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Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
NPR “BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR” SELECTION
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE A virtuosic debut from a gifted violinist searching for a new mode of artistic becoming How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform our experience of time? Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert solo violinist. Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined—one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.
NPR “BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR” SELECTION
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE A virtuosic debut from a gifted violinist searching for a new mode of artistic becoming How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform our experience of time? Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert solo violinist. Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined—one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2022
1280 people are currently reading
3184 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 344 reviews
March 9, 2023
I loved Natalie Hodges' narrative approach in her memoir. As a young girl, all Hodges wanted to be was a violin soloist. Practicing diligently for five and six hours a day, up until the wee hours of the morning, her life was consumed by music. Twenty years later, her professional quest has become unlikely, and she has to cast about for another way to live. In the maelstrom of this decision, Hodges takes up the writing of this memoir.
This book is so tantalizing. Hodges marches through quantum physics and the science of time, suggesting that we may be able to change our relationship with the past by writing about it. I'm willing to consider this as long as the facts stay true. Sometimes what's needed is a new perspective.
She writes about music's connectivity with the flow of time:
"Music sculpts time. Indeed, it is a structuring of time, as a layered arrangement of audible temporal events."
Time and thinking process are some of the greatest challenges Hodges faced during performances. She found herself obsessing over making errors and true to her fears, she often would.
"If you can't get into that flow--if your nerves get the best of you and you're dragged onto the shore of self-consciousness--well, chances are you'll mess up that tricky run . . . The flow is staunched, the fabric rent; you feel punched in the gut, knocked out of the music's time and back into your own. And then, afterward, you can feel the seconds and minutes passing; you trudge through, it's all linear, you just want it to be over, you just want to make it to the end."
Although I'm not a musician, I can sympathize with her performance anxiety. I hate public speaking but have a huge admiration for those composed souls who speak so well in front of groups. Now, I have a new appreciation for the musician who has put hours and years of practice into their performances.
Hodges explores the improvisation of Gabriela Montero, a celebrated pianist, and the brain studies that show her brain is working differently than the brains of those who deliver practiced performances. Incredibly fascinating!
She enlightened me on Bach's Chaconne in D minor, which she describes as one of the most difficult pieces a violinist can play. I listened to it on youtube. I'm not a classical connoisseur. To me, it didn't sound beautiful, but the more I listened, the more compelling it became. Some say Bach wrote this as a memorial for his first wife, Maria Barbara, who died while Bach was away from home. Hodges explains that this has been largely debunked, but still the story persists, perhaps because of the deep emotion, perhaps grief that hangs heavy within the Chaconne.
And her chapter on the tango. Exquisite!
A delightful memoir, Hodges relates her relationship with her Korean mother and her father. The story of her life with her parents and her music is the counterpoint melody throughout this beautiful work. I'm always happy to see beautifully written prose, and whether you're familiar with classical music or quantum physics is of no matter; this is skillful, eloquent prose with clarity of thought that provoked my curiosity at every turn.
This book is so tantalizing. Hodges marches through quantum physics and the science of time, suggesting that we may be able to change our relationship with the past by writing about it. I'm willing to consider this as long as the facts stay true. Sometimes what's needed is a new perspective.
She writes about music's connectivity with the flow of time:
"Music sculpts time. Indeed, it is a structuring of time, as a layered arrangement of audible temporal events."
Time and thinking process are some of the greatest challenges Hodges faced during performances. She found herself obsessing over making errors and true to her fears, she often would.
"If you can't get into that flow--if your nerves get the best of you and you're dragged onto the shore of self-consciousness--well, chances are you'll mess up that tricky run . . . The flow is staunched, the fabric rent; you feel punched in the gut, knocked out of the music's time and back into your own. And then, afterward, you can feel the seconds and minutes passing; you trudge through, it's all linear, you just want it to be over, you just want to make it to the end."
Although I'm not a musician, I can sympathize with her performance anxiety. I hate public speaking but have a huge admiration for those composed souls who speak so well in front of groups. Now, I have a new appreciation for the musician who has put hours and years of practice into their performances.
Hodges explores the improvisation of Gabriela Montero, a celebrated pianist, and the brain studies that show her brain is working differently than the brains of those who deliver practiced performances. Incredibly fascinating!
She enlightened me on Bach's Chaconne in D minor, which she describes as one of the most difficult pieces a violinist can play. I listened to it on youtube. I'm not a classical connoisseur. To me, it didn't sound beautiful, but the more I listened, the more compelling it became. Some say Bach wrote this as a memorial for his first wife, Maria Barbara, who died while Bach was away from home. Hodges explains that this has been largely debunked, but still the story persists, perhaps because of the deep emotion, perhaps grief that hangs heavy within the Chaconne.
And her chapter on the tango. Exquisite!
A delightful memoir, Hodges relates her relationship with her Korean mother and her father. The story of her life with her parents and her music is the counterpoint melody throughout this beautiful work. I'm always happy to see beautifully written prose, and whether you're familiar with classical music or quantum physics is of no matter; this is skillful, eloquent prose with clarity of thought that provoked my curiosity at every turn.
April 25, 2023
I actually bought this book for my wife rather than myself. She is the musician in the family and devoted many hours learning to play the piano from an early age through college. But I ended up reading this first. It is a memoir of the role that music played in the author’s life. Her mother had loved playing the violin as a girl, and while she encouraged and supported Natalie, she did not force the violin on Natalie or demand the amount of time and effort that Natalie put into the instrument. This is a girl chasing her dream. She was certainly very dedicated and disciplined in the chasing of that dream.
