Violin vs. Viola Playing the Same Pieces
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ย. 2024
- Playing the exact same pieces on Violin and Viola to show their differences in tone, range, character, and playability.
Pieces performed:
Bach Cello Suite no. 1 in G major "Prelude"
Bach Violin Partita no. 3 in E major "Prelude"
Hindemith Viola Sonata Opus 11 no. 4
Beethoven Violin Sonata "Spring"
Walton Viola Concerto
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Kreisler "Liebesleid"
The violin is worth about 3x as much money as the viola used in this video. The viola is 16.75” which is about 2.75” longer than the average violin.
Viola is truly underrated.
Ik tell me about it I play viola and it's so sad to see how under rated it is.😮💨
Ya
Fr
I’ve never seen a more true statement
As a violist reading these comments- I am so happy that viola is finally not slandered 😁
This is our safe spot 😁
I know, right? lol
Same
Both instruments are beautiful in their own way, but viola will always have my heart. 😍
I agree!
same
vIOLIN IS BETTER
@@maertinyuoif4342 nah viola gang!! jk both are pretty
@@cloroi71826 violin gang
The viola sounds much richer and thicker. Like the difference between milk and cream. Just beautiful.
I can't put my finger on it, but I feel that the viola has a more thick tone than the violin. I never thought I'd say this but as a part of violin gang, I am now compelled to play viola lol
viola is such an amazing instrument
Good, very good my brother.
Me too haha
Yay!! Welcome to the pack
NO! DONT’T GO TO THE DARK SIDE! STAY WITH US!
Awesome playing. I personally prefer Viola, it has a more mellow, darker and rounded tone, while Violin is more piercing and can get kinda scratchy sounding. Both are great but I preffer the Viola. Thank you for the showcase!
The scratchyness comes from putting a little too much force on the bow, and not from the instrument. But both are very beutiful :)
it's not supposed to sound scratchy lol, there are plenty of great performances where there are no scratchy sounds
Really? wow!!! I thought violin is just naturally scratchy and squeaky
@@liutauras8086 exactly, but can't really blame him as his main instrument is the viola where you need to press down the bow harsher. if you take a piece like beethoven's violin spring sonata at 3:22 then you'll notice the violin fits the character of the piece much better
I play Violin, Viola, and Cello. I started with Violin as a child... the violin feels empty, shrill, lacking resonance. The Cello feels thick, bassy, and thunderous. The Viola is perfection- smooth, warm, dark, resonant, expressive.
A year ago I watched this video and as a member of violin gang I realized how warm and rich the tone of the viola is. Proud to say im a violist of...two weeks!
Made any progress?
@@karimcalled HELL YEAH
@@wreckoo how’s it going?
@@karimcalled great :D i love the tone and everyhhing
@@wreckoo I’m glad!! as a violist i love seeing other violists make progress
As both a violin and viola player, I've always felt that playing both was very similar and yet very different... Making the strings resonate correctly depending on the instrument requires lots of adjustments, some major, and some very small and yet essential!
Congrats on showing how those two beautiful instruments sound!
Very true, I want to make a video on this subject sometime. I always find my contact point takes much adjustment when I try to play violin since I’m used to it being so far away on viola
Also the choice of fingering too. I find I may use 1/2 position on the viola that I would not on the violin, where I would go up instead. Being violin trained, it's reverse thinking for me when picking up a viola, adapting suitable & comfortable fingering on the viola instead of normal fingering for a violin.
fit into society: violin
be happy: viola
🎻💖
Viola all the way!
Sincerely,
a cellist.
Cellos have their place too though, something I picked up as a second instrument to violin decades ago, now it's my 3rd instrument compared to viola (more out of necessity than personal choice).
Fellow cellist, 100% to this. Violin has its place but I prefer the rich tones of a viola
Love them both! I'm a violist but lost my instrument after a natural disaster and by whatever twist of fate ended up with a cello, the tenor range is so soulful and familiar yet new 💞
You play both brilliantly, but the viola does each piece with more gravitas. Sibelius is awesome on viola.
Maybe we could get David Aaron Carpenter to do an arrangement of Sibelius
As a violinist who not long ago started learning the viola, and fell in love with its voice, it always feels like I'm sort of cheating on my wife.. but I don't think I am going to stop anytime soon ;)
viola > violin tbh.
