6 Pieces that Sound Harder Than They Actually are 

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 :)

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

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

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!

Disclaimer: this pieces are not easy at all, but if you compare them with others, you can learn them with 6 or 7 years of violin playing. Most of paganini pieces cant be played with less than 15 years of playing. Conclusion: for lots of non musicians, faster = difficult (;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`) Edit: guys the time you get a piece is variable. Probably you can play them in the first 4 years if you practice a lot but what type of teacher gives you Vivaldi summer in 3rd grade? •-•. Some people need a few years more and some people less. I talk from my point of view! T^T sorry for misunderstandings

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

And that is why you practice your scales and arpeggios.

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

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)

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

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.

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

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

Imagine if they actually went on Got talents TV shows and started playing these I bet the judges would go AMAAAAZING again

Playing is easy, but playing it easily is difficult.

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? 😆

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

Brett's double stops are GORGEOUS

These pieces may be easy to play, but it’s definitely not easy to play them as well as these guys do. It’s one thing to play the right notes in the right order in tempo, it’s another thing to play expressively, with thoughtful phrasing and great tone production. Kudos guys.

the auto generated captains wrote 'no' when eddy played flight of the bummble bee and i think that's beautiful

Eddy's bored/irritated/yet fully concentrated look at 3:15 is my favorite

okay... as a non instrument player, EVERYTHING IS DIFFICULT FOR ME..

Next video: Pieces that look a lot easier than they are 1. Bach Fugue 2. Bach Largo 3. Bach Allemande 4. Bach Courante 5. Bach Sarabande 6. Bach Gigue 7. ... well, you know how it goes on 😅

TwoSet: pieces that sound hard but is not that hard Me: I BET SUMMER IS GONNA BE ON THE FIRST ONE

Wow, you’re playing the whole thing, not just tiny excerpts. Live it! Edit: oops, I got overexcited and spoke too soon. But still delighted they are playing such large chunks.

I heard the first four a million times(including sacriligious ones), but you guys somehow made it awesome again:D

Didn't expect a free concert, but thank you, that was beautiful

Thanks for this video, now I can impress my family for new year🤣

I already know Flight of the Bumblebee is gonna be here

Hearing Flight of the bumblebee played at a normal speed feels very weird after everything we've heard

I think I've said this before but, i sometimes forget how damn good they actually are at violin then they make videos like this. "Easy" pieces or not, they're wonderful.

That Csardas never fails to get me, THE SOUND IS SO THICCCCC

brett's new haircut is so cute!!

I will say out of all of the overplayed ones here the one I get tired of hearing the least, despite playing it myself on piano, is hungarian dance 5, that piece is so swingy and with such a fun energy

Timestamps: 0. Intro: 0:00 1. Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in G minor ‘Summer’, III. Presto: 0:23 2. Monti - Csárdás: 1:34 3. Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee: 2:56 4. Brahms - Hungarian Dance No.5: 3:25 5. W.Kroll - Banjo and Fiddle: 4:14 6. De Falla - Danse Espagnole (from ‘La Vida Breve’): 5:05 7. Outro: 5:54

From my experience here's the piano version: Canon in D Summer by Joe Hisaishi The pirates of the carribean soundtrack And just about any pop song with basic LH accompaniment (1-5 block chords, 1-5-1 arpeggio etc)

I totally agree! I’ve been teaching myself violin and chose Czardas because I had an intuition that it was doable even though it sounds hard.

“Oh, you play violin? Can you play Summer by Vivaldi? that’s like the hardest piece ever” **emotional damage** Sure

Okay so I've played violin for only two years, and when I saw this video: Oh yaaay maybe I can play some of these! Also me when watching the video: *Emotional, damage, emotional, damage!* I love you twosetviolin!❤

these are the pieces you play for your family on new years when you need to let them know youre not out of talent yet

Brett's haircut really puts the "bang" in brettybang ✨

I love when they remind us that they are not just memers, but educated, high level musicians.

I know these pieces are easy. But interestingly they get across the feelings very well too.

this is kinda unrelated to the video, but watching this made me realise twoset handles the youtube algorithm really well compared to other channels. they post very often, making use of shorter videos like this one, but although these videos may take lesser time to produce, they still bring almost the same amount of quality content to the table and that's really amazing to me

I love the way brett playing the violin. He very talented

Loved this content! Actually, love it whenever TwoSet plays like virtuosos! 😉

*well... as a person who doesn't play any instruments but watches twosetviolin, i'm pretty sure that all of these are EXTREMELY HARD.* 😭😭😭

Paganini and Liszt would be like : 6 pieces that sound really easy but are insanely hard to play.

