If you have started violin lessons for some time already, you may be at beginner level or intermediate level. For most violin students, the process of perfecting your violin playing skills may be lonely as this consists of countless hours of practicing at your home. If you wish to improve so that you maximize your violin lessons Singapore week by week, one very good tactic is to form a music quartet.
In this article, Rita Yeo of Stradivari Strings, a violin school Singapore which has been around since year 2010 goes through the minute details of forming a string quartet to improve your techniques taught during your weekly violin classes.
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What is a strings quartet?
A strings quartet typically consists of two violinists, one violist and one cellist. The four strings players need to play coherently as a whole, the four parts of a repertoire music piece. The music piece can be any classical piece by any composer such as Bach, Schumann, Vivaldi, Haydn or Tchaikovsky. It can even be a popular song from a musical or television show which you have learnt during violin classes and after that, you wish to score it to four parts for a strings quartet.
Depending if you are the first or the second violin player in the quartet, you can brush up on your part of the song and ask your violin teacher to advise which area you can improve on during your violin lesson Singapore. You can even have your strings quartet perform for your violin teacher on one of your violin lessons so your coach can critique for better improvement overall.
A strings quartet typically performs for an audience. This setting could be as part of a wedding, a company’s corporate function such as the launch of a luxury watch brand or a premium liquor brand. Or it could be just for leisure so that this expands the musician’s exposure above and beyond the violin classes Singapore. Whether it is played for a public audience or otherwise, we can be assured that the strings quartet has a rich, melodious and full sound which is loud enough so that there is no need to additional sound system to amplify the sound. Compare this to playing only the violin during you violin lessons, the sound volume is very much louder.
As the violin has the highest pitch among the musical instruments of viola and cello, it is usually assigned to play the melody of the song. There is a supporting violin line which we refer to as the second violin, followed by the viola and finally the bass line is supported by the cello.
How to find similar minded musicians?
Next, Rita Yeo of Stradivari Strings give a few tips for you to source for like minded musicians to form your strings quartet.
If you have your violin classes Singapore in a music school, this is the first place you should approach. Ask your violin teacher if he or she has violin students who are your age group and around the same playing level as yours and asked to be matched to them so that you can connect with them after your violin lesson. The other person you can approach is the administrative manager of the music school. Make friends with the staff at the school so they will remember if a suitable musician counterpart comes along and they can connect with you when you go for your violin lesson Singapore.
Expand your network by joining an online forum. Do not limit yourself to the musicians you interact with on a daily basis face to face when you go for your violin lessons. There are so many music forums out there which focus on violinists, saxophonists, drummers, vocalists, guitarists and so on. In these forum you can get advice and support from like-minded music lovers. You do not need to limit yourself to the forum for strings players only. You may get a good strings player contact from a guitar forum, for example.
Aside from your music school and going online in search of suitable musicians to form your strings quartet, you can also ask around when you attend local music concerts. After one of your violin classes you may feel that you need to nourish your soul by going to a classical concert by the orchestra of your city.
Frequency of practice?
The next important area to tackle is the frequency your strings quartet should meet to practice. Taking into account that most adult violin students are amateurs and have full time job or studying full time, the maximum frequency would probably be once a week. This is over and above the time you go for your one to one violin class Singapore.
Of course if there is a festive period whereby your counterparts and you have more free time, you can all consider investing time on another practice session.
Venue of practice?
Where shall your quartet meet up to practice? Unlike arranging for the venue of violin lessons Singapore, which is typically one to one, the options for quartet practice can be a bit more complicated. Firstly you need to all agree on a day and time of the week to devote to your quartet practice. Secontly, all need to agress on whether to devote two or three hours to each practice session. One hour for quartet practice is not sufficient although this feels like a lot since most violin students have only forty five minute violin classes.
The venue can be the residence of any one of the quartet, provided that the space you practice in is sound proof and easily accessible to all parties. It will be a problem if one of the quartet has to travel for more than hour one way just to get to quartet practice. It is a lot of time spent on travelling. The same principal also applies for your violin classes.
The best choice can be to look for a music studio which is near to all parties. Ensure that the studio is reasonably big enough for four musicians, their music instrument Insight as well as four music stands. You don’t want to be too cramped when you have your weekly quartet practice.
In conclusion
I hope that this article has provided you with enough tips to start your own strings quartet. It may seem like a lot of coordination work in the beginner but when you get this quarte practice going, you will find that you enjoy more your weekly violin lessons too!
Contact Stradivari Strings who will help to match you with similar minded strings musicians!