@@somebody9033nah brother
Listening to them back to back shows the violins more chirpy almost overtone nature vs the viola with it's more rounded and softer notes, found out I prefer the viola more today
I’m a violinist of 18 years now and I absolutely love the viola!
I loved this! Whenever I see violin-viola comparison videos, they always have the violin example be some difficult, classical piece then the viola comparison a completely different piece, style, techniques, tone, and note range so you don’t even know the difference because how could you compare the instruments using two different overall styles instead of what the same piece would sound on two different instruments.
I feel like a violin always feels like frost in the winter, crisp and clear. Violas are like a gentle summer rainstorm, sometimes muted but with warmth and depth
i started a viola gang at my school
Excellent work
Hi ,viola gang nice to know about you, in our country we don't have that many viola players or classes .I myself is a carnatic violin student not even western classical violin but I love hearing western classical music a lot along with other genres.
I like both, but I have to say the viola is warmer and I'd enjoy listening to it for longer periods of time.
The best way I can explain it to me is the Viola is September-December; and the Violin is January - April. Both are necessary and special in it own way.
What's May-August? Kazoo?
@@BrowithStoryCoolabsolutely
Both are great instruments , I am glad I chose viola though.
Same here
I moved to viola from violin because of a shortage of violist in orchestras. 😅
Same
You play both instruments beautifully. I enjoyed hearing the two compared using the same pieces. I loved Sibelius on the viola, by the way!
this is such a treat for composers - you can hear the difference in timbre as you go through the different ranges of each instrument. Awesome!
Apparently the viola is the wrong size for the sound that it makes, but comparing it with the violin that really doesn't seem to matter at all. The viola gets it done!
There were a few times I was listening without watching, and thought what I was hearing had to be violin. Switched tabs, nope, it was viola.
I guess the "wrong" size of the viola affects projection of sound (volume) but also creates the warm tone so there is basically nothing wrong there. It is a compromise.
@@macunaima81 agreed. I honestly love the warm sound the viola makes, and there is nothing wrong with it.
These comparisons are so enlightening about the different character of violin and viola. You had beautiful resonance on the violin as well! I especially loved the Sibelious, on both instruments!
Though I have been playing viola for over 30 years, I had never thought about the difference to violins. Only a few years ago, when I contacted a Russian violin teacher because of a technical problem, I learned about it. Her first comment was: "You don't have much resonance in your play!" I thought, what is that? And then she taught me how to look for resonance in each note and the different character of notes that don't have resonance. That reminds me, I should take the listening for resonance back into my warm ups.
I might be biased being a Violist but I think it's so much richer and has a real deep tone compared to the Violin. The Viola just calls to me😊I feel it in my bones🥰
That's why each has their own colour & each has music pieces more suitable for one over the other. Yes, I used to think (a couple of decades ago), "Why don't more people play viola, it sounds so much nicer", but then I wanted to get back to playing other music on my violin again.
I did, but this year I picked up my viola again, playing in an orchestra again.
@@rossthefiddler5890 I wanted to play Violin but in 8th grade when I started they had enough Violins so the teacher asked me to play Viola. In high school I told our Orchestra teacher that story and she asked if I wanted to switch I said no I really loved the Viola 🥰 my Grandfather was self taught but couldn't read music so he played his fiddle by ear in a band. My cousins still have his fiddle😊
the viola has such a warm tone
Thank you for uploading this!! I love both instruments, but viola has an undeniable richness, depth and soul that the violin doesn't quite grasp (for me).
Viola King you are a great musician of both instruments. I wish my fingers were as long as yours, especially on the high positions on my viola.
Saw you in concert today. Thank you very much. You’re talent soared my soul to great hieghts. I felt like the concert was a gift from The Lord. I wish you a happy and healthy life
I played viola in middle school it's my heart something drew me to it. Over all others
*is currently falling in love with her instrument again*
As a child I played violin but this makes me wanna play the viola. God they both sound so beautiful
i think viola can express 'Liebesleid' better than violin
I think so as well-viola has a more introspectively heartbroken sound rather than the violin’s more dramatically heartbroken sound
Gorgeous. I'm a violinist but I love the tone of the viola best.
Both beautiful, but something wonderfully melancholy about the viola.
Your Hindemith sounds so good! 🥰 I love that piece. Playing it on violin points to just how Hindemith wrote anachronistically to the viola and it's unique color.