It was the parts of the memoir about Natalie’s relationship with her mother and her instructors that I enjoyed most. There were sections in which Natalie delved into the relationship between music, improvisation, time and quantum physics that were not as engaging for me. I did see how writing this book was helpful to Natalie in understanding what music represented to her.
It was the parts of the memoir about Natalie’s relationship with her mother and her instructors that I enjoyed most. There were sections in which Natalie delved into the relationship between music, improvisation, time and quantum physics that were not as engaging for me. I did see how writing this book was helpful to Natalie in understanding what music represented to her.
March 18, 2022
Natalie Hodges started playing the violin at age three and after numerous performances and awards, she has altered her path in her mid 20s and decided to take a step back from her career as a soloist. This is her story.
With support from her mother and three other siblings, Natalie has been surrounded by music and the love for her violin just about all of her life. It wasn’t uncommon for her to play five to six hours a day – sometimes until 2 a.m. – when she was growing up. She was inseparable from her violin. However, she started to question after practicing complicated pieces over and over again why she would continue to make mistakes in the same place of the music especially on stage.
She began to have doubts in college about her ability to continue as a soloist. It didn’t help when a teacher told her she didn’t have much of a chance. Her mother (pegged as a Korean Tiger Mom) was a Harvard graduate in English and went to law school. She became a prosecutor and administrative law judge. She spent a lot of time helping her children to excel in academics and classical music. When Natalie asked her “When you quit (violin her senior year in High School)…how did you know?” She said, “I think you just know, if and when it is time. For you, the important thing is that you don’t regret and the important thing is that you choose.”
Natalie discovered in her college years that it wasn’t easy to leave something that you’ve surrounded yourself with. “Why keep trying to love something that doesn’t love you back.” She now had a sense of “empty time” in her life and had to go through some adjustments.
It’s a short book with 179 pages but it takes some time to digest and could be one of those books that you’d want to read over again to pick up some other thoughts that may have been missed. She reveals personal thoughts on prejudice with a Korean mom and relationships with her father. This is an interesting book especially for musicians like her that try to make sense out of their performances. Natalie said after a while, “I began to experience a unity of body and mind…I felt them working together in a rhythmic tandem.” Through interviews and research, she has now taken music to a new level through science --- letting go of control and trusting your body with a connection to others.
After reading this book, I had to google Natalie Hodges with one of her violin performances; it was pure joy. I’m sure her talents have touched a lot of people.
With support from her mother and three other siblings, Natalie has been surrounded by music and the love for her violin just about all of her life. It wasn’t uncommon for her to play five to six hours a day – sometimes until 2 a.m. – when she was growing up. She was inseparable from her violin. However, she started to question after practicing complicated pieces over and over again why she would continue to make mistakes in the same place of the music especially on stage.
She began to have doubts in college about her ability to continue as a soloist. It didn’t help when a teacher told her she didn’t have much of a chance. Her mother (pegged as a Korean Tiger Mom) was a Harvard graduate in English and went to law school. She became a prosecutor and administrative law judge. She spent a lot of time helping her children to excel in academics and classical music. When Natalie asked her “When you quit (violin her senior year in High School)…how did you know?” She said, “I think you just know, if and when it is time. For you, the important thing is that you don’t regret and the important thing is that you choose.”
Natalie discovered in her college years that it wasn’t easy to leave something that you’ve surrounded yourself with. “Why keep trying to love something that doesn’t love you back.” She now had a sense of “empty time” in her life and had to go through some adjustments.
It’s a short book with 179 pages but it takes some time to digest and could be one of those books that you’d want to read over again to pick up some other thoughts that may have been missed. She reveals personal thoughts on prejudice with a Korean mom and relationships with her father. This is an interesting book especially for musicians like her that try to make sense out of their performances. Natalie said after a while, “I began to experience a unity of body and mind…I felt them working together in a rhythmic tandem.” Through interviews and research, she has now taken music to a new level through science --- letting go of control and trusting your body with a connection to others.
After reading this book, I had to google Natalie Hodges with one of her violin performances; it was pure joy. I’m sure her talents have touched a lot of people.
June 4, 2025
This is currently Libby's book club read, where they have unlimited copies across the platform from May 15 - May 29 2025.
If you pick up your book by May 29th, you will have the full regular time to read it, usually 2 weeks.
There is also a Zoom event on May 30th at 12PM eastern US and Canada, Q&A with the author that you can sign up through Libby's Big Library Read program through the Libby app.
This is only a 5 hour/214 page read, so if you are interested, don't miss out!
Audiobook (5 hours) narrated by
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
The narration and audio are great.
There is no music, nor any scoring. I note this specifically as although this is a novella about music, music is not played in the audiobook at all.
This is a great exploration of musical thought, especially for those who enjoy musical improv.
The author speaks a lot about the difference in the brain between playing a memorized and practiced piece to playing something improvised, or off the cuff.
She also speaks of how playing in a group the emotional connections and how people play to each other, matching beats and emotional play styles, lifting other playing up, and how the sum of playing in a group is larger than that of it's parts.
