Of course, Google has all the answers to everything we need in this world. Huzzah! So today we will be... attempting to answer... *cough* No opinio- Today we will be attempting to answer... I don't know if we can answer them. I don't know. We'll try our very best as... We'll take it upon ourselves as the Internet violin guys. I guess so. - Yeah.
- Oh no. - And then-
- "Do you have the authority to answer-" - Nah, just an opinion, guys.
- Not really. Just an opinion on behalf of some violinists- I don't care. Don't know what's going on. Alright, so! - Wow.
- I love how that is - the very first question.
- I know. And the second one's... - Oh yeah, the second one-
- The third one is... Dude, that's the first 4 searches. Well... Well, you guys, you know... If anything, that just shows violin is the superior instrument, - it requires the most talent.
- Yes. Yes. Clearly... Other than every instrument. *cough* Yeah, not everyone can endure the hardships of learning such an intricate instrument. I don't know. Why is it hard? Well... - You have two things.
- It's made out of wood, and wood generally is pretty hard. Look at that. First, you need to understand there are 4 strings. Actually one of the hard things is intonation. - Yeah.
- We'll just start with that. Intonation means... Mhm. And... A. You have to train be able to hear that. I mean, if it's really bad, I think generally people can hear. And B. You gotta practice at least to make sure your intonation is spectacular. Just to get a bit more... like technical. The difference between a violin and, say, a guitar, is guitars have frets. Yes. And these frets that on the fingerboard basically kinda divide the fingerboard up into notes. Yes. which allows you... As long as the guitar is in tune, it's a lot easier to play in tune. Because you can see. Yeah, you can see, and the frets kinda stop... - You can feel it. It stops the-
- It's a bit like the piano. - Yeah.
- You can see where the notes are. The piano also, right? But it's not just you can see, it's like... It's literally divided into intervals. - Yeah.
- There's no... On the piano, you're either playing a C, or C♯. - Yeah.
- You can't play between unless the piano's out of tune. Yeah. Whereas with a violin, There's infinite- There's no frets, so there's literally an infinite amount of... pitch variation between... It's so hard. And if you put your finger just like a millimeter off, - not even a millimeter, like a 0.01 of a millimeter,
- Yeah, a 0.1. - it will be out of tune.
- You can catch it out. A good ear will be able to catch it out. Your violin will catch it out. - Yes, the violin won't resonate as well.
- But that's why it's so hard. And also because it changes. The higher you go up the position, the gap becomes smaller. So yeah, so like the space between the notes here - and here is not even the same.
- And guess what, it's different for every violin. - Yeah... Yeah, it is so...
- I don't know why we play the violin. It is so... - Nah, the more I think about, it's like...
- Why do we... Why do we... And that's just the left hand. - That's just- Yeah, that's the r-
- The right hand. We haven't even gotten started. - The right hand requires...
- The bow... The bow is not balanced evenly. You have the frog here which is heavier, the tip is lighter. Obvi- That means, if it's heavier here, lighter here, The weight is... more on this side. Yeah, which means... in order to make one consistent sound from here to here, - You gotta-
- you actually have to readjust in your hand how much weight in every millimeter, - so that the compensation...
- Throughout... like that. If I just play it without my right hand doing any adjustments, I'm just gonna play it with the bow, so you can hear a crunch at the beginning, and gets... fades away at the very end. Are you ready? I'm not gonna anything with my bow, I'll hold like this. Just to show you guys. Too heavy... Pretty good... And a little bit too light at the end. It gets too soft. Yeah, so that's why you have to learn to be light at here now. Now I'm gonna control it. Yeah. I'll put more weight in at the end. Oh, wait. - Bow weight is only 1 out of the 4 elements required to-
- Yeah! - There's also bow speed.
- Oh yeah, I forgot about that! And there's also... And it also depends which string you're on. Cos the G string is thicker, so it resonates in a way - that's different than the E string.
- And also, if you're higher in position, the gap between the bow and string changes, so all the weight, and rule change again! WOW!! Learn the violin they said, it will be fun they sa- Because if you watch any... TwoSet Violin! No, we're not claiming. Sorry, we're not claiming. I think the- Actually, one of the reasons is - it's been through our history for a long time.
- Mhm. - It's proven itself.
- For last- Proven throughout history. Stood the test of time. Stood the test of time, like since... you know, Bach. Even probably before, different versions of the violin. Yeah. And then... I think the violin became kind of dominant back then because it... again, actually the versatility of its timbre allowed it to kind of resemble the voice. Mhm. You know, you can do glissandos, you can do vibrato. You can sing on phrases. Look at this beauty. See. This has stood the test of time. Yeah. This one here is... It's almost 70 years old. It's more portable than the cello and double bass, making it convenient. You can travel with it. Yeah. It's actually acoustically, from a physical... physics perspective, more ideal than the viola. You can look it up. - Like the actual size and design.
- Yeah, that's true. - It's- yeah.
- And also, so the dynamic range and stuff. - Yeah.
- Yeah. Then obviously, there's like all the Chinese dramas that portray violin as just like... the most romantic thing, which- - You know, we're not complaining. Yeah.
- I mean... We gotta give credit to them. Oh, why is violin bow- Why is violin bow called frog? Actually, I don't know. - Good question.
- Je ne sais... Je ne parle pas français. This is a frog comes from the French- Nah, I don't know. Actually, as a context, France is known for its- creating good bows. - Yes.
- That's why. - It wasn't just like random-
- Exact- yeah, yeah. - I was like why is Brett speaking French?
