I hadn't seen this — thank you for sharing!

Hi Ray!

I just saw you at the Walt Disney playing Mendelssohn last week! That was really special, and an incredible performance that I'll always remember. I've been a violin student for 2 years, and you were one of the reasons I started violin at 16 years old. I'm also participating in Play with Ray! (Hopefully, there's some complications with my application right now, I just emailed the Sydney Symphony to hopefully sort things out).

I wanted to ask about your instruments. I know you just got loaned the Dolphin Stradivarius, but you're also a very big advocate for modern violins, like your Widenhouse. I wanted to ask how the 2 instruments compare. Is the Dolphin really THAT much better than the Widenhouse. Do you ever have days where you feel like playing one rather than the other? What would you say are the characteristics of the antique violins you've played over your modern instruments? Thank you so much.

so some quick questions -whats your favorite superhero -favourite ice cream flavor -favourite videogame serious questions what advice would you give to somebody who wants to learn to play the violin?

Educate yourself then you can complain about it

Took a wrong turn in the lanes and now I'm here.

Hehe no spoilers about S2, but it was incredible to work with the team. Christian Linke is honestly one of the most talented people I know and I'm so happy for him with the quality of talent he's been able to attract to his team.

One of the composers (Alex Temple) wrote some pretty gnarly stuff for the violin like this passage in the song "What Could Have Been" with Sting as well as the mind blowing cadenza where Jinx is just going batshit "She's here".I was so with how things worked out that I asked Alex to write our theme song for Tonic, which is in a completely different style but goes to show how versatile of an artist he is!

Your colleagues are working on articles about the state of the Colorado River. 6 of the 7 states affected by the crisis want CA to take substantially less water from the river. In the event those states prevail, both SoCal agriculture AND SoCal municipalities will end up with water losses.

Are those potential water reductions enough to trim population density and thus power needs for those areas? If yes, how does that shape future plans for generation and distribution for those areas?

Thanks so much for the reply. I don't think it's the level of the pieces he's struggling with.... (he's pretty proficient at that level and he also loves his classes with his private teacher) (not so much the conservatory which is very strict and in his words 'boring'). The issue I guess is more that I think he feels some pressure and expectation and I wondered how much practice is enough to keep improving to reach a professional level at some point, without killing the joy he gets from playing by doing too much/more than he wants to. That was my reason for asking how much you practiced at his age to gauge whether we're doing too much/little. Hope that makes more sense! An hour and a half to two hours sounds good. Thank you so much. He hopes to meet you one day. Maybe one day he can 'Play with Ray'. You're very kind taking the time to reply, very much appreciated.

Why aren’t you doing any calculations oh how many solar panels, and how big they would have to be, to meet our total energy needs? I did the math myself and found it would take a solar far the size of the state of California to do it. I think the better question is how we can best fast-track the only real solution to clean energy, which is advanced nuclear.

[removed]

Viola jokes aside, many viola to violin (and vice versa) is a pretty easy switch. For eg. I did record the viola in the opening episode of Arcane. You can check it out here and rate how my viola skills are.

Can a Violist also play the Violin?

Thank you so much for the insight, definitely something to think about...

Some passage I read from “Die Kunst über Geld nachzudenken” always lingers in my mind. The author mentioned about his craziness of a particular concert; his view about his job as a speculator; and he hopes his children could become like writers or at least journalist. Seems literally making money as a job is not that satisfying, and always brings fantasy about “seems” not so realistic work🧚‍♂️😆

That's old nuclear science, not the new one.

[removed]

Thank you so much for answering!

Hi Ray! My husband and I have been fans for a few years and got to see you perform Tchaikovsky with the Seattle symphony which was incredible!

My question is: what was one of the hardest moments in your career that you had to overcome and looking back on it, do you feel this hard moment helped you progress in anyway?

Bonus q: what’s your favorite Pokémon game? 😄

Will you be working with arcane in the next season? How was it working with the team? Love the soundtrack :)

I'm going to give an answer that is probably going to give folks mixed feelings.

The choice to pursue music depends on what your goals are in life. If you want to become famous, or earn a lot of money, and pursuing music gives you feelings of uncertainty to achieve those things, I would say don't do it. Music can always be a part of your life if you allow it.

That being said, you could always pivot even after going to music school. I know a lot of people who went to Juilliard, Curtis, and other music schools who are now in completely non-music related industries; from real-estate to finance, crypto, medicine, consulting. What's cool is the discipline, responsibility, and social skills that are built from being a classically trained musician, translates well into other fields.

How much, if any, energy savings are achieved from rooftop solar providing shade to the structures?

I used to play violin during my school days. I've completed the grade course of Trinity till Grade 3.

Been more than 9 years since I've played, do you think I'll be able to pick it up again? And if so where do you think starting would be a good idea?

There are 2 methods for getting over performance anxiety. I've used both but recommend the second - I'll explain why:

1. "The bulletproof musician" is where you get to a place where you focus and shut off all external forces. The way to do this is practice the same passage over and over in the same style, same phrasing, etc. where you develop the "muscle memory" to be able to play the passage at any given point (even when emerging from sleep). This method was used a lot by the Soviet musicians back in the day. However, if your mental focus cracks and you become aware of the audience during your performance, it's game over.
2. The second method is constantly practicing in front of an audience to the point where your brain can't differentiate between practice & performance. This is harder to achieve (and a little more terrifying in the beginning) because there are suddenly people in your practice session, but this is probably the most valuable reason I use the Tonic app. The result is when I now walk on stage, I have the feeling like everyone's here to listen to me "try things", just like I do in the Studio.

That feeling you get when you wish you tried different things right after they happen? Yeah, it's possible now which is pretty cool.

Thanks for the tips!

Ah, if only blackpink had included the harmonics section in their track...

No, but your question is a good one. This is where having more opinions probably makes sense because everyone's hand is shaped differently, some people have more trouble with certain techniques than others. Would recommend you search for the "Advanced Violinists" group on Tonic - they could help you with fingerings and advice if you upload the part in the sheet music you're having trouble.

My personal take on harmonics and intonation would be to always check the "real notes" by checking to see if the 4ths are in tune and placed as intended.