Full Description
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.
Contents
Introduction ; Part I: Rhythm ; 1. Words, Sounds, Gestures ; 2. Prosody, or the Secrets of Rhythm ; 3. The Grid: A Life Principle ; 4. The Metric Grid ; 5. Coincidence: Intention and Gesture ; 6. Rhythmic Solfege ; 7. The Metronome and the Rubato ; 8. Superbar Structures ; 9. Opposing The Grid ; 10. Patterning and Sequencing ; Part II: Coordination ; 11. Connection & Flow: First Principles ; 12. The Juggler: A Cello Lesson ; 13. Object Wisdom: An Oboe Lesson ; 14. Body, Breath, Vibration, Text: A Voice Lesson ; 15. The Quadrupedal Prosodist: A Piano Lesson ; Part III: Sound ; 16. The Harmonic Series ; 17. The Harmonic Series and the Voice ; 18. The Messa di Voce: Virtuosity of Contact ; 19. Practicing The Messa di Voce ; 20. Improvisation: A Lifestyle ; Conclusion