Theorizing, emotions, and thoughtfulness come up again and again. This is not an organized novella about musical composition but more of a deep theorizing or philosophies about the emotions about and behind music as well as the emotions of music itself.
For some this is going to be a 5 star read, all day, for others it's going to be a huge miss and boring af.
I loved it!
If you pick up your book by May 29th, you will have the full regular time to read it, usually 2 weeks.
There is also a Zoom event on May 30th at 12PM eastern US and Canada, Q&A with the author that you can sign up through Libby's Big Library Read program through the Libby app.
Join us live for a special Big Library Read event featuring Natalie Hodges, author of Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time. In this exclusive Q&A, Natalie will be interviewed by Leah Miller, Director of Book Publishing at AARP, for a conversation that explores the profound connections between music, neuroscience, and the nature of time.
Together, they’ll delve into Natalie’s personal and intellectual journey—from the world of classical violin performance to the frontiers of brain science and human perception. Whether you’re a musician, science enthusiast, or simply curious about how time shapes our inner and outer worlds, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.
Uncommon Measure is available from May 15-29 as part of the global Big Library Read, free through your library’s Libby collection:
This is only a 5 hour/214 page read, so if you are interested, don't miss out!
Audiobook (5 hours) narrated by
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
The narration and audio are great.
There is no music, nor any scoring. I note this specifically as although this is a novella about music, music is not played in the audiobook at all.
This is a great exploration of musical thought, especially for those who enjoy musical improv.
The author speaks a lot about the difference in the brain between playing a memorized and practiced piece to playing something improvised, or off the cuff.
She also speaks of how playing in a group the emotional connections and how people play to each other, matching beats and emotional play styles, lifting other playing up, and how the sum of playing in a group is larger than that of it's parts.
Theorizing, emotions, and thoughtfulness come up again and again. This is not an organized novella about musical composition but more of a deep theorizing or philosophies about the emotions about and behind music as well as the emotions of music itself.
For some this is going to be a 5 star read, all day, for others it's going to be a huge miss and boring af.
I loved it!
January 4, 2022
For every musician, this book is a must read. It helps with performance anxiety and gives an excellent perspective on how music is performed scientifically. Insights include information only a performer could understand. Outsiders can take a peek of how one thinks during one's performance. It really should be recommended reading for all classical musicians.
The author shares insights about improvisation versus rote performance for a classical musician. She shares an example of a performer who excels in improvisation and even shares the YouTube link.
My favorite chapter is Symmetry Breaking because the author talks about tiger mom, excelling beyond expectations, racism, implicit bias and most of all her mom. I also felt sad for her story about her dad, but it's part of her narrative that she shared with the world. As a Korean-American musician, she shares her insights living between two worlds in the US. Readers are hungry to read about this world that so many diverse voices are anxious to share with all.
For a debut novel, this book is amazing in rhythm, cadence and insights. I can't wait to see her upcoming novels and look forward to hearing her tell more stories to the world.
Some of my favorite phrases: "a slow Baroque-style fugue unrolled itself from her fingertips..." (P 77); immigrant credo: to be able to give your children what you did not have yourself (p. 82).
I met the author during a book conference in early October 2021. I think I assisted in opening up all the books so she could sign them for attendees. Then, she helped me with a pile of donated books and walked me to my car. I told her I would read her book before 2021 ended. I finally got some quiet time to read it. I absolutely love it and will keep it in my book shelf to read annually. I read and reread some passages that I couldn't let go.
No one knows that I used to play numerous instruments, including the piano. I started playing at 5 and ended it around 17. This book really put in words how I felt leaving that musical part of me. Had I read this book during my high school years, I probably would not go through so much angst. This book is healing me and I feel a little sad that it took two days for me to read it.
The author shares insights about improvisation versus rote performance for a classical musician. She shares an example of a performer who excels in improvisation and even shares the YouTube link.
My favorite chapter is Symmetry Breaking because the author talks about tiger mom, excelling beyond expectations, racism, implicit bias and most of all her mom. I also felt sad for her story about her dad, but it's part of her narrative that she shared with the world. As a Korean-American musician, she shares her insights living between two worlds in the US. Readers are hungry to read about this world that so many diverse voices are anxious to share with all.
For a debut novel, this book is amazing in rhythm, cadence and insights. I can't wait to see her upcoming novels and look forward to hearing her tell more stories to the world.
Some of my favorite phrases: "a slow Baroque-style fugue unrolled itself from her fingertips..." (P 77); immigrant credo: to be able to give your children what you did not have yourself (p. 82).
I met the author during a book conference in early October 2021. I think I assisted in opening up all the books so she could sign them for attendees. Then, she helped me with a pile of donated books and walked me to my car. I told her I would read her book before 2021 ended. I finally got some quiet time to read it. I absolutely love it and will keep it in my book shelf to read annually. I read and reread some passages that I couldn't let go.
No one knows that I used to play numerous instruments, including the piano. I started playing at 5 and ended it around 17. This book really put in words how I felt leaving that musical part of me. Had I read this book during my high school years, I probably would not go through so much angst. This book is healing me and I feel a little sad that it took two days for me to read it.
April 15, 2022
I was drawn to Natalie Hodges’ Uncommon Measure in part by the subtitle, “A Journey through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time.” A book combining such disparate topics should be an intellectual high.
In terms of subject matter, Hodges delivers. “The 카지노싸이트 of Time” alone is fascinating; the nature of time, its directionality, and the role of memory in re-shaping the past all make interesting reading. Then there’s Hodges’ music—endless study on the violin, performance anxiety, the nature of improvisation, career ambitions, parental oversight and intrusion, competition with peers…There’s so much here, not to mention the intersection of these topics one to another.
Somehow “so much” becomes “too much.” Though I enjoyed the many topics addressed, I can’t summarize Hodges’ main point of view; I can’t explain how her story coalesces into a coherent whole. Ultimately, my curiosity was stimulated, but my reading satisfaction was curtailed.
In terms of subject matter, Hodges delivers. “The 카지노싸이트 of Time” alone is fascinating; the nature of time, its directionality, and the role of memory in re-shaping the past all make interesting reading. Then there’s Hodges’ music—endless study on the violin, performance anxiety, the nature of improvisation, career ambitions, parental oversight and intrusion, competition with peers…There’s so much here, not to mention the intersection of these topics one to another.
Somehow “so much” becomes “too much.” Though I enjoyed the many topics addressed, I can’t summarize Hodges’ main point of view; I can’t explain how her story coalesces into a coherent whole. Ultimately, my curiosity was stimulated, but my reading satisfaction was curtailed.
June 4, 2025
I read this as part of the Big Library Read through my local library and then tuned in for the author talk on OverDrive.
Natalie discusses what it's like to give up professional dreams of being a solo violinist, how our brain connects to music, and how we move forward after realizing that something isn't going to work out.
There's lots I skimmed over about quantum physics and abstract ideas about the connection between music and time (Father of Flow and philosophical sections), BUT the bits that I did focus on and read slowly, were interesting and beneficial...especially those highlighting performance anxiety and changing our narrative.
I had no idea that our brain processes different kinds of music (not necessarily genres) differently. For example, our brain distinguishes between memorized music and improvised music.
The author talk pulled it all together and was a necessary part of my star rating.
Natalie discusses what it's like to give up professional dreams of being a solo violinist, how our brain connects to music, and how we move forward after realizing that something isn't going to work out.
There's lots I skimmed over about quantum physics and abstract ideas about the connection between music and time (Father of Flow and philosophical sections), BUT the bits that I did focus on and read slowly, were interesting and beneficial...especially those highlighting performance anxiety and changing our narrative.
I had no idea that our brain processes different kinds of music (not necessarily genres) differently. For example, our brain distinguishes between memorized music and improvised music.
The author talk pulled it all together and was a necessary part of my star rating.
May 27, 2025
Grabbed this one as Libby's big library read. I listened to this one, and although I enjoyed the content, I had a hard time staying engaged with this one. I am not sure if it was the writing style or the narration, but it just made it difficult for my mind to not wander while listening.
April 12, 2022
Uncommon Measure was a thrill to read. As we walk through Hodges’ past, her anxieties, and her memories we get to view them from different perspectives. She recounts the moments of her past (performance anxiety, her father leaving, her mother’s immigration hardships) and how she felt when they happened. Then she swiftly brings you to how they make her feel now. This is followed by the science of time, as she figures out what these different emotions mean in relation to her past, present, and future. This book is somehow a hopeful reimagining of perceived regrets and fears. The sense that “time is what we make it” is presented in a way that feels achievable, and is backed by science and experience. We are connected to her through this exploration of time, and what it means to be these particles polarizing to the same tune. Even if our perceptions aren’t exactly the same, even if what we have now isn’t what we originally thought it would be, we can find each other through these stretches of time, and improvise the rest.
May 25, 2025
This is so fun! Very Liberal Arts. Sort of felt like an enhanced final project of a "physics for non-physics majors" class. Very unique, and I was recommending it to people while I was still on the first chapter.
This is a really interesting attempt to process "giving up" on a highly competitive dream. I especially appreciated the message that remembering/exploring our lives changes them, critiques of the "tiger mother" racist stereotype, emphasis on improvisation in music and dance, noting of more deeply understanding something after you let it go, and the really beautiful prose. Loved the description of a score as a hologram.
Sometimes the incorporation of physics didn't quite track for me (particularly symmetry and entropy), and I think that I was only able to follow some of the quantum mechanics pieces because I recently saw a play about this.
I listened to this on audiobook: AWESOME narrator!
This is a really interesting attempt to process "giving up" on a highly competitive dream. I especially appreciated the message that remembering/exploring our lives changes them, critiques of the "tiger mother" racist stereotype, emphasis on improvisation in music and dance, noting of more deeply understanding something after you let it go, and the really beautiful prose. Loved the description of a score as a hologram.
Sometimes the incorporation of physics didn't quite track for me (particularly symmetry and entropy), and I think that I was only able to follow some of the quantum mechanics pieces because I recently saw a play about this.
I listened to this on audiobook: AWESOME narrator!
May 24, 2025
One of you recommended this to me and you were wrong. I didn't like this.
Read
May 20, 2025This was a fun! Libby had it with unlimited copies for the “Big Library Read” book club pick and I really enjoyed the combination of music, science, and pieces of the author’s life.
Read
May 17, 2025Bailed at 18%. I would have loved this in high school. Now it frustrates and annoys me.
