new levels of technical mastery should be a life long pursuit - not because you want to impress, but to facilitate any direction the great spirit inside you wants to go.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“On the other hand, without excess mental baggage, playing music produces a feeling more exquisite than the sweetest nectar this world has to offer. It is the sound, smell and taste of grace.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“Nothing is so inhibiting as needing to write something brilliant. Once a good friend of mine was writing an opera and really experiencing a block. He was duly tormented, believing that "composing is a painful process." He talked wistfully about a certain opera as being considered "the greatest opera since World War Two." I told him, "It sounds to me like you are trying to write the greatest opera since Desert Storm! I have an idea. Why don’t you just write a bad opera? That should be easy." My friend laughed uncomfortably with me, but I could sympathize with his dilemma. You always want to do well, but the recurring paradox is that you have a much better chance of doing well if you let go of the anxiety and just get on with it.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“Müzik parmaklar olmadan çalınır, kulaklar olmadan işitilir.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

“Görünürde bir müzisyen iyi çalmanın peşindedir ama aslında neyin peşindedir? İster övgü olsun ister yakarı, her şarkı sevgiliye daha çok bağlanmak içindir.
...
Çünkü insan neye özlem duyduğunu bilmese de özlem hâlâ varlığını sürdürüyor.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

“The sky is the limit on what you want to affirm or create. You don’t have to temper your affirmation with what you think is "realistic.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“As musicians, we have the potential of doing great things. Everyone can remember at least one great concert they’ve been to. The performance was so inspired that it stayed with the audience well after they went home. Perhaps the fragrance of it was still there the next day. The feeling it created caused those present to behave differently for a while, possibly with more grace, with more mindfulness of the soul. Spiraling to deeper levels of consciousness, the performer takes us beneath the layers of illusion and peels”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery

“A quiet mind allows the artist to tap into the wellspring of Divine Music within.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

“After all is mastered, the inner being may manifest, unimpeded by the vehicle’s (i.e., the performer’s) lack of knowledge. In this light, training oneself to the highest possible level may be regarded as an act of worship to that inner being.”
― Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery