Classical or Pop?Which do you prepare? A collab with a classical player of violin Ryan.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Don't be nervous! I'm so nervous!
00:03 Karolina Protsenko is a 14 year old violinist, singer and dancer whose pop song covers have been watched over a billion times on YouTube and have landed her on many celebrity TV shows.
00:22 Now as a classical violinist who has also given my fair share of performances in front of some pretty important people and some pretty big crowds too,
00:29 the question I have is does the average person prefer pop music over classical?
00:34 Now to find out we're going to go busking on the streets of LA where unlike in a concert hall, anyone is free to walk away if they don't like the performance.
00:42 Oh my gosh, Karolina!
00:43 Oh my gosh!
00:44 It's you! How's it going?
00:45 I'm doing good, how are you?
00:46 Oh my gosh, good. Are you ready for this? I'm so nervous.
00:49 Yes, me too!
00:50 My heart is pounding. You're nervous?
00:52 No, excited.
00:53 You're excited? Oh, okay.
00:54 Yes.
00:55 I was going to say, if you're nervous then what am I going to do?
00:57 Anyway, let's get mic'd up and do this.
00:59 Great!
01:00 It feels like people are going about minding their own business. They don't have time to notice us right now.
01:05 I mean, some do.
01:06 The challenge is going to be trying to grab their attention.
01:09 That's usually never a problem.
01:11 Really? For you?
01:12 Well, yeah.
01:13 What do you think I should do?
01:14 You should smile at people. Just be like...
01:16 Oh, really?
01:17 Yeah, exactly!
01:20 I should do that? Okay, what else?
01:22 You do dance. So what's the way to move?
01:25 Oh, I think you know what would be cool? You could do some lunges while playing.
01:28 Lunges?
01:29 Yeah, that.
01:30 Okay, I'll practice this move. I got this. I got this.
01:34 Then also a foie gras, like this.
01:37 Oh my gosh!
01:39 Yeah, while playing. I think you'll attract a lot of attention.
01:42 Okay, but what's not to do? What should I not do then?
01:45 Don't be weird.
01:46 Don't be weird? How... Oh no.
01:49 What's weird?
01:50 Oh, be yourself.
01:52 Be myself?
01:53 Mm-hmm.
01:54 Who am I?
01:55 You are Ray Chen, a famous violinist.
01:58 A little warm up.
02:00 Stretching, yeah.
02:01 Okay.
02:02 One, two...
02:03 Just everything, you know?
02:04 Okay.
02:05 Wow.
02:06 Don't be nervous.
02:08 Yeah, okay.
02:09 Nervous is a good feeling, actually, because you're nervous about the way you play and the way you do stuff to, like, make it your best.
02:18 It's because you care.
02:20 Yes, because you care.
02:21 What are you nervous about?
02:23 I don't know. Just messing up.
02:25 Messing up?
02:26 Yeah.
02:27 Oh, you get nervous about that, too?
02:28 Yeah.
02:29 But you improvise, right?
02:30 Yeah.
02:31 Yeah, you know...
02:32 But in classical music, you can't improvise.
02:33 Oh, so you're nervous about classical music.
02:34 Yes.
02:35 You're not nervous about this?
02:36 Oh my gosh, we're like the opposites.
02:38 Oh my gosh, it's happening. It's happening. We're getting close.
02:41 Well, first I'm playing, so you can observe.
02:44 I'm going to see how it's done by the master.
02:46 All right.
02:51 What are we doing?
02:52 I don't know.
02:53 I don't know.
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03:28 She's amazing, though.
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03:43 She's a master.
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03:57 Woo!
04:08 So, can I go next?
04:12 Okay, so as you can see, I'm super nervous at this moment,
04:15 and I'm really trying to take in Caroline's words to be confident and be myself.
04:18 But to be honest, the only thing that's going through my brain right now is,
04:21 "Please don't mess up in front of everyone."
