Let’s talk about Solo Violin!
So.... You could say I’ve been “in music” my whole life. I kind of knew that I was going to play the violin before I could talk. You see my older sister was sawing away at her violin by the age of 6 as I was crawling around under the piano bench. I distinctly remember looking at her and knowing that it would soon be my turn to play with that odd shaped wooden thing she tucked under her chin, and as they say,.... the rest is history…
So, there’s been a lot of wonderful chapters in my musical life, but the latest one is so fun and engaging that I am totally excited by every chance I have to share my music!
I play solo violin music with backing tracks, and that’s fun, but there's some behind-the-scene coolness that goes into making the most out of my canned music. You see, there are all kinds of effects and musical mash-ups that I can create with just some basic music software and imagination. For example, I can change the tempo, take out some instrumentation, change the equalization ,meaning “bring up the bass” or toning down the track so it feels more mellow. I can even “mash-up” two songs back to back and blend them so they become one song.
I’m able to make the violin sound like a cello or viola, or give it ambient resonance as if I was in a church with a resonating 200 foot ceiling! I can create the most beautiful sounds that you would expect to hear on Youtube or Streaming music channels, but I’m performing the music live!
I have a microphone built into my violin and it wirelessly connects to my mixing board. I can perform live and have my sound blend with backing tracks before they exit out of the PA system! Very cool!
It’s very new and very contemporary. It’s not necessarily for everybody, especially for musicians that are “purists” and don’t care to amplify their instruments or add any electronic component to their gig set. I can respect that. There is more risk involved in dealing with electronics. The risk is that something might not work, or at least not work right away. You’ve got to stick it out when equipment doesn't work and figure out what’s wrong and fix things. It takes a lot of persistence and patience to deal with technical issues. However, there is a wonderful trade off….. that you learn how to deal with technical issues and you become an expert with technical issues! Eventually, the technical stuff becomes less scary and with experience, you just create multiple back up plans!
The best part of performing like this is that I have a direct connection with my audience. Whether I'm there to be part of the aesthetic and ambience or to fire up the crowd with my performance, I'm right there in front of people that are experiencing my musical performance. After all, they are mingling, talking and connecting with each other, and my intention while playing is to facilitate that experience for my audience.
Think about having live music , especially live violin performance at your next event!
