Today is not about us playing.

Tsk tsk...

We'll be reviewing...

your guys' playing.

That's right. My name is Eddy Chen.

My name is Brett Yang.

(both) And this is our masterclass.

(both) This is our... masterclass.

That was so hard, dude.

Alright, since you guys requested it so much...

Literally all the comments with like-

5,000 likes being like...

"This needs to be a series."

"I hope they see it!" "They have to see this!"

We saw it.

We heard your call.

Just make sure to accent the like button,

- Yeah. - and legato the subscribe button.

And we will be reviewing

some more of you talented Ling Ling wannabes.

Yes! Let's do it!

Who is up on the list?

The brave souls.

Eugene Berg, 17 years old,

has been playing for 4 and a half years.

Hello, Eugene.

How are you doing?

Whenever you're ready.

- It's like a real masterclass. - Yeah.

Dude, that was really good!

Very good playing for someone your age.

Very good considering you've only been

playing for 4 years and a half.

- That is really good for 4 years. - That'd be like us at 10.

Big congratulations.

I have a lot of things that I could add on,

but I've never played the Bruch myself.

- I think I need to warm up if I wanna show- - Well, I've played Bruch.

Oh okay, so you can demonstrate it.

Nah, I can't demonstrate.

I wanna say one good thing as well.

Your double stop, the intonation is pretty good.

- Oh, and the octaves were on point. - Yeah.

Sometimes I don't feel the rhythmic energy?

Yes. I think sometimes you hold the note value

for longer than it should be.

I know it's kinda like a cadenza at the beginning.

But...

Let's say if you hold the first note, "duh--,"

- the value needs to be the same as the shorter notes. - Yeah.

Like, they need p...

proportionately similar.

- If you know what I mean. - Yeah.

When I hear you,

- I feel like I can't hear the orchestra playing - Yeah.

during the...

*sings orchestral part*

You're not sure where the rhythm is.

One way to fix that is actually...

listening to the recording,

and trying to hear it while you're playing.

Also I remember at the beginning, the...

Your sound disappeared a bit.

Eddy: Yeah.

It should be...

Yes.

That whole line needs to feel like one line.

Yeah, like a whole phrase.

- Yes. - And not just note by note. You have to go...

- ...all the way to there. - Yes.

- And every note has to be in context of building up to there. - Yeah, from...

to...

That's all we need.

- Yes. - And everything in between is kinda like...

an embellishment, ornament.

You're like...

"Whoa... where we going?"

- Woo... going there. - WOO!!

Oh, and that...

I think you should vibrate the...

The 1.

That was a bit...

- Yeah. - a bit nasally.

The energy and the intensity actually has to sustain.

Even though-

Yes, we want the second phrase to be more intense.

The first one still needs to-

It's the first thing that audience hears.

- It has to grab the audience... - Yeah.

- by the sound. - Yeah.

Once the main subject comes in,

- it's a bit- sometimes crushed, the sound is... - Oh! The...

Eddy: Yeah.

Sometimes it sounds a bit...

- Maybe your bow speed can help as well. - I think so.

- Bow speed. - Rather than just...

Play with your bow speed a bit,

and contact point as well.

- Yup. - And also the amount of weight you put in.

I would-

- Yeah, I would draw the bow out all the way. - Yeah.

Find a way to make your violin ring.

It's not about the loudness,

it's about how much it resonates.

...resonates, because in the concert hall,

- that's what... travels through. - Carries. Yeah.

Nice one, Eugene.

- Actually very very good. - I'm impressed, like...

- Much better than I can do in 4 years- 4.5 years. - Yeah.

Jonna!

A piece on accordion.

- Oh! Sibelius! - Ay!

How do you say um...

Yeah, don't ask me how I remember that stuff.

- Is it like the Paganini of accordion? - Yeah, I don't know, man.

- It's more sustained than my violin playing, like... - Yeah...

The sound is like... holds.

- Sounds pretty cool. - I don't know enough to criticise it,

but I know enough about music to compliment it.

- Yeah! - You can hear the way she phrases

- and adds air into the notes, like... - Uh-huh.

That...

It's like...

- Yeah... It's nice. Yeah. - There's like a contour to that.

Which I'm assuming is controlled by... that.

'Cause I'm guessing that's kinda like the bow, the motion.

And this is like the notes.

Yeah, I'm not gonna comment.

- I have no idea. - I'd love to know!

I got a lot more good things to say,

but this is a masterclass.

