Hello.
Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.
Today, it's gonna be an intellectual discussion.
Nah, not really.
A question that we sometimes get asked is like,
you know, how do I actually get into classical music?
How do I learn more about it, right?
Or if you are a musician, it's like how do I introduce my friends?
I mean, our channel has grown so much over the years.
- In the beginning, not even my mom watched our videos. - Brett: Yeah.
The views were from our editing.
I think our early viewers—shoutout to our OG supporters—
were mainly musicians.
- And most of them classical musicians. - Mhm.
Now we often run into you guys.
A lot of you actually don't even play a musical instrument.
And so we thought we'd make this video,
kind of a guide to delve into this rich world of music.
We've kind of broken it down to three ways of going about this.
The first part about
getting in touch with classical music, actually, is...
So repertoire is basically...
- The pieces. - Eddy: Like...
Yeah, a list of pieces in the classical canon, if you will.
- And you probably heard a lot already, right? You just... - Yeah.
might not have associated that to classical music yet.
Explore around.
Don't force yourself to listen to things you don't like yet.
So just find the things that you vibe with, right?
So, a common starting ground, actually,
- is film music, you know? - Mhm.
If you're into, like, Pirates of the Caribbean.
- Star Wars. - Star Wars soundtrack.
- Lord of the Rings. - Oh, there's so many.
- Yeah, there's... it's good stuff. They're good stuff, alright? - Yeah, they're really good stuff.
I think from there you can kind of find what classical music
kind of led into that, right? So, for example...
Star Wars.
You can check out
which was the ancestor to that, right? Like...
Actually, some anime also uses Holst.
- Really? - Brett: Yeah, like...
- Yeah, yeah. Yeah. - They kind of recompose it, they kind of, like, change it up a bit.
- And sometimes they actually just use classical music in it. - Yeah, that too.
- I just... - Like, you know, Twilight had-
Don't ask me why I've seen Twilight.
But they had Claire de Lune.
- Oh, of course. Of course. - What's that... What's that, um...
Westworld.
- Westworld! Uh huh, yeah. - Rêverie from Debussy.
Or you might be, you know, into the kind of like,
YouTube one-hour calming study music.
That might be your thing!
- Like, I'm not judging. - Not thinking about someone in particular.
And so you might go down the path of exploring
Or like intimate chamber music.
It's more about just start listening
and don't force yourself to enjoy something you don't like.
- If you found some... like... - Bruckner.
I actually didn't mind, um...
One of my first symphonies I got into was a Bruckner, actually.
- Really? Yeah, I hate playing it. - I just hate playing it.
No, okay, that's true.
- Yeah. Yeah. - Playing and listening are very different things.
- Shostakovich is one because Shostakovich evokes imagery. - Brett: Yes.
So, some music is not meant to evoke, kind of imagery.
But other music, it really paints a picture, like...
Oh, that's... that's like...
- No, no, no, yeah. You can see it. Yeah. - It's almost... You can, like, see a painting in your head, right?
And, you know, some of them will also take time.
One of my first symphony pieces I played was Mahler 5.
I remember when I was, like, 15, and I played it. I was like...
"I just want to play Sarasate or Wieniawski, or like..."
- Yeah. - One of the showy pieces on the violin.
It's like fine wine. It just grows on you.
Mahler's definitely one that grows on you more.
Beethoven, as well.
- Yeah, Beethoven does take a bit of time. - Yeah.
It's not like I don't like Beethoven in the beginning, but
there's more that comes later, right?
I think we've made videos before about
pieces to get into, to start off.
So, just go check it out.
I know one of my earliest orchestral pieces was
- Oh, that's a great one. - It's just great.
Oh, Smetana is also quite nice.
I think the second one, and this kind of ties into it, is
to learn about composers
and also learn about music theory.
For example, the Smetana.
You can find notes online
to see how the composer uses
a certain effect in the strings
- to make it sound like water, or like, - Yes.
Strauss. This bit is meant to depict this action.
You know, so,
you can start learning about the context of the piece.
You can learn about the composer.
For example, Beethoven wrote this piece as he was going deaf.
That adds more meaning.
You can feel that transition, the phase he's going through.
- Brett: Yeah. - Or like Shostakovich wrote this as a reaction
to the government censoring his artistic ideals.
That was a really cool story.
So, Shostakovich 5, for those that don't know,
it's like the most passive-aggressive symphony.
Shostakovich 4 was censored because it was too
anti-Soviet Union spirit.
I mean there's a bit of controversy,
but the generally accepted viewpoint is that's what happened.
And so Shostakovich 5,
he basically goes,
"You want me to write something that's, like,"
- "got that spirit?" And so he ends the symphony... - Yeah, yeah.
You know how the violin goes
- A, A, A... - Yeah.
- It's like tonic chords for like two whole pages. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's him basically saying, "You want me to sound victorious?"
"I'll freaking..."
- It's like a passive-aggressive... - He's almost like trolling. He's like...
So, it's very sarcastic sounding music
once you understand the history, you understand
there's a reason behind why he's so bitter and ironic.
Yeah and maybe even going early on like Haydn.
- Yeah. - It's like he was commissioned all these pieces.
That's why he wrote like a hundred symphonies.
- So many symphonies in one go. - Yeah.
So, I think finding out about the composer time periods,
- that's one thing to learn about as well. - Yeah.
Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century.
You know, all the different sub-genres, minimalism...
And then on the other side of that, I think that's really cool,
is to learn about theory, right?
Oh, yeah.
For example, forms. Sonata form.
You start knowing what to listen out for, it's like...
Oh, that's the first subject.
That's how the composer brought it back.
That's the development section.
And the recapitulation, it's like, ooh.
You know sonata form, traditionally, was meant to
go from tonic to dominant but
Schubert went from tonic to mediant.
What?
- And so you kind of appreciate - Yeah.
- what these composers are doing with the music, right? - Yep.
And if you listen to it carefully,
some composers, like, tease you.
- Haydn did that a lot. He played musical jokes. - Brett: Yeah.
'Cause I remember I was writing a paper on Haydn,
and he would play on
- people's expectations of musical structure, right? - Ah, yep, of course. Yeah, yeah.
So what he did, for one symphony I was analyzing, was
You know how, in the sonata form first movement, you have
- exposition, development, recapitulation, right? - Yep.
He went, exposition, development,
and he did a fake recapitulation. He's like...
"Ah! Nah, jokes! It's still the development."
People then were trained to hear out for...
Oh, this is the first subject again in the tonic key.
So he did the first subject again, for, like, three bars,
but then in the wrong key.
- And then it goes back a bit, - And he basically...
- and then there's a real recapitulation. - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
So, you know, you start to appreciate these things.
I still kind of remember the first time I was explained...
It's so basic.
Explained to me a major and a minor chord.
- How it makes you feel. - Eddy: Mhmm.
Play a major chord, it just sounds happier.
Play a minor chord, just literally the third goes down,
it sounds a bit more sinister.
And you go, hang on, well, why?
- Yeah. - It's so simple in that sense.
I guess you get a better appreciation
for what the composers are doing.
Yes.
I think that's a perfect segue to the third point,
which is...
Yes.
Pick any instrument.
The violin.
Best instrument ever.
Yeah, if you listen to music and you learn about music theory,
you appreciate the composers.
If you learn an instrument,
you really come to appreciate the instrumentalist.
If you try playing the violin
and you learn about all the techniques,
and then you watch Hilary Hahn.
- That's a different level of like- - Oh, you, like...
- They make it look so easy. - Yeah.
It's like, oh, you just go in there and go...
Likewise with conductors,
- I mean, conductors are something else. - Yeah.
Top-level make it look so easy.
You can kind of start hearing
and seeing what they're doing with the phrasing, you know.
- Oh, she just did a color change there. - Yeah.
The way she combined the vibrato with her bow speed
- to make that unique sound. - Yep.
And then you're trying to like...
look at it. How did they even do that?
- And then you tried to replicate it. Yeah. - Yeah.
I think learning an instrument too, one cool thing is,
you go out and play with other musicians
and you also kind of
- experience the culture behind classical music, - Yeah.
which I think is really cool.
Yeah, I want to add,
learning an instrument also makes it a bit more practical.