July 19, 2023
Natalie’s writing is compelling, honest and full of empathy as she dissects her love for classical music and why she had such crippling performance anxiety that she decided to stop playing the violin (at least on stage) after devoting nearly 20 years to it. This memoir is a beautiful ode to music—its power both in its technical form and in its ability to move us. Most of the quantam physics stuff went over my head but the book made me think about music in fasinating new ways and understand it better too.
March 14, 2023
this book is ostensibly about music, time, and imporivsation but is in fact all about how i’m in love
February 15, 2024
Orchestra kids are never beating the pretension allegations
June 3, 2025
How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? How does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform us of our experience of time?
Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert violin soloist.
Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Natalie Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined - one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.
Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time was the Big Library Book for May 2025. While driving from Fredericton, NB to Kingston, NS, I enjoyed listening to this interesting book narrated by the author Natalie Hodges and Cindy Kay. 3 stars
June 5, 2025
Big Library Read — May 2025
i initially thought i would have little to relate with the author of this novel, since she’s a professional violinist and i know next to nothing (well, forgotten) everything about music, but the messages were written in quite a profound way, and i enjoyed how the author tied music to her family struggles, personal struggles which were defined by imposter syndrome and self-confidence, related disciplines like biology and physics, and most importantly, time. the events in the memoir are particularly relatable to performers in general, especially in the discussions about improvisation, self-expression, practice, and more. it opened up a new way for me to think about the performing arts in general, even though i don’t participate in them in by any means a professional sense. however, i do think the author generalized the experience of music learning in asian families, and though i do think the stereotype is there, her experience in the memoir comes across as being universally applicable, which i don’t necessarily agree with because her experience as a third-generation, wasian child is fundamentally different than first or second generation asian-americans with full asian parents. i did really enjoy reading this novel, and i would recommend it to anyone who participates in the arts, and/or wants to do more self-reflection
i initially thought i would have little to relate with the author of this novel, since she’s a professional violinist and i know next to nothing (well, forgotten) everything about music, but the messages were written in quite a profound way, and i enjoyed how the author tied music to her family struggles, personal struggles which were defined by imposter syndrome and self-confidence, related disciplines like biology and physics, and most importantly, time. the events in the memoir are particularly relatable to performers in general, especially in the discussions about improvisation, self-expression, practice, and more. it opened up a new way for me to think about the performing arts in general, even though i don’t participate in them in by any means a professional sense. however, i do think the author generalized the experience of music learning in asian families, and though i do think the stereotype is there, her experience in the memoir comes across as being universally applicable, which i don’t necessarily agree with because her experience as a third-generation, wasian child is fundamentally different than first or second generation asian-americans with full asian parents. i did really enjoy reading this novel, and i would recommend it to anyone who participates in the arts, and/or wants to do more self-reflection
June 2, 2025
I loved this, especially the author’s discussion of how music relates to time. I am someone with both a science degree and a music degree. I was delighted to read an accomplished violinist’s vulnerable memoir connecting both fields.
June 14, 2025
Uncommonly boring. This was the first audiobook I've ever felt the need to listen to at 1.5x speed. The only reason I finished it was because it was part of a summer reading thing. The only thing it has going for it is that it's short.
June 11, 2025
I stumbled upon this book and yet feel as if it was synchronicity, entanglement as the writer puts it, of exactly what I needed to read. A beautiful read, a poignant exploration of what improvisation in work and in life means to truly live and be open to the endless possibilities of your internal and external realities. 카지노싸이트 meets the murky beauty that is creativity meets the necessity of messy human experience. The scientific theories extrapolated can feel a bit daunting but the author digests and ties it all back together leaving you on a revelational journey. 4.75
June 13, 2025
uncomfortably relatable
June 3, 2025
Time, music, and identity in shifting form.
May 27, 2025
3.5 upped to 4
March 31, 2022
I probably should not have selected this book from the Early Reviewer list. This book is a memoir, but is not easily read by a non-musician such as myself. I think it would be much more appreciated by musicians, philosopers, and/or scientists. Frankly, it was just beyond me. Much of the vocabulary was either too highly specialized or quite nebulous, an odd combination. Chalk it up to a mismatch between me and this book.
May 5, 2022
An unusual, elegant approach to understanding performance anxiety (present-day and past reflections, Boston and Denver): In this thought-provoking, fascinating, and melancholy memoir, Natalie Hodges, a classical violinist, takes us into the intellectual and emotional experiences she went through to make a brave, life-changing decision to give up her professional dreams of becoming a solo violinist.
In Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time, she twists the title with her uncommon memoir, elevating her personal stumbling block to higher ground in the form of scientific and scholarly inquiries in chapters that feel more essayist than memoiristic.
Common measure is a musical term for the most common time signature in which the rhythm of the music beats 1, 2, 3, 4. (See Hodges explain this in an interview.) The concept of common time, she writes, meshes with “communal time, in which the self can be in sync with others.” Part of that idea is that music is a universal language, so when we sit in an auditorium or concert hall we feel in sync with the audience sharing the music’s emotions.
This interpretation relates to the fundamental issue she struggles with: not feeling at one with others she performs with and unable to lose herself in the music along with the audience. Instead, she cannot breakthrough her “self-absorbed, interior time” – her self-consciousness and anxiety that she’ll “mess up” so “nothing flows.”
