CASE 1

You’re at home preparing for a really important presentation for work. You think you’re good to go when your dad walks into the room and asks you what it’s about. You start telling him about, but it has now turned into a full-fledged rehearsal for D-day. A couple of minutes into the presentation, he starts asking questions; some basic ones as he has no idea about your new product. You find yourself faltering and stumbling over the simplest concepts. That’s when it hits you that maybe you aren’t fully ready for your presentation. Whilst focussing on your knowledge of the statistical data and superficial details, you forgot to properly cover the most fundamental aspects.

CASE 2

Here’s a different scenario. If you were one of those students in your class who would ace every exam or rather, if you were better at a subject than your friends, you know exactly what this is about. It’s finals week and your phone has been buzzing endlessly with friends asking you to explain quadratic equations, tell them what led to the French revolution or why evolution might not always be progressive. You tell them you haven’t revised too much either but reluctantly, start to teach them. The next day, you re-read the same topics for your own benefit and realise that a lot of it has already been ingrained on your memory. Consequently, it takes almost half the time you thought it would and it dawns on you that maybe teaching your friend wasn’t a bad decision after all.

Let’s get to the point.

That’s the power of teaching. Every time you set out to impart your knowledge, both scenarios exist concurrently, making you aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when we learn in isolation, we fool ourselves into believing that we’ve grasped the concept by just practising a couple of problems, compositions or dance moves. However, this self-deception wears off when teaching someone else. It is almost as if everything you know is out on display for the world to scrutinize.

“By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.” – Latin Proverb

This also forms the basis of the Protégé Effect. Studies have shown that students who are usually enlisted as tutors or those who study with the intention of teaching later, make more efforts to understand, remember and apply the study material. They have been known to outperform students who learn for themselves.

Moreover, teaching also improves communication and interpersonal skills, resulting in you learning how to present the matter in an intelligible and interesting format. It enhances the overall information processing capacity, increasing metacognitive capabilities. The best part is that these benefits are not just confined to academic study, but can be applied to a wide variety of activities.

So, if you want to hone your skills when it comes to playing a string instrument, you know how to go about it. All you have to do is teach – for the benefit of all those aspiring to play, for a more skilful set of young musicians, for helping students in need of a motivated teacher and most of all, for yourself.

“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” – Maya Angelou

Learn more with ESTA. Join us today: https://www.estastrings.org.uk/join/. Feel free to reach out to any of our members at any point in time.

It is a rule of nature that the most beautiful things arise from the simplest processes. Snowflakes arise when water vapor comes into contact with a tiny speck of dust, forming an ice crystal. Flowers eventually bloom to attract pollinators and hence, reproduce. Auroras are just charged particles from the sun colliding with gas atoms in the earth’s atmosphere to emit light.

Similarly, it is and will always be a wonder as to how merely bowing and plucking a few strings can produce symphonies that are so sweet-sounding and mellifluous.

There is geometry in the humming of the string. – Pythagoras

From the high-pitched sounds of the violin to the low-pitched notes of the double bass, stringed instruments have carved a niche for themselves in country music, jazz, orchestral music and many other styles.. Other primary members of this family include the viola and the cello – all four with a unique sound.

Short/Tall – The Violin

If one of the greatest scientists of all time, Albert Einstein, acknowledges that the most joy in his life has come from his violin, it is no surprise that this instrument is potent. Both Bach’s ‘Chaconne’ in the 18th century and Lindsey Stirling’s 21st century creation ‘Crystallize’, use a wide variety of violin techniques old and new – and both are unimaginably beautiful. The violin is usually played using a bow made of wood and horsehair and is designed in a manner that reduces the possibility of accidentally drawing the bow against more strings than intended. The violin as we know it has been around since the early 16th century.t. It has been rightly said that when you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you are telling a story.

Grande – The Viola

Quite like the confusion that arises between a Starbucks’‘tall’ size and their‘grande,’ the viola is often found shouting out ‘I am not a violin!’ from its resonant depths. With a slightly larger body, heavier strings and ability to play lower-ranged and deeper notes, the viola differs, rather imperceptibly to a non-melomaniac, from a violin. Whilst a violin uses the treble clef, a C-clef called alto clef is chiefly used for the viola, due to its lower range. While it is not used as much in folk music, it is definitely prevalent in pop music (read: Havana by Camila Cabello and Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles).

Venti – The Cello

Around 50 inches in length and played while sitting, the cello aucasinosonline.com/ca/ is even larger and is tuned lower than the viola by one octave. Pablo Casals, a Spanish cellist, said that a cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time – more slender, more supple, more graceful. Some of the most renowned cello pieces of all time include Bach’s Suite no. 1, Beethoven’s Sonata no. 3 and Bruch’s Kol Nidrei.

Also, while Russia may be known for its Matryoshka dolls, Leo Tolstoy, vodka, and much more, it also gave us one of the most celebrated cellists of all time – Mstislav Rostropovich.

A 2007 study on the effects of different musical timbres on skeletal muscle cells showed that cello sounds have the best effect on these cells, indicating that they are similar to the human voice and can hence be useful in musical therapy.

Trenta – The Double Bass

A wise man once said that it’s the bass that makes them dance and a wise woman called Meghan Trainer, in 2014, once said that she was all about that bass. Jokes aside, the double bass is the largest and longest-stringed member of this ménage. Key to every orchestra, it is also featured in music genres ranging from rock and roll to tango and blues.

In order to play this instrument while sitting in a chair or putting it under your chin, you’d have to have a 52 inches high chair or a double bass from the island of Lilliput, so most bass players use a high stool – like a bar stool – or stand to play.. Funnily, despite being large in size, it is not as loud as other string instruments due to its ability to produce extremely low-pitched sounds. And that is what makes it indispensable.

“In life’s orchestra, the bike is the double bass. Hard to forget it.” – Paul Fournel

Stringed instruments are an integral part of creating music, the power of which is inestimable. A melancholy Tuesday morning, a lazy Sunday evening, a crazy Friday night, in the bus, in a movie, while walking down the street, in your room, while eating in a restaurant, during heartbreak, during a moment of celebration and during life with whatever it brings – music will always uplift and ameliorate. So, go find the stringed instrument that suits you best and sway in the glory of notes strung together as harmoniously as ever!

Please feel free to reach out to us and we promise you, Music will bring much more to you that you would anticipate.

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