Skip to main content

Instructions on How to Play Bravado on a Viola

Playing bravado on the viola means that you know how to play every piece in your concert and you can do so with individuality and style. The best violists know that playing bravado can increase their reputation and provide them with additional opportunities to play concerts for their fans. Too often, the instrumentalist hides behind the instrument and doesn’t entertain the audience with anything other than the music. Throwing your whole body and soul into a performance will make it possible for you to play bravado.

Practice your viola every day to become a virtuoso. Bravado playing requires the ability to know that every time you perform you will play perfectly. This requires daily practicing of scales, arpeggios, tone development and bowing technique.

Perform as often as possible in front of friends and family, outside grocery stores and even in the park. Everyone gets nervous when playing in front of people, but the true bravado virtuoso knows that he must never show his anxiety to the audience.

Play the music with your own interpretation. People don’t come to hear you perform another violist's interpretation of the song. They come to hear you, so give them your own interpretation. Playing a piece at an unusual tempo, using extra portamento or changing the music to play in a different register are all ways to add bravado to the music. Play with a technique that will allow the audience to remember what makes your performance distinctive.

Talk with the audience and give them some musical history or an interesting fact about each piece or group of pieces before performing. This will help you connect with your listeners and separate you from the performer that only plays.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Similarities of Classical and Baroque Music

Music has evolved through the centuries and undergone drastic changes. One of the most significant transitions was from the Baroque to the Classical period of music. In this paragraph, I will compare and contrast some of the main features of these two styles, such as ensembles, instrumentation, and counterpoint study. The Baroque and Classical periods of music have many similarities. While the style of music changed drastically, certain key elements remained the same between the two styles. Composers in the Classical period sought to simplify music and create clearly audible musical lines. In contrast, composers from the Baroque period were interested in creating complex and highly ornamented musical lines. The Baroque period occurs from approximately 1600 to 1750, and the Classical period extends from 1750 to 1820. Ensembles Ensembles are groups of musicians that perform together. Both the Baroque and the Classical period had similar types of ensembles, such as operas, orchestras, str...

Sunday Stories: The Power of Audiation in Music Composition

Happy Sunday! Today, let’s explore the transformative power of audiation in music composition and share an inspiring story about a composer who mastered this skill. Audiation, the ability to hear and understand music in your mind, is a crucial tool for composers, enabling them to bring their musical ideas to life with greater detail and precision. What is Audiation? Audiation is the process of hearing and comprehending music in your mind without any external sound. It is similar to thinking in a language, where you can understand and manipulate words and sentences internally.  For composers, audiation is an essential skill that allows them to imagine, develop, and refine their musical ideas before they are played or written down 1 . The Benefits of Audiation for Composers 1. Enhanced Musical Understanding Audiation helps composers develop a deeper understanding of music. By hearing and analyzing music internally, they can grasp the relationships between different musical elements, ...

List of Musical Techniques and Their Meanings

Musical techniques are the building blocks of any basic music training. These techniques allow performers to improve their coordination and develop accuracy through repetitive daily exercises. Musical techniques progressively build upon previously learned techniques. Scales Scales form the basis for other musical techniques. Student may study major and minor scales as well as modern scales, such as the whole-tone and octatonic scales. A scale consists of patterns of half steps and whole steps. These whole steps and half-step arrangements will be different for each scale. Scales are musical techniques that can help a performer to play faster and more accurately, and make learning new pieces easier. Chords Chords require knowledge of major and minor scales. Chords come in several different forms that affect the sound. Triads consist of three notes spaced a third apart and classified as major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. Seventh chords build on triads and have an additional no...