- I always forget. Cos there's like Tourtes... Our previous video about Tourte, French bows. Yeah. French people have a good history of making good bows. Because we like a challenge. Self-explanatory. (both) Self-explanatory. Yeah. I love- okay, like... To be fair, many composers didn't... - There's not enough repertoire for the viola
- Yeah. in comparison to the violin. And the reason that a lot more was written for the violin is because acoustically the violin tends to project better. Yes. And which means if you're playing as a soloist with an orchestra, a violin is a lot easier to write - and express music with than the viola.
- Yeah. - You're sitting at the top of the pitch range, which means
- Rather than in the middle. if something- a sound is higher, it usually is easier to hear a melody than a sound that's lower. Yes. And it kinda- violas kinda stuck in the middle range, which means it's perfect as a supporting role. Nah. Yes. - Oh...
- Whoa... Ooh, that's a touchy subject. It is a sacrifice some make for the greater good of... music. Look, I'd say like... if you're a violinist, and you're practicing, and you play in orchestra your entire life... - Yeah.
- you probably- your left ear will be... - Suffering.
- slightly... Deaf. - I wouldn't say deaf. It depends. It really depends.
- Yeah. You know, you hear... You have... Some violinists that... their left ear is weaker in hearing after like 40 years of playing. But the others, they don't seem to... It doesn't matter. You know? - Mm... yeah.
- I think it depends on the violin. - It depends on how much they play,
- Yeah. and what type of things you're playing. If you're playing like really loud stuff... Because you could also argue like... If you're sitting in front of the trombones - in an orchestra as a career.
- Or the oboe. It's not to do with your instrument. It's to do with your job occupation. - You're being blasted the entire time.
- Yeah. Correction, I meant piccolo, not the oboe. Yes, if you have bad posture, and you go over practice, and don't take rest, and don't look after yourself, you have many many problems. The risk we take for music. - Look at all the stress.
- You guys ready? Are you guys ready? It helps. - But they don't have to.
- I mean, you don't have to have long fingers. Yeah, that's true. And actually, it also depends on the... - the width of-
- Yeah, it's not actually so much the length. It's the proportion of the fingers. Sometimes you have long fingers, but then let's say the pinkie is extremely short. - That causes problems.
- Mhm. If you have... sometimes... just- It depends. It's... look... but... Just gotta practice, there's no excuses. - Yeah.
- Practice! There's people with tiny hands that - kill it on the violin. They're amazing.
- Yeah, and people with weird proportions, they kill it. Check out Augustin Hadelich. Maybe we're not experts in medicine, so we don't wanna comment. Yeah. You don't understand my- These days you can't say much. I don't know, guys. I... We cannot give advice on that. Yeah. So please do check if a doc- if you do have... if you... yeah. Yes. Yes, of course. Because we practice. Because we practice. DUH!!! - Ooh...
- Whoa... Spark the debate! The... the new war. All the pianists are gonna come after us. - We're not gonna comment.
- Yeah. What we're going to say is... They're different. They're different. On one hand, vio- - piano has to play typically a lot more notes.
- Yeah. - And they have a lot more repertoire to learn.
- Yes. On the other hand, - violinists have to create intonation...
- Yes. - which pianists don't have to worry about.
- I mean, I do say, to be honest, when you start learning, piano is probably easier to start to learn. - Yes, to make a good sound.
- To make a good sound. But, to play on a high level, they're both the same. They're both extremely difficult. (both) Diplomatic answer! You have to be diplomatic online these days, woohoo! (both) No. *cough* I mean... - I mean... I have to... On the high level.
- You have to be diplomatic. On the high level, it's uh... - It's all the same.
- Yeah, it's all the same. No. - Nah...
- Percussion. It's usually made from sap. It's from a... - a tree.
- Mhm. But toxic or not, you look that up. - I don't think-
- I wouldn't recommend eating it. - Yeah, I wouldn't.
- But it's... You're not going to get like... - some disease from using it.
- Poi- Yeah. Yeah, so don't eat it, don't sniff it, and don't do stupid things. Guys, responsibility. No. Yes, it is concert pitch. I'm surprised so many people are asking that. I know. They must be wind players. Just like transposing wind players. There's gotta be See our viola joke video for reference. What spell in Harry Potter can make you deaf? - You mean vibrato?
- I think they mean vibrato. That's not really shaking. I mean like... Cos it's part of the emotions when you play. The pain of torture and practice you go through to present the piece. And just to get- No, you know what it is? When you're unable to actually express it through the music, you do it through your face. What does that mean? I was... I guess they mean like... Re- Like Oistrakh? Like... Yeah, like... I mean, I guess it's just relax, you know. Sometimes you just gotta like- Is that what they mean though? Like... - Yeah.
- Is that really shake- I mean, they think like... You know, when Oistrakh plays, it's like... - I don't know. Yeah, like...
- Or maybe when they're listening, just like... To focus on the sound. Yes. To listen. Mhm. - Well...
- So you can create sound. Yeah, so you can make a sound. Because the rosin gives the hairs more... Friction. I guess friction - which allows it to grab the strings better.
- Yeah. There's like microscopic hooks. Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah, rosin is good. Don't use oil. Alright, cool. That's it! That's Google's most asked questions about violin playing. If you have any other questions, we will try to answer. Thank you so much for watching, guys! If you have any more questions, you can comment below. Maybe some of our... peers watching this can help you answer. We're all very... close in the classical music world. Ling Ling! Ling Ling supports us! Woohoo! Please subscribe, and we will see you guys next time!