04:23 And that's the thing. Whether you're performing or giving a speech,
04:26 anything where the end result requires you to be in front of people does take practice.
04:30 And that's where Tonic comes in.
04:31 It's an app I built where people from all around the world can come together,
04:35 meet and gather and practice the thing that they love in a community.
04:38 You can either open a public or private practice room, depending on your goals.
04:41 And there are streaks as well as badges to help you stay motivated.
04:44 The best part about it is that it's completely free.
04:46 So give it a try today. Download Tonic from the link in my description below,
04:49 and I'll look forward to seeing you in the practice room.
04:52 Alright, back to the streets.
04:54 Hey everyone, I'm Ray, and I am a classical violinist.
04:57 So I'm going to be introducing you to a bit of Johann Sebastian Bach.
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05:35 [Applause]
05:37 I hope you enjoyed that. Thank you very much.
05:40 This is some more Bach, what you would usually hear in the concert hall,
05:44 like at the LA Phil concert hall.
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06:17 This is Vivaldi's Summer, third movement.
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06:58 Alright, thank you, thank you.
07:15 [Applause]
07:18 And because I'm here with Carolina's guest,
07:21 I feel like I've got to do something a little special,
07:24 something that I don't usually do, but I've always wanted to try,
07:27 which is playing a pop song.
07:30 Yeah, it's actually going to be my first time.
07:33 This is We Don't Talk Anymore.
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08:04 Alright, thank you for being so supportive.
08:23 [Applause]
08:26 That was all, that was my first pop song experience, so thank you so much.
08:31 Congratulations, that was so good.
08:34 Your classical playing, your technique is just, it was amazing.
08:39 Congratulations on playing pop song.
08:42 Oh my gosh, that was the first, I made my pop song debut, thanks to you.
08:46 I was watching you, I was like, oh my gosh, you're owning this entire promenade.
08:51 I wouldn't even say stage, because this is your, the entire place is your stage.
08:55 Oh cool, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?
08:58 Sure.
08:59 Okay, did you enjoy the performance?
09:00 Sure, just, you're just some walk-by violinist, of course, you're just some walk-by violinist.
09:08 Okay, how about classical music out in a place like this, what do you think?
09:11 It's what you're supposed to do, it's great, it's terrific.
09:13 So what did you think of the performance?
09:15 Beautiful, good.
09:16 Did you like the classical music?
09:18 I do, yeah.
09:20 I'm curious, like, what you thought of the classical music being played on, in a space like this, that is definitely not a concert hall.
09:26 What are your thoughts about that?
09:27 I thought it's interesting that when you, when you use, like, the amplifier of the sound, like, you wouldn't tell how good the instrument is.
09:34 You would think all the instruments sound kind of similar, so that was kind of interesting.
09:38 So did my sound sound good, or is that?
09:40 Really good, yeah.
09:41 Okay, amazing, yes, thank you, thank you.
09:44 You know, I always knew that people were going to love the pop music, but I've got to say,
09:47 I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised when people seemed to have taken a liking to the classical as well.
09:52 And you know, it's fun to think, what if things were reversed?
09:59 What if we placed the pop music inside the classical music concert hall, with no context?
10:04 How would people react?
10:05 And you know what? I think that they would love it.
10:13 People tend to love things that they feel connected to.
10:15 And when musicians share and communicate what they're doing, you can't help but feel affected by it.
10:20 I mean, it's very similar to what we encourage everyone to do every day on Tonic.
10:23 And so after today, I believe in this more than ever, that there isn't necessarily a better or worse, like, pop versus classical,
10:35 but that people do tend to base their preferences on things, how they experienced it for the first time.
10:43 And so yeah, hopefully we managed to create some special memories for people today.
10:47 I think the people enjoyed it. Thank you.
10:50 Thank you so much for watching today. Thank you for inviting me out.
10:53 Of course.
10:54 It was a fun experience.
10:55 Thanks. See ya.
10:56 Thanks. See ya.
10:57 See ya.
10:59 [applause]