The Integrated Musician
3 total works
A musician's life is filled with many stressful situations: passing auditions, rehearsing and performing with difficult partners, sitting for long hours in uncomfortable chairs, going on stage to face audiences large and small, who may or may not be receptive to the performance they are presented. And yet many musicians are able to surmount these looming obstacles with grace and balance, to find satisfaction and artistry in their music and build productive and
lasting careers. Indirect Procedures will guide you around these obstacles and along that path to becoming a balanced and successful musician.
Based on the work of Frederick Matthias Alexander, this book is a thorough and practical approach to the issues of musicians' health and wellbeing. Author Pedro de Alcantara introduces concepts and exercises for musicians to let go of excessive tensions, stay focused, and direct their energies as they handle the challenges of practicing, rehearsing, and performing. Complemented by an extensive, easy-to-use companion website, and working alongside Integrated Practice, this new edition
of Indirect Procedures is an invaluable and essential resource for today's musicians to learn to sing, play, and conduct with less effort and stronger results.
lasting careers. Indirect Procedures will guide you around these obstacles and along that path to becoming a balanced and successful musician.
Based on the work of Frederick Matthias Alexander, this book is a thorough and practical approach to the issues of musicians' health and wellbeing. Author Pedro de Alcantara introduces concepts and exercises for musicians to let go of excessive tensions, stay focused, and direct their energies as they handle the challenges of practicing, rehearsing, and performing. Complemented by an extensive, easy-to-use companion website, and working alongside Integrated Practice, this new edition
of Indirect Procedures is an invaluable and essential resource for today's musicians to learn to sing, play, and conduct with less effort and stronger results.
To be a musician is to "speak music." When you have something to say and you know how to say it, your gestures and sounds become both expressive and free. Offering an innovative, comprehensive approach to musicians' health and well-being, Integrated Practice gives you the tools to combine total-body awareness with a deep and practical understanding of the rhythmic structure of the musical language, so that you can "speak music" fluently, healthfully, and
effectively.
The key to mastering the language of music is rhythm. Integrated Practice contains an in-depth study of rhythm in music and in coordination, with dozens of exercises to help you infuse your gestures and musical phrases with rhythmic energy. The balance between structure and inventiveness is also essential to your well-being. Music is based on predictable grids of chords, scales, and time signatures, and yet your music-making ought to be unpredictable and fluid. Integrated
Practice shows you how to establish an imaginative dialogue between the relatively inflexible structure of music and your own individual style as a singer, instrumentalist, or conductor.
Integrated Practice covers the harmonic series in detail and includes novel approaches to improvisation, with exercises that you can apply to daily practice, rehearsing, and performing across the entire repertory. The book is accompanied by a dedicated website with dozens of video and audio clips that demonstrate the book's exercise.
effectively.
The key to mastering the language of music is rhythm. Integrated Practice contains an in-depth study of rhythm in music and in coordination, with dozens of exercises to help you infuse your gestures and musical phrases with rhythmic energy. The balance between structure and inventiveness is also essential to your well-being. Music is based on predictable grids of chords, scales, and time signatures, and yet your music-making ought to be unpredictable and fluid. Integrated
Practice shows you how to establish an imaginative dialogue between the relatively inflexible structure of music and your own individual style as a singer, instrumentalist, or conductor.
Integrated Practice covers the harmonic series in detail and includes novel approaches to improvisation, with exercises that you can apply to daily practice, rehearsing, and performing across the entire repertory. The book is accompanied by a dedicated website with dozens of video and audio clips that demonstrate the book's exercise.
Pedro de Alcantara's The Integrated String Player: Embodied Vibration is a practical guide for all string players: violinists and violists, cellists and bassists, but also gamba players and anyone who makes music drawing a bow across a string. Dozens of exercises, supported by a dedicated website with 80 video clips, cover all the basics of string playing, including left-hand articulation, vibrato, changes of position, double-stopping, sound production,
string crossings, and many other techniques. Each exercise, however simple or complex, can become a meditation with the goal of integrating the musical, technical, and metaphysical aspects of a player's practice.
Part I is devoted to the fundamentals of coordination, rhythm, and listening in depth. Part II focuses on the left hand, with an emphasis on healthy gestures that are charged with musicality and meaning. Part III covers the bowing arm, exploring innovative concepts such as expressive gesticulation, mechanical intelligence, and the use of the bow as the player's voice, both literally and symbolically. Part IV covers the integration of analytical thought and sensorial practice, providing an
extensive study of the harmonic series, the circle of fifths, Tartini tones, and many other sonic aspects that are essential to a string player's musical freedom. In addition, the conversational, linguistic, compositional, and improvisatory dimensions of string playing are discussed and supported by
multiple practical exercises.
The Integrated String Player is addressed to players of all abilities and from all aesthetic backgrounds: students and professionals, teachers and performers, classically trained musicians and jazz players, chamber-music players and orchestral players.
string crossings, and many other techniques. Each exercise, however simple or complex, can become a meditation with the goal of integrating the musical, technical, and metaphysical aspects of a player's practice.
Part I is devoted to the fundamentals of coordination, rhythm, and listening in depth. Part II focuses on the left hand, with an emphasis on healthy gestures that are charged with musicality and meaning. Part III covers the bowing arm, exploring innovative concepts such as expressive gesticulation, mechanical intelligence, and the use of the bow as the player's voice, both literally and symbolically. Part IV covers the integration of analytical thought and sensorial practice, providing an
extensive study of the harmonic series, the circle of fifths, Tartini tones, and many other sonic aspects that are essential to a string player's musical freedom. In addition, the conversational, linguistic, compositional, and improvisatory dimensions of string playing are discussed and supported by
multiple practical exercises.
The Integrated String Player is addressed to players of all abilities and from all aesthetic backgrounds: students and professionals, teachers and performers, classically trained musicians and jazz players, chamber-music players and orchestral players.