PODCAST: Inside Berklee—Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery

Kenny Werner, artistic director of Berklee's Effortless Mastery Institute, discusses how musicians can learn to play from the deepest parts of themselves and rediscover their connection to music.

October 25, 2016

Many musicians are inhibited, held back by a constant critic in their minds and, consequently, unable to access their full musical potential, says Kenny Werner, artistic director of Berklee's Effortless Mastery Institute. But that master space, where joy in music resides, is inside all of us if we could only get out of our own way, he says.

“The preoccupation with one’s self—'how do I play?'—starts to trump one’s love of music until one cannot find that love of music anymore,” Werner, the author of the book Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within, says.

Werner sat down to discuss how musicians can learn to play from the deepest parts of themselves and rediscover their connection to music.

Note: this is an edited version of a podcast which was originally published on January 12, 2016.