The Integrated String Player Embodied Vibration

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.

Pedro de Alcantara is a musician, writer, and teacher, leading workshops worldwide on the Alexander Technique. His books include Integrated Practice: Coordination, Rhythm & Sound and Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique. He lives in Paris and is Visiting Professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

The Integrated Musician: A Book Series
A Companion Website
Introduction

Part I: Coordination, Rhythm & Sound
1. Before Everything Else
2. Coordination
3. Rhythm
4. Listening

Part II: The Right Side
5. The Bow: Object & Gesture
6. Strings, Drones, Clefs
7. Vowels & Consonants
8. Smart Makes Easy

Part III: The Left Side
9. The Left Hand
10. Changes of Position
11. On Vibrato
12. The Art of Fingering

Part IV: Integration
13. The Harmonic Series
14. Practicing Theory
15. The Conversational Approach
16. Integration
Conclusion

Appendix: Further Study
Notes
Bibliography