Although she’s performed on stages in the US, Paris, and Italy attaining technical mastery as a classical violinist, this wasn’t enough to be a solo artist. When you’ve spent practically your whole life practicing and loving the violin and the music, her emotions and professional judgments are profound. Between the beauty of her prose and the beauty of her passion for the music, we feel for her because she’s amazingly disciplined and committed.
Uncommonly too, her purpose comes across as not trying to pull our heartstrings, seeking our sympathy. Rather, as a Harvard trained musicologist she seeks a deeper understanding how the brain connects to music, time, and flow to advance her insight into what keeps happening to her. By writing it down, she’s making sense of her performance anxiety for herself, and then for us to apply to any endeavor, musical or not, which demands intense focus. In the process, she’s also experimenting with her dual interest: a literary life. With this memoir, she’s established herself as an independent and creative thinker with a writing future.
I don’t pretend to understand the science and theories – neuroscience, theoretical physics, and quantum mechanics – nor, as a non-musician, the musicology. You don’t have to, and, interestingly, it contributes to why you’re drawn to the writing, marveling at the difficult path she took to try to “break out” of her self-fears and make an extremely difficult and honest decision after devoting twenty years to her artistry since she was a young girl practicing five, six hours a day, eight before a performance.
Hodges lets us into the mind of a perfectionist, intellectually and psychologically. We can’t help but be awed by her ability to play the most complex of musical compositions for the violin, to such a degree that she precisely knows when and where she’ll falter on stage. She’s her worst enemy. Her predictions become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her acute self-awareness overwhelms her ability to rely on “muscle memory” to get into the flow.
The concept of flow first came on the scene in 1990 when Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. It’s a word you hear in educational circles describing gifted kids who can focus intensely for hours on end.
Hodges doesn’t cite the “Father of Flow.” Instead, she digs deeper and more specific, introducing us to another psychologist and neuroscientist at Tufts University who’s influenced her thinking, Dr. Aniruddh D. Patel. He uses the cognitive concept of “entrainment” to explain being in sync with music. Defined as “the ability to synchronize the body’s movements with a beat” – not just that we “hear beats” but we “feel beats” – his research has turned “human entrainment into a theory of perception.” You can listen to a trailer to his 18-part lecture series, one of The Great Courses, here: .
Hodges calls her second chapter “Untrainment” reflecting how she’s not been able to get lost in those beats. In chapter three, she introduces us to a classical pianist from Venezuela who’s so in sync with the music she can improvise complicated compositions spontaneously without missing a beat, Gabriela Montero. In awe of her “sixth sense,” Montero calls this phenomenon the “dual implications of helplessness and power.” Power signifying what’s written down in the music for eternity versus the impassioned musician performing with so much spontaneity.
Time, as the title indicates, is examined from many angles starting with the “Prelude,” another clever play on the common term Prologue. “Music itself embodies time, shaping our sense of its passage through patterns of rhythm and harmony, melody and form.”
It’s not until we reach Chapter four, page 79 (a slender memoir at under 200-pages, with another thirty interesting references), that the memoir and the prose becomes more self-focused, philosophical, and poetic as she looks back on her childhood filled with violin music her mother taught her how to play.
“Uhmma” emigrated from Seoul, South Korea but PLEASE don’t think of the author as the victim of a harsh style of parenting Asian writer Amy Chua brought into modern language in her memoir Hymns to a Tiger Mother. Besides the dangers of labeling and contributing to rising anti-Asian sentiments, nothing could be further from the truth. Hodges loves her mother dearly and appreciates the gift she’s given her (all of her four children play a musical instrument). She reminds us that a characteristic of immigrant families who come to America is wanting “to give your children what you did not have yourself.”
Though she doesn’t dwell on her Texas father’s Asian stereotyping and awful abuse, having gone to South Korea to find himself a subservient wife to start a family in Denver, this is also a story about racism and abuse. How her mother sacrificed so much for her children, counterbalancing the darkness by making sure their home “was music, and music was color.” Music expanded and enriched Hodges’ world immeasurably. That’s not to imply she doesn’t briefly consider whether spending all those formative years practicing might have been wasted time. You can guess how she comes out on that question.
What also makes her memoir so unusual is that while her mother was being violently abused, in addition to the psychic abuse of racism, to the point that her father once hit Uhmma so hard her stitches from a Caesarean delivery “burst,” Hodges felt so much joy growing up in a house of music.
One reason, perhaps, Hodges’ journey doesn’t start off chronologically as commonly done. “Don’t write it like a sob story,” her mother advised. Through her uncommon approach, she hasn’t.
Lorraine ()
In Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the 카지노싸이트 of Time, she twists the title with her uncommon memoir, elevating her personal stumbling block to higher ground in the form of scientific and scholarly inquiries in chapters that feel more essayist than memoiristic.
Common measure is a musical term for the most common time signature in which the rhythm of the music beats 1, 2, 3, 4. (See Hodges explain this in an interview.) The concept of common time, she writes, meshes with “communal time, in which the self can be in sync with others.” Part of that idea is that music is a universal language, so when we sit in an auditorium or concert hall we feel in sync with the audience sharing the music’s emotions.
This interpretation relates to the fundamental issue she struggles with: not feeling at one with others she performs with and unable to lose herself in the music along with the audience. Instead, she cannot breakthrough her “self-absorbed, interior time” – her self-consciousness and anxiety that she’ll “mess up” so “nothing flows.”
