A Notebook for Viola Players

In A Notebook for Viola Players, Ivo-Jan van der Werff offers a guide to playing the viola with the greatest freedom, dexterity, and ease. It includes right and left hand exercises to build a sound technique, sections on how to practice them, how to hold the viola and bow, how to think about good posture, how to create a good sound, how to play with the least amount of tension, how to deal with anxiety, and thoughts on wellness and practice techniques. Alongside these are photographs and a companion website of video demonstrations of the exercises played by the author, as if in a lesson. Interspersed throughout the book are lively and illuminating anecdotes of van der Werff's own experiences as a student and as a professional musician, as well as a number of blank pages and staff paper for the student to literally 'make notes' and write down their own ideas, offering a space for creative expression using the skills they learn in reading and playing along with the text. Bringing together decades of teaching and performance experience from one of the most respected figures in viola pedagogy, A Notebook for Viola Players is a master class in viola ideal for any player hoping to perfect the fundamental areas of their practice.

Ivo-Jan van der Werff was a member of the Medici String Quartet for 31 years, playing in major concert halls worldwide and making over 50 recordings, including the complete Beethoven Quartet Cycle, for Hyperion, Koch, Nimbus, and EMI. He had also recorded works for viola and piano by Arnold Bax, Britten, Shostakovich and Al-Zand on ASV, Koch and Guild. For many years he was a Professor of Viola at the Royal College of Music in London before moving in 2007 to Rice University in Houston where he teaches viola and chamber music full time. He frequently teaches at summer festivals such as Madeline Island, Bowdoin, Encore, Dartington, Domaine Forget etc and has given masterclasses in many of the major music schools around the world.