You can kind of associate actual notes you're learning
- and translating it to something you can create. - Mm.
And then you kind of explore different instruments,
how different instruments communicate with each other.
How do we play this together in a way Beethoven wanted it.
Pianists have to figure out how they can, uh,
make a crescendo.
Pretty loud too, sometimes, so.
So the violinist is like,
"Damn, like I'm struggling."
Anyway.
Start learning more about it.
And you're a lot more fascinated at how
orchestration works too.
- Mm. - Yeah.
I was thinking about why don't people get into classical music.
Like, for example, if you ask me,
why don't people get into Schoenberg twelve-tone,
that's a different story.
Maybe that music is not for...
- Like, will resonate with everyone, right? - Yeah.
I think it's two things, right? I think one is,
sometimes people feel intimidated.
They don't know where to start,
which is why we're making this video.
Another one that I've noticed is from talking to a lot of people,
especially younger, they're scared of getting made fun of.
So, I don't know if you remember,
we're doing a semi-concert in a school.
Somewhere in Texas, I forgot.
But there's this most adorable kid, he's like,
"Oh, my god, it's TwoSet Violin!"
And then, it was so stereotypical, like one of those like,
bad movie scenes or something.
Two kind of, like, stocky looking rugby players
just went, "Ew, did you say violin? Lame."
- I didn't respond at the time 'cause it was so like... - But it was so, like, out of nowhere.
- I was just like I can't believe people actually said that in real life. - Brett: Yeah.
It was a bit shocking.
But I thought about it, I was like...
You know we recently did a video with Roomie and his friend,
Jonas. He was talking about how
he actually started learning the classical guitar
- but then his school friends kind of just like peer pressured him - Yeah, and he went into...
- into going into electric guitar. - ...electric guitar.
And so I think maybe part of it is peer pressure.
It never felt like you were the cool kid.
- You're not with the cool kids. - I remember there were these two kids.
Just to illustrate the point,
his name was Chris.
I thought he was a pretty cool guy.
- Until? - Eddy: Chris...
Yeah, well...
Actually, nah, his whole crew though, like,
I just wanted to fit in, man. They were so cool.
And they played basketball, as well.
I just remember that Chris guy was like,
"Classical violin isn't real music,"
"you're just a skills person."
"You don't make real music, you can't compose."
"You're just a performer."
"There's no art there."
- Dude, I was- - You didn't make the sport.
You're just... you're skilled. You're playing it.
Looking back now that I'm older, I feel like a lot of these times,
these kids...
Well, they don't really know what they're talking about.
How can you really discredit classical music as an art form,
if you don't even listen to it, right? Like...
He doesn't listen to classical music.
So, if you are someone that's young,
and you're going into classical music,
just don't let it faze you, like, it's fine.
- Especially online now, you know, - Yeah.
this community that share the interest.
And one day, usually when they get older,
they realize...
- Yeah, I mean, that's true. No, yeah. - ...that classical music's superior. I'm just kidding.
It's actually good to find people
that share the same passion with you.
So, I know when I was young, I always did these workshops.
- It's like these Suzuki classes and schools with everyone, - Mhm.
so you kind of meet like-minded people, it's just...
I just pretty much stayed quiet the whole time
at my own school.
You mean at your high school?
- At our high school. Yeah, high school. - This is high school? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With that said,
if you are a musician and you have a friend trying to get into it,
try not to, like, be too, like,
"Don't clap between the movements,"
"I can't believe you did..." Like...
You know, we have our etiquettes,
we have our things, you know,
we make fun of Pachelbel's Canon.
- But if someone's making a genuine effort to try and learn, - Yeah.
- be supportive. - Yeah.
Like I brought friends that are not classical musicians to
- a classical concert. They... a bit nervous, actually. - Yeah.
"What do I do?"
So I'm like, relax, it's fine, just...
Make it easy for them.
Oh, I forgot!
The most obvious way to get into classical music.
- Subscribe to TwoSet Violin. - I was gonna say practice.
Well, they're the same thing.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - If you subscribe to TwoSet,
- you practice. - Yeah, you have to practice.
Now you know how to do it, pick up an instrument and practice.
And if you already learned an instrument,
you know the assignment.