Hello, I'm Violetta Vibrato, but you can call me by Vi, hi!

and I'm Roger, Roger Rhythm, and now we are going to meet the members of a string ensemble on our symphonic safari adventure.

Let's go!

Shall we?

Hello, everyone.

Hi.

Can you tell me your names and the instruments that you're playing?

Sure.

I'll go first.

I'm Allyson and I play the viola.

I'm Greg and this is a cello.

I'm George and this is the double bass.

I'm Meg and this is a violin and I'm Taylor.

And this is also a violin.

Oh, looks like a very lovely family.

Could you tell me what makes all of these instruments a family?

Of course, they are all made out of wood.

They all have four strings, a bridge, tuning pegs, and a bow.

But the difference is that we all are different high and low.

So we've got high for the violins, medium for viola, cello is lower and bass is the lowest.

Can I hear the highest?

Sure, Can I hear the lowest Sounds very low.

How low can you go?

No lower than that.

Alrighty.

We would like for you to play something for us if you could.

We would love that.

Can you play a piece for us?

Of course.

We're going to play a piece by William Grant.

Still He was an African-American composer from the early 1900s.

And this piece is called Dances to Panama because it has folk music from Panama.

That was smashing!

I felt so many things during that piece that you were playing.

I felt happy.

I felt excited.

I felt thoughtful and pensive.

And then then I felt like dancing.

That was amazing.

we're glad you liked it.

Oh, such a range of emotions.

The basses had their moments.

Everybody had their moments.

And it was just, oh, smashing it was, I loved it, loved it.

How is it I notice that everybody was playing together and like, in sync?

How do you all communicate without words while you're playing?

We use a mixture of body language and breathing and just visual cues.

If we weren't to weren't to show demonstratively very clearly what we wanted to do in terms of ensemble, it would be a train wreck.

That is notable.

Yes.

So could you show us that train wreck, for example?

How would it look like if you didn't communicate with each other?

Sure.

Yeah.

Well, let's see.

It would start like this.

Maybe quite different than the last one, different.

Just a little bit.

How is it like playing with friends?

Like, is it different to play with people that you know and you can talk without speaking?

And is it different to play when you don't know anybody else around you?

I find it much more comfortable to play with friends like these people are my friends.

Although a good way to make friends is to go into a situation like this.

If we were strangers and we came into this situation by the end of our rehearsal, we'd be friends.

So.

Oh that's lovely.

I feel like you all are my friends already.

So music brings you together and makes a family Now, does everybody get to play the melody?

Not always.

But in this piece, the melody does pass around to first violin second violin, viola, cello, and just a little tiny two notes in the bass.

I don't get too much to play.

It's still fun.

It is a lot of fun to hear the low notes in the bass, I like it a lot.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Well, that's all the time we have, so thank you all.

All of you have done an incredible job.

We loved it.

Thank you for joining us on our symphonic safari adventure.

Right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.