You see, the only problem with the violin is that it's not a viola.
The viola's sound is just so much more pleasant....
This is going to be so useful to all the people deciding which to play!!!
Master performance
I play the double bass, and as I’m researching other string instruments, both the violin and viola have such a beautiful touch to them and are amazing to listen to when done beautifully, yay
Ok have just seen the answer to my earlier question. Size of viola in your video is 16.75 inches, which is a cracking 42.5 cm. Many amateur violists with normal sized arms and hands cannot comfortably manage instruments larger than 41 or 41.5 cm. But we still get the deep rich tone of the viola. On cheap instruments the C string sounds dry and "woody", while a good string on a good instrument sounds gorgeous.
this is amazing! i’m now sending this to everyone who asks me “what’s the difference?” (i’m a violist)
Liebeslied on viola > Liebeslied on violin
Listen, I may be a violist, BUT,
Hindemith 4 didn't sound that bad on violin.
Anyway, great video. Walton Viola Concerto on violin was cursed. I want to hear your performance of the Vieuxtemps Elegie in F Minor sometime; it's the piece I'm learning now.
I was surprised that Hindemith didn’t sound too bad, but I agree Walton was cursed. I played Vieuxtemps a few years ago, maybe will bring it back sometime
It's because it's a great melody. It would sound good on ANY instrument. I'll have to check it out in full...
I love reading these comments as a violist, the viola has both high and low, and I think that it can just adapt to so many things. You can get both happy and somber, it's lovely. Though I think violins are fine, I do wonder how they became the more popular instrument.
Viola Sibelius is gorgeous.
Such a cool video omg
I am viola gang but because of my short fingers I have to play a 14 inch viola, so I don't even get to enjoy the differences in tone and character. But at least I don't have to burst my eardrums with that E string! ;-)
This music you played is very Beautiful, its pure enjoyment for me. thank you so much,
i gave this a thumbs up like. Subcriber Laura in Liverpool UK.
Это нормально, что я как скрипач с дипломом музыкального колледжа, хочу стать альтистом??? Это очень красиво 😍❤
yes it is totally normal and a great decision to make. (i'm also russian but don't have a keyboard)
I love the viola and violin equally tbh. They both have their perks. Both are so beautiful and you play them brilliantly. Alot of talent you have.
I have always prefered the viola, its sound melts my heart... the violin is to high pitched that i cant listen to much it can be unbearable sometimes...I personaly think that the viola is the best instrument of a symphony orchestra
He makes it look easy, but it takes years to get just ok and he is way more than just ok.
Years or hours?? I practiced washing my hands everyday for 20 years if that’s how you look at it.
The viola doesn’t only appeal to my ears. But also my spine.
Now do a video comparing viola vs violin, but playing some of John Cale’s viola parts from the first two Velvet Underground albums!? I actually sought out vids comparing viola to violin specifically bc I was imagining what the songs would sound like if he was playing violin. I’m probably the only person who watched this video thinking of something like this, and I realize that’s probably not something that would appeal to your general audience, but I still want someone to do it!
Either way, I quite enjoyed this, and it gives me enough of an idea to know that I prefer viola to violin (granted, I’m not just basing that on this sole video), as beautiful as they both are. 🙏
okay now I'm more than leaning to viola almost decided
all of you loving violas in the comment section……where are y’all in real life
Nice
Very cool! How much did you shift the notes between instruments? A full octave, or...?
Most of them I transposed by a 5th so I could use the same fingerings
@@ViolaKing a fifth lower right?
@@geejhaymariano6651 or a 5th higher
El violin se mucho mas comodo pero el sonido de la viola es mas agradable yo personalmente tocaria una viola que sea del tamaño del violín de 15 pulgadas , gracias por la demostracion toca execelente felicitaciones se notan las horas dedicadas 👍
I never really got greatly excited over Beethoven Sonatas, but the Spring sounded so much nicer on the viola. If I got out the set (of 10, my Grandmothers old music & I'm not young) I'd be reading it like a violin & undoing my alto clef discipline. 😉
Thanks for doing these. It opens up thinking on what else can be played on the viola. Of course there are many cello pieces we could steal for viola. 😊
Going to viola though becomes more of a challenge in higher positions etc & can create an issue in the wrist reaching around much more than on a violin (I needed surgery in the past because of this).
