6 Pieces that Sound Harder Than They Actually are

Now we need a "pieces that sound easier than they actually are"! Edit: Yes, they did it!!

Alternate title: America's Got Talent 6 Pieces To Play And "WOW" Judges.

There are two possibilities: Either this is actually difficult and they just make it look easy, or it’s actually easy.

I'd love to see the opposite list Pieces that sound easy but are difficult

The techniques you'd need to play these pieces: 0:23 Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in G minor 'Summer', III. Presto 0:23 Tremolo - fast repeated up and down bows 0:35 String crossings 1:13 Shifting 1:17 Chords Why it's relatively easy: Tremolo is basically playing the same note over and over, the rhythm is very straightforward, there's not a lot of shifting up and down, the passages are essential scales. Why it looks impressive: Fast notes, high notes and loud dynamics (sounds dramatic) 1:33 Monti - Csardas 1:32 Acciaccatura - grace note 1:35 Sul G - playing everything on the G string, i.e. shifting 1:35 Vibrato 2:11 Natural harmonics 2:19 Slurs 2:33 Upbow spiccato 2:35 Sautille - half-bouncing bow (the stick bounces but the bow hair stays on string) Why it's relatively easy: If you can produce a good tone with a nice vibrato, you're halfway there. When you play quickly, your bow will naturally start to bounce (sautille) and the left hand finger pattern for that section is repetitive. Why it looks impressive: This piece has that romantic flair and contrast between emotional vibrato section and fast sautille section. 2:56 Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee 2:56 Fast bowing 2:56 Shifting Why it's really easy: Self-explanatory. Moving on. No, but in all seriousness, the whole thing is essentially a fast chromatic passage. Why it sounds impressive: It's fast. 3:25 Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 5 3:25 Shifting 3:29 Double stops 3:33 Chords 3:36 Fast bowing Why it's relatively easy: Well, those double stop thirds aren't that easy. But once you get the hang of it, the rest of the finger pattern including chords is not hard. Why it sounds impressive: Those double stops and chords, the speed and it has that dark, dramatic feel. 4:13 W. Kroll - Banjo and Fiddle 4:13 Pizzicato 4:19 Sautille 4:25 Natural harmonics 4:38 Shifting Why it's relatively easy: Right hand pizzicato is the first technique you ever learn on a violin and the rest of it isn't bad at all. Why it sounds impressive: Fast and high notes. Also, pizzicato sounds hard. And to produce a light, bouncy feel is not the hardest thing to achieve, but is definitely not an absolute beginner feat. 5:05 De Falla - Danse Espagnole (from 'La Vida Breve') 5:05 Pizzicato 5:05 Upbow spiccato 5:09 Shifting 5:14 Slurs 5:40 Chords 5:41 Double stops 5:49 Natural harmonics Why it's relatively easy: There's nothing particularly tricky about the rhythm or finger pattern for this snippet of the piece. (EDIT: The rest of the piece is quite challenging with left hand pizzicato, fourths and harmonics.) Why it sounds impressive: It sounds dramatic with the contrasting pizzicato and chords/double stops. None of these pieces are absolutely easy and you wouldn't be able to pick them up straightaway if you started violin from scratch (although Flight of the Bumblebee might not be too far off for you), but they do sound harder than they are. I'd say Csardas and Hungarian Dance No. 5 are probably the hardest on the list. What do you think? (EDIT: Apparently, the full De Falla piece is in another league - the hardest by far. Thanks for making me aware of this in the comments!) EDIT: Thanks for all your encouraging comments! For some reason, I can't seem to reply to any of you. Glad this is helpful :)

I am sure not only the pieces are challenging, but Eddy and Brett make them look effortless. Like Eddy said, "Wow, what a bargain (for me)." I just watched a mini concert from them on YT. Thanks!

This is probably the only time they have played Bumblebee and Hungarian Dances in a not-funny context lmao.

And that is why you practice your scales and arpeggios.

I'm so used to 50 notes a second bumblebee, it sounded like a cute slow bee tired after the whole day of flying

I can very clearly picture the look on Eddy’s face when he lost the scissors, paper, rock to play Bumblebee 😅

I know it's overplayed but I really do like the third movement of Vivaldi's Summer. Great music

I love Brett’s Hungarian Dance 5 and Eddy’s Danse espagnole. They are too good.

Now you should do pieces that are harder than they actually sound

Some notes on what makes these pieces easier than they sound despite their flashy speed: There are notes which can be played fast more easily and notes that are really hard to play fast. The pieces on the list here tend to have repetitions of the same few notes or even just the same note (see Summer at 0:23). This is actually not that hard to play quickly because you only have to move the bow fast which in itself is not much of a challenge. It's how much the left hand has to move at the same time in order to hit the right notes that determines how difficult it is. Just look at Csardas at 2:38, the hand on the fingerboard stays in the same place for that whole run. In the really difficult pieces, their left hand position would need to change A LOT more than here, where their hand can just rest in the same position for several bars (see also Summer at 0:43 and 1:18). Another thing is that if the fast notes do change but just consist of scales (*cough flight of the bumblebee), they're not that much of a challenge either because musicians already practiced scales so much that's is pretty much just routine. It's when the fast notes don't have a clear pattern or are more unusual that a piece gets really hard.

0:23 2:56 so... did Eddy lose scissors paper rock for him to be the one to play Summer and Flight of the Bumblebee? 😆

Brett's double stops are GORGEOUS

Oh my gosh, imagine hearing Eddy play Flight of the Bumblebee at a reasonable, non-sacrilegious pace. 😂😂

As a non-violinist, I would have liked if you explained what makes these pieces "easy" 😆 (like maybe something about the notes or technique used)

Playing is easy, but playing it easily is difficult.

So you need to know your scales and arpeggios across the whole register of the violin, be able to do strings crossings fluently, be able to do tremolo, and be comfortable with playing in high positions before you could find these "easy" I guess XD