This is our masterclass.

We gotta critique it.

We need to roast it, so we feel better about ourselves.

Cal Alexander.

I like that.

Alright, you've played this piece.

Nah, I don't know it anymore.

Please demonstrate.

How old- How old is-

(both) 15!

"Played 10 years."

Yeah, okay.

- TwoSet is over, guys. - Yeah.

But no, really good playing.

It's actually really good.

- He's been playing for 10 years, too, - Yeah.

which I can definitely tell.

And I like the sound you're making.

- The vibrato, the sound. - The vibrato is quite- It suits the style of Tzigane.

The only thing for me...

is just interpretatinonal things.

- So I don't even think it's worth mentioning. - Yeah, I was gonna s-

One thing though, in terms of interpretation.

I think the...

Not...

- It should keep going, right? - Yeah, you need- The music needs to keep going.

Yeah, I- My...

...only thing, and I-

Again, I haven't played this.

I know the beginning is meant to be...

rubato, free.

But some places tend to be a bit on the...

- taking time side. - Yeah.

We have cadenza or freedom of playing.

We still need to abide by what is actually written.

'Cause Ravel did still signal...

- Mm. - it's quaver, or demisemiquaver.

And, you know, the idea like rubato, right?

If you take time,

- you have to give it back somewhere else. - You have- Yes, exactly.

Having said that though, that's literally just...

me nitpicking the tiniest thing.

- It's very enjoyable. - Yeah.

You played really well.

Nice.

Is this a rabbit masterclass?

There's an owl as well.

I can't really see the violin playing.

- I just see this rabbit. - I can't-

Yeah, the rabbit is distracting me!

Alright, this is a piece I know.

- So finally, my turn to talk about it. - Yeah. That's pretty funny.

That first chord, you can practice for hours,

like, 10,000 hours.

Yeah, that chord has like...

so many components.

Like the string crossing has to be right,

- the balance has to be right, - Yeah.

the intonation has to be right,

the speed of the bow needs to be right.

The contact point also has to be in the right place.

How I like it,

you need to get that fullness of the bass

'cause it's establishing the harmony.

But then,

from there,

once you reach the top two notes,

it needs to... sustain.

Not sustain in a heavy sustain, but it needs to be like...

- Well, it needs to carry through. Yeah, the... - Yes.

the bass.

Rather than...

- You know, the sound stops. - Yeah.

- The sound needs to keep moving. - Yes.

And that's actually very much easier said than done.

- Yeah... - Because-

There's a lot of bow control going on.

Yeah, and you can't rely on too much vibrato.

My best tip for practicing it is...

- slow it down, and... - Spend a lot of time.

Spend a lot of time.

Probably figure out your angles.

- Figure out where is tense. - Yeah.

Because also the-

I find the string crossing is a place where

things get weird, like...

You know?

Or...

- Okay, the first thing I notice is your bow, actually. - Yeah, the contact point.

Brett: Yeah.

Be careful that it's...

it doesn't do this.

It's easy for the contact point to move

when you change strings.

- Because the angle actually kinda changes, to be honest. - Yeah.

Elbow here is also moving like...

- Mhm. - along with the bridge.

And also, where you're on the bow is very important.

So the bottom, I probably wouldn't use that much bow.

You wanna...

I literally just use...

Eddy: Yeah, less than a quarter. Brett: I don't know, less than a quarter.

It's very hard to do though.

- It is very hard. - And under pressure, like, oh my god like, props.

You can tell by how much we talked about the first chord,

how much there is to Bach.

I'll say one thing though,

I think you tend to use too much bow in the frog.

One thing that would make a change

straight away in your sound

- is to sustain- save bow in the lower half. - Mhm.

So you're not always... speeding through.

Otherwise you lose-

you lose the opportunity to make more sound

on upper half of the bow.

Yes. And speaking of making sound,

the bow is quite near the fingerboard.

The sound...

First, it needs to kind of...

It needs to feel like...

Yeah...

Right now, you can hear like...

You can feel the dips in the sound.

- Yeah. - And I also wonder if that's also

- combination of your left hand pulsating on the note. - Oh yeah!

Yeah!

- Yeah, maybe. - And I think maybe left hand is affecting...

If there's not enough control in the right hand,

typically sometimes the left hand does take command.

Yup.

And the last thing I would say is...

try to think of it as...

the chords are like the pillar points,

and the scale passages in between are like...

- the arches and the ornamentation between the pillars. - Yeah, yeah...