How did you wind up in ARCANE?

Ray, how do you deal with pre performance nervousness? What if you feel you know your part, but being nervous affects your sound and keeps you from playing like you should?

Great question.

Just to give context to those wondering. These days, there are 4 main categories of musicians in the classical music world:

• Orchestral musician
• Pedagogue/Teacher
• Chamber musician
• Soloist

Many musicians do a combo of these. Mostly Orchestral + Teaching, Chamber + Teaching, or Solo + Chamber. The rarest mix is orchestral + soloist, where currently I've only seen members of the Berlin Phil able to pull this off. There are also many full time quartet players and full time teachers (like my teachers Prof Zhang and Robert Lipsett) who fully commit to their category.

This doesn't factor in social media/content creation which in today's digital age, has become an extremely valuable asset to have and created a new category in itself. You could be a teacher and market yourself online. You could be an orchestral musician and take on an additional social media role within the orchestra. A chamber musicians who offers online courses, or a soloist who records albums, creates content, or builds an app.

The possibilities are endless with many paved paths, but the best part is being able to create a world in which you are placed at the top and are happy with.

Hi Ray,

What is the best advice you have for someone studying at a conservatory?

Was there a distinct time where you felt or realized you “made it” as a soloist?

Thanks! When I was 8, I was playing 8 hours a day

Just kidding. I think I practiced around an hour to an hour and half on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends.

Interesting though that you mentioned you "need to keep him loving music". If love for music is the primary goal here, then he certainly doesn't have to play pieces 4 courses above his level. People (especially kids) need to feel accomplishment and there's no better way to do that, than for him to be the one to say "Yeah, I'm ready for more". There's a balance to strike here but the fact that you're already aware of the burnout tells me that things need to level out for a little while before going higher.

Why did u/Jamesbrownstein ask 3 questions and you answered all of them when his account isn’t even a day old?

What's your take on the transmission costs needed to put the solar where it's cheap and have it delivered to where it's needed?

I do have perfect pitch, though when the note gets too low (think bottom 5 notes of the piano), it becomes difficult for me to differentiate.

That being said, I don't think it's too important to have perfect pitch from a musical standpoint, but it is important to have familiarity with your instrument eg. knowing what the note is when you put your 3rd finger down on a particular valve/string/etc.

I'd be curious to hear what musicians who don't have perfect pitch have struggled with (other than being made fun of). As a musician who does, I have struggled with transposing (eg. when I attempted Paganini's Violin Concerto alla Scordatura (with the tuning raised by a half note) but that may also be the intense familiarity I have with my instrument which was tripping me up.

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I’m curious what your opinion is on how CA is possibly going to meet its goals. We want all cars to be electric within a short time window yet our power grid is so outdated that we can’t even handle a heat wave without brownouts when 90% of the cars are still non-electric, meanwhile PG&E is bankrupt and unable to perform the duties expected of it even if this were just the 1990s, let alone some green futuristic scenario…

How can our currently terrible system even meet todays capacity requirement let alone science fiction level ones? Battery technology for off hour storage just isn’t up to snuff right now. There are a lot of interesting solutions but few are actually being implemented.

What about Nuclear Power?

We would need a ton more land than we have to replace coal with solar and wind alone, with the population on the rise, food is going to become more scarce in many parts of the world.

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Why did the NFL change the rules during the Eagles last "victory" when they allowed Clement's touchdown when the ball clearly moved and he did not get 2 feet in bounds? This was then followed up by the NFL officially changing the rules after the season?

Do you have perfect pitch? Is it useful to have perfect or relative pitch to be a professional classical musician?

Hi, Ray,

i got an issue about projection awareness and recognition from Ray Chen Violin Masterclass at SFCM

y, when daily self practice, i always feel under my own roof, if i play too loud, it sounds rough and not nice.

so i felt i have to play as soft as i can but the fact is i will never get a chance to practice projection for a big space sound effect and purpose.

but, if i practice projection, i.e. exaggerate every single note and record my self, later when i listen to my recording, it sounds rough and horrible.

sigh.......same issue with my piano. cos, since i record myself last year, i noticed that i better not peddle down my piano, i.e. minimize the least .......... otherwise the recording video won't sound good at all.

it's so contradict and different before and after i record myself. y, recording do teach me many things. be solid, never hesitate, keep going, moving on even if i unwillingly but unavoidably making a mistake. also focus on playing the music from the perspective of being an audience, etc. etc.

indeed, recoding has pros and cons.

y, i indeed like to know your view upon this issue, how you practice your projection vs practice for the beauty of music for our own ears right next to the violin? Thank you.

I have reviewed the materials. I feel the blame is for both sides. However, I am not well versed on the proper solution to this situation. Both sides are being harmful.

Thanks for the information.

Thank you for your answer❤️

Yeah, I often look around and think to myself:

"What the world really needs right now is another ten or twenty Chernobyls and Fukishimas".

How are the grids supposed to handle the millions of vehicles switching to electric especially during the winter months in the north. Especially apartments complex or shared housing where everyones intertwined?

I have a question, and please correct me on any wrong assumptions / errors in understanding.

In the news i read, it is said that the FED is judging how bad inflation is, by checking CPI and Unemployment rate. And they want the unemployment rate to get higher.

How is a higher unemployment rate good?

The argument i heard was - lower unemployment rate means less workforce available and this gives the working people more room to negotiate higher pays. (again, how is that bad?). And also, in bad times, where everything is more expensive, people will take any job. Even if the pay is super shitty. And that would mean that unemployment is lowering.

Hello Ray! You're an absolutely amazing violinist and I love your playing! Can't imagine how much work goes into everything you do, including tonic. How do you deal with life on tour (lots of changes), jetlag and stuff? Do you have a routine or did you just get used to it? Also, I absolutely love your performance of Wieniawski's first violin concerto on youtube!!! Is it true that it doesn't get performed a lot in general or is it just my feeling? Lots of love ❤️❤️❤️

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Desperado, Hotel California, or Hell Freezes Over?

He totally loves your playing btw

Hi Ray hope we're not too late. Wondering how long you practiced per day at 8 years old? My son is pretty talented according to his teachers, playing pieces around 4 courses above his level in the conservatory, but recently been feeling he has a little burnout with all the classes and practice. Need to keep him loving music. Any suggestions? We started using your Tonic app a couple of days ago and he likes that! Thanks