Im a violinist, but i love so much the tone of the viola, i wish i could learn to play the viola aswell!❤
I tell my music teacher buy one violin to me.😂😂😂
I prefer the violo by far, and it's much close to the human voice.
Perfect instruments violín and viola ❤❤❤❤
Thank you for this beautiful comparison video.
To me the violin sounds chirpy and joyful like a girl whilst the viola sounds more nostalgic and thoughtful like that girl has matured.
Maybe it's just me… 🤷🏻♀️
2:18 with 3:07 precise perception
I can’t believe so many great comments for the viola ❤ ❤❤❤
I love how a viola sounds, but I just can't get used to the size and the heavier feel while playing. So the feeling of lighter playing always draws me back to the violin. But I have a 14 " viola for fun ;)
There are 5 String Violins & 5 String Violas tuned the same way (C, G, D, A, E) but there's a difference in tone between the 2:th-cam.com/video/EbdgPYSoisc/w-d-xo.html
I got it, THE SIZE DOES MATTER
Thank you! I learned a lot
viola’s deeper in tone and resonant to the musician. Viola’s better playing somberly music than the violin. Violin’s for excitement and angelical pieces. Viola can be played with the exact same string tension as violin (heresy, but doable).
I heard from viola player is it true that when we play fast piece on viola that instrument will delay the note?
Do you have notes for the viola transcriptions?
No, I just learned the fingerings on the violin and used the same ones on viola
thank you very much!
i tried hard for plying violin but my yeti size finger not approved. i believe cello is best but size is matter! hello gorgeous viola :)
total random request but you should play hubay’s morceau de concert for viola, its literally so good
Subscribed! Great video
I came to these comments looking for a war but I found people getting along pretty well surprisingly
Viola gang
viola has much warmer sound
thanks for your video!
This video made me decide to pick up viola instead of violin. Viola is like dark chocolate and violin is like milk chocolate; they're both good but I've always been more of a dark chocolate lad
❤them both
6:35 Beethoven Violin Sonata "Spring" on Viola had a more striking difference for me. :)
The violin seems shrill compared to a viola. The viola obviously has a lower tonal range, but i didnt realize the difference was this wide.
spring sonata on the viola made me eargasm
Thanks very much for the great comparison. In my opinion there is no "better" here. It's like saying the color green is prettier than the color blue. No, they are just different. It's such a subjective analysis. I prefer the sound of the violin. I also play a five string violin on a standard Stradivarius pattern body. The fifth string is the C of the viola. It isn't as resonant as the C on a 16 inch viola, but it rings quite nicely with good volume and balance between the strings. However, the C string still sounds like a violin. The timbre is different. Try comparing a 5 string viola with a 5 string violin. You are playing the same notes, but the difference is quite noticeable. I've come to really love the sound of the G and C strings on the five string violin. For me, it's both the color green AND the color blue.
The Spring Sonata is actually good on the viola.
Just a question ..do you use the treble clef for both instruments or alto for viola for this music?
I was transposing by ear, so I wasn’t using music for this video. But Viola does use treble clef usually starting around F on the A string
@@ViolaKing thank you
I love this demonstration of the difference in tone. Please could you remind us of the size of your viola? Mine's a 41.1 cm which I suppose is just under 16.20 inches.
I started playing violin at 8, and while it is a beautiful instrument, I fell in love with the viola. If it were not for viola, I would have stopped playing.
I learned viola in school but sometimes kinda wanted to learn violin cuz of alot of the solos they get but at same time i never liked being in the spotlight...it makes me feel uncomfortable and like sounds from both instruments
Nobody has to know if you transpose your fav violin solos for viola & stalk sheet music archives for anything new and interesting. I hope you get a chance to fiddle with a violin if it's still something you're into!
Sound warmer on the Viola. :)
in first thank you for playing... your great musician. For instrument , Viola or Violin Its like 2 great racing cyclist......a moumtain climber vs a sprimter... .great in a special register of play !!! But for me Viola isnt an "underviolin " viola have his proper qualities....in this video we can constate beauty of both
Yup! Still prefer viola
What is this viola? If you dont mind sharing :D
It is a 16.75” Moennig made in 1956
I really like the viola but my heart is set on the violin
Voila is the first one you can tell by size but with sound I can't tell at all
sibelius was so good 😮