Although she’s performed on stages in the US, Paris, and Italy attaining technical mastery as a classical violinist, this wasn’t enough to be a solo artist. When you’ve spent practically your whole life practicing and loving the violin and the music, her emotions and professional judgments are profound. Between the beauty of her prose and the beauty of her passion for the music, we feel for her because she’s amazingly disciplined and committed.
Uncommonly too, her purpose comes across as not trying to pull our heartstrings, seeking our sympathy. Rather, as a Harvard trained musicologist she seeks a deeper understanding how the brain connects to music, time, and flow to advance her insight into what keeps happening to her. By writing it down, she’s making sense of her performance anxiety for herself, and then for us to apply to any endeavor, musical or not, which demands intense focus. In the process, she’s also experimenting with her dual interest: a literary life. With this memoir, she’s established herself as an independent and creative thinker with a writing future.
I don’t pretend to understand the science and theories – neuroscience, theoretical physics, and quantum mechanics – nor, as a non-musician, the musicology. You don’t have to, and, interestingly, it contributes to why you’re drawn to the writing, marveling at the difficult path she took to try to “break out” of her self-fears and make an extremely difficult and honest decision after devoting twenty years to her artistry since she was a young girl practicing five, six hours a day, eight before a performance.
Hodges lets us into the mind of a perfectionist, intellectually and psychologically. We can’t help but be awed by her ability to play the most complex of musical compositions for the violin, to such a degree that she precisely knows when and where she’ll falter on stage. She’s her worst enemy. Her predictions become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her acute self-awareness overwhelms her ability to rely on “muscle memory” to get into the flow.
The concept of flow first came on the scene in 1990 when Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. It’s a word you hear in educational circles describing gifted kids who can focus intensely for hours on end.
Hodges doesn’t cite the “Father of Flow.” Instead, she digs deeper and more specific, introducing us to another psychologist and neuroscientist at Tufts University who’s influenced her thinking, Dr. Aniruddh D. Patel. He uses the cognitive concept of “entrainment” to explain being in sync with music. Defined as “the ability to synchronize the body’s movements with a beat” – not just that we “hear beats” but we “feel beats” – his research has turned “human entrainment into a theory of perception.” You can listen to a trailer to his 18-part lecture series, one of The Great Courses, here: .
Hodges calls her second chapter “Untrainment” reflecting how she’s not been able to get lost in those beats. In chapter three, she introduces us to a classical pianist from Venezuela who’s so in sync with the music she can improvise complicated compositions spontaneously without missing a beat, Gabriela Montero. In awe of her “sixth sense,” Montero calls this phenomenon the “dual implications of helplessness and power.” Power signifying what’s written down in the music for eternity versus the impassioned musician performing with so much spontaneity.
Time, as the title indicates, is examined from many angles starting with the “Prelude,” another clever play on the common term Prologue. “Music itself embodies time, shaping our sense of its passage through patterns of rhythm and harmony, melody and form.”
It’s not until we reach Chapter four, page 79 (a slender memoir at under 200-pages, with another thirty interesting references), that the memoir and the prose becomes more self-focused, philosophical, and poetic as she looks back on her childhood filled with violin music her mother taught her how to play.
“Uhmma” emigrated from Seoul, South Korea but PLEASE don’t think of the author as the victim of a harsh style of parenting Asian writer Amy Chua brought into modern language in her memoir Hymns to a Tiger Mother. Besides the dangers of labeling and contributing to rising anti-Asian sentiments, nothing could be further from the truth. Hodges loves her mother dearly and appreciates the gift she’s given her (all of her four children play a musical instrument). She reminds us that a characteristic of immigrant families who come to America is wanting “to give your children what you did not have yourself.”
Though she doesn’t dwell on her Texas father’s Asian stereotyping and awful abuse, having gone to South Korea to find himself a subservient wife to start a family in Denver, this is also a story about racism and abuse. How her mother sacrificed so much for her children, counterbalancing the darkness by making sure their home “was music, and music was color.” Music expanded and enriched Hodges’ world immeasurably. That’s not to imply she doesn’t briefly consider whether spending all those formative years practicing might have been wasted time. You can guess how she comes out on that question.
What also makes her memoir so unusual is that while her mother was being violently abused, in addition to the psychic abuse of racism, to the point that her father once hit Uhmma so hard her stitches from a Caesarean delivery “burst,” Hodges felt so much joy growing up in a house of music.
One reason, perhaps, Hodges’ journey doesn’t start off chronologically as commonly done. “Don’t write it like a sob story,” her mother advised. Through her uncommon approach, she hasn’t.
Lorraine ()
May 28, 2025
Do we live in time, or does time live in us?
What a fascinating read! I discovered this book through Libby’s Big Library Read and had a great time listening to it. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style where she combines several different topics. Through this narrative she gives us an insight into the commitment and devotion it requires to excel at something, the performance anxiety, improvisation, career ambitions, identity, and how these topics intersect with each other. The exploration of space, time, and experience throughout the book is beautifully portrayed. I really like how the author describes her mother and her relationship with her. When Natalie asked her "When you quit (violin her senior year in High School)...how did you know?" She said, "I think you just know, if and when it is time. For you, the important thing is that you don't regret and the important thing is that you choose." This is such grounded and solid advice. It is impactful and it’s one of those things that stays with you. It takes courage and a lot of conviction to quit something you have considered to be a dream for a long time. Decisively letting go of a dream is an act of courage, and should not bring you regret. Overall, this was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Would certainly recommend it!
