What is it that accounts for the differences between musical beginners, advanced music makers, and world class performers? Virtually everyone likes music and has the capacity to be musical in some way (despite what some may say about themselves). Yet far fewer people come to be so involved with it that they identify themselves as musicians, and fewer still become musicians of international class. Psychology for Musicians provides the basis for answering this question. Examining the processes that underlie the acquisition of musical skills, Lehmann, Sloboda, and Woody provide a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians.

Andreas C. Lehmann is Professor of (Systematic) Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany. John Sloboda is Professor of Psychology at Keele University. A Fellow of the British Psychological Society, he has been President of both the Psychology and General Sections of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as President of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Robert Woody is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music.