*TwoSet playing bumblebee really nicely* Me: Finally, the time has came

I love it when they stop talking and simply let rip on their violins. Just great! More of this please. 👍🏻🇬🇧

i don't know about you but i simply adore looking at them doing the thing they love the most, it's so refreshing and heart warming how much passion they have, i can't get enough of them, really

It was beautiful seeing your movements and expressions during these ‘value’ pieces. Great job guys!

i feel like everyone keeps forgetting the "value" part of thid vid lol they're not saying these pieces are "easy," they're saying that relative to how impressive they sound it's easiER than other pieces easy doesn't mean "anyone can play this no problem" or "this is something that even beginnerd can play right off the bat " obviously you still need to practice somewhat anyway great vid! it's always super cool seeing twoset play sincerely

Me (click on video): finally some pieces for me! Me (after watching): nah, not for me... goes back to Suzuki 4

Adding on to the "WOW" list effect: Raise the eye brows and make full on facial expressions for better results

Something that I totally play in front of my relatives over our Spring Festival family gathering to make my parents proud lol Thanks!

Let’s just appreciate them for uploading very frequently this start of year

Playing slow is often more difficult than fast! If you can play it quickly, you can play it slowly

What if ur crush is musically knowlagable

Ngl I love hearing Brett playing Hungarian Dance. It sounds so nice. But all pieces sounded amazing. Reminds me that these guys have talent.

Always love watching these two perform. It's nice to hear more of each piece as well, ty

I wish they talked about what makes these pieces sound harder than they are. I thought the arpeggios in Summer would make it hard but I guess not? 🤔

Alternate title: pieces to play when your parents ask you to play for your guests

they're just destroying my self esteem saying the pieces i find difficult to play are actually easy

Me : shreds a piece People around me who don't know classical music : WOooAHHHhHHHhhhH

Remember, it's not that the pieces are easy; it's that they aren't as difficult as they sound. It's the opposite of the pieces that sound easy, but are somehow harder than the ones played here, usually slow music.

Definitely got that WOW factor you two. Keep up the beautiful playing 🎻💜

Eddy and Brett played so well🥺 Really enjoyed listening to them!

This is very accurate. Theyre tough for me (played for about 11 years) but theyre learnable and showy. People like to listen to them!

Alternate title: America's Got Talent Starter Set

Thank you for playing for us, we love hearing you play!

Ok now that's a term I wish I thought of before. "Low-effort, high-value".

Brett is planning to steal the moon.

Brett and Eddy should do more of those masterclass-videoes where they teach us how to play or conduct like different musicians. Love the previous ones, very funny

'Good Value pieces if you PRACTICE" to be more precise. XD Because seeing how Brett plays Csardas and Eddy's Summer, with those clean and precise notes and with such musicality ain't just something you get right away lol. Still sometimes, even if you don't want to perform for other, practicing these high values pieces are in itself, quite rewarding! Meanwhile I'm happy since this is another vid with more violin playing.

Love these pieces because you can relax and enjoy the performance more and the audience is still amazed. Win-win scenario.

My brother played Vivaldi's Summer in his school festival and got standing ovation. According to his classmates, he then went backstage and said "easy peasy", after which he was whacked by the music teacher. Fast forward 9 years later, I played Moonlight Sonata, 3rd movement, to the same audience since my siblings and I all went to the same high school, and the young music teacher actually went on the stage to tell me that "that is not Moonlight Sonata". The old music teacher, which was also the teacher who whacked my brother, just stared at him in pure disbelief, before announcing loudly that what I played was also Moonlight Sonata, and proceeded to explain the different movements that exist in classical music, and if a damn music teacher doesn't understand that, he ought to repeat his schooling.

Been meaning to ask this for a year, but can you two react to the "classical" music from Brigerton? If you haven't seen it, it's a period piece on Netflix, and while i'm not a fan of the show itself, they do a number of classical renditions of modern day pop songs that sound amazing.

low effort, high result..but still need 40 hours practice!!

They are so pro some people faint when they hear them play

Love this type of content that is more about learning something about classic music without giggling and overreacting i humbly ask for more!

"do u wanna impress ur crush?" when ur crush is a better violinst than you are: no thanks :)

When im depressed, i come to this corner of RU-vid to relax.

1 piece that sounds easy and it actually is (4'33'' by John Cage)

The video I have been waiting for: max results for max procrastination!

Nice. Will get a violin and start from number 1 😅

Simple, but beautiful just the same.

Summer looks like a god level piece to me, a non musician

The only piece that my friends consider to be difficult is Summer istg. But at least when I play it, they look at me as though I am a professional 😌 (also, I’m finally early to a twoset vid, yay!)

YASSS THE ONLY SUNDAY FLEX WE WANTTTTT 😍😍😍 ALSO: Okay, Brett, tell me where the fountain of youth is. I demand you explain to us why you are aging backwards 😤😤😤

Sounds like low key roasting

I played Banjo and Fiddle last year I never thought Twoset actually knew about it. Great pice I recommend you try and play it. Its fun and a light piece doesn’t need much practice.

This pieces may be achievable avg to be played within 3-4 years of intense (serious) classical music training; intermediate level but with that wow factor. They sound cool and not insanely hard to play decently.

Khatchaturian's Toccata (piano) also sounds way harder than it is. Lays super well on the fingers.

people are always so impressed by fast parts but usually it's the slow parts that wreck me 😭 most quick parts are just some variation of scales i've done a million times before BUT THE COUNTING ON SLOW PARTS-

Yay thanks for another violin playing video! I also like the addition of a fun short intro :)