The Advancing Violinist's Handbook

About the Book

“How I wish I could have read this book years ago! It would have saved many hours of practicing which often have had disappointing results for the time invested.” —Phyllis Young, Playing the String Game and The String Play The Advancing Violinist's Handbook is a concise but thorough treatise on virtually every aspect of practicing and learning to play the violin. This book is primarily designed for intermediate violinists, which usually means ages 14 to 20, but which could be any age from 6 to 80. The purpose of this book is to provide you with much of the basic information that you need in order to become good at practicing the violin. This is the book for you if: • You want to learn how to improve rapidly as a violinists. • You don’t feel that you know how to practice. • You want to get a faster rate of advancement out of your available practice time.

About the Author

Benjamin Whitcomb lives with his wife, Pamela, and twin sons in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Benjamin was born in Florida, but spent most of his childhood in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He attended Oklahoma State University (BM, cello performance), Boston University, and the University of Texas at Austin (MM, cello performance; PhD, music theory), and he has studied with Evan Tonsing, George Neikrug, and Phyllis Young. Benjamin and Pamela moved to Wisconsin in 1999 when Benjamin joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he is currently Professor of Cello and Music Theory. Benjamin performs frequently in solo and chamber music recitals. He appears regularly on the “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” concert series broadcast statewide on Wisconsin Public Radio. He is a member of the Madison-based Ancora String Quartet (www.ancoraquartet.com) and the UW-W Piano Trio. He has also been a member of several orchestras in Texas and Wisconsin, including having served as Associate Principal Cello of the Madison Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Benjamin frequently performs duo recitals around the country and abroad with pianist and organist Vincent de Vries. Benjamin’s primary area of research has always been string pedagogy. Numerous articles of his have been published in such journals as American String Teacher, Strings, Stringendo (the journal of AUSTA), and Theoria. He is a contributing author to Sharpen Your String Technique and to Teaching Music through Performance in Orchestra, vol. 3, and chaired the committee that revised the cello portion of the most recent ASTA String Syllabus. He has presented papers, masterclasses, and workshops at universities and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. Benjamin can be reached by email at whitcomb@uww.edu or through his website, www.benjaminwhitcomb.com.