What a fascinating read! I discovered this book through Libby’s Big Library Read and had a great time listening to it. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style where she combines several different topics. Through this narrative she gives us an insight into the commitment and devotion it requires to excel at something, the performance anxiety, improvisation, career ambitions, identity, and how these topics intersect with each other. The exploration of space, time, and experience throughout the book is beautifully portrayed. I really like how the author describes her mother and her relationship with her. When Natalie asked her "When you quit (violin her senior year in High School)...how did you know?" She said, "I think you just know, if and when it is time. For you, the important thing is that you don't regret and the important thing is that you choose." This is such grounded and solid advice. It is impactful and it’s one of those things that stays with you. It takes courage and a lot of conviction to quit something you have considered to be a dream for a long time. Decisively letting go of a dream is an act of courage, and should not bring you regret. Overall, this was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Would certainly recommend it!
June 3, 2025
Natalie is a good writer, she uses her background in music (mixed with a clear passion for science) to muse on how she sees the world and music as a whole.
The problem with the book is that it's also a memoir, one that feels incomplete. There is a complete lack (in my opinion) of retrospection, I felt like I was able to identify problems she may be having with her upbringing and with her obsession of achieving greatness with the violin before she spotted them, the problem being that she wrote this book and hasn't spotted the issue yet.
I felt completely confused by the memoir sections jumping back and forth through her life without enough being established to know where we are. It also just seemed like she wasn't ready to write about her life experiences just yet, maybe in a few years it would feel more complete.
Had this just been published as a scientific essay or article I'd think it did the job just fine, it kept me interested. But as a memoir it is completely stifled by a lack of vulnerability, I want her to tell me exactly why the violin didn't work out for her, not a quiet "I had stage fright" that never appears outside of the first chapter. Maybe her second book in a decade can dig deeper into who Natalie is, but for now it felt half baked.
The problem with the book is that it's also a memoir, one that feels incomplete. There is a complete lack (in my opinion) of retrospection, I felt like I was able to identify problems she may be having with her upbringing and with her obsession of achieving greatness with the violin before she spotted them, the problem being that she wrote this book and hasn't spotted the issue yet.
I felt completely confused by the memoir sections jumping back and forth through her life without enough being established to know where we are. It also just seemed like she wasn't ready to write about her life experiences just yet, maybe in a few years it would feel more complete.
Had this just been published as a scientific essay or article I'd think it did the job just fine, it kept me interested. But as a memoir it is completely stifled by a lack of vulnerability, I want her to tell me exactly why the violin didn't work out for her, not a quiet "I had stage fright" that never appears outside of the first chapter. Maybe her second book in a decade can dig deeper into who Natalie is, but for now it felt half baked.
June 14, 2025
I picked this up because it was tagged as "readers also liked" on my book borrowing app for Carlo Rovelli's "The Order of Time". The author, in fact, cited Rovelli multiple times in the book, however, while I enjoyed The Order of Time, that was not, why I thought this was such an interesting and compelling read. While I thought this would be more of a chronicle of the science of music, taking from physics and biology to describe how we're able to interpret seemingly random notes into a beautiful melody, this book ended up being so much more. The inclusion of the author's mother, her mother's story and how that's influenced her journey with classical music and the violin was so beautiful. I think something that isn't discussed enough is the elitist, racist history and contemporary perspectives on classical music and musicians. I didn't realise that in the US, the majority of classical musicians in training were non-white and yet, they only made up the minority in professional circumstances. This was such a touching ode to both her family and music and was also such an interesting exploration of time, and how we can be lost in it when doing something we love.
June 12, 2022
kind of book that I will definitely re-read again sometime later. I love the way the author combines improvisation in music and its correlation with the passage of time through the perspective of quantum physics. in addition, she also elaborates, on what kind of neural activity is processed when musicians make improvisation whilst playing an instrument, the brain region is being activated, and how that particular improvisation only exists in the present, not to be recreated that somehow feels exclusive to that moment only. apart from that, the author also narrates her journey with playing violin, her performance anxiety, her experience being an Asian in the Western classical music field, about how she had to be twice as good to be considered half as much. she was in despair of wanting to quit playing violin but how could it be possible if violin was all she ever known all her life? that violin had forged her identity, and was the extension of her mother's vanished dream.
the way she writes is both poignant and beautiful. her journey felt so raw that I felt like an intruder peeking into someone else's life and somehow got so invested that whenever she faced certain obstacles, I, too shared the misery. to conclude, I was entranced by how a book that consists not over 150 pages could contain so much. lovely <3
"Improvisation may serve as a metaphor of time in the quantum universe, where reality and possibility exist simultaneously and where past, present, and future are one. Even though on the level of concrete, lived experience time seems to slip away, to vanish, without the possibility of return,"
the way she writes is both poignant and beautiful. her journey felt so raw that I felt like an intruder peeking into someone else's life and somehow got so invested that whenever she faced certain obstacles, I, too shared the misery. to conclude, I was entranced by how a book that consists not over 150 pages could contain so much. lovely <3
"Improvisation may serve as a metaphor of time in the quantum universe, where reality and possibility exist simultaneously and where past, present, and future are one. Even though on the level of concrete, lived experience time seems to slip away, to vanish, without the possibility of return,"
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