"iServalan — Composer | Digital Artist | Sonic Architect — bridging classical elegance and electronic innovation in immersive sound."
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Suzuki Viola Book 2 Learn and Play Along - iServalan: Music & Method Welcome and Intro
๐ป iServalan: Music & Method — Podcast
Join me in today’s practice and learn podcast sessions. We’ll explore slow practice, scales, and tips for mastering your instrument — perfect for Suzuki and ABRSM learners.
๐ Lesson Notes / Transcription
Hello musicians and welcome to the podcast.
I've just changed the name of the podcast um is music and method because that's all I'm going to do on this podcast and um I think it's important to know isn't it? You're not going to get much else. I mean there will be a bit of moaning and groaning. I think that's important for you know musicians. It's very hard at the moment I think for musicians where um you know we're not making any money via streaming and there's very limited funding now for the arts because of the you know the general cost of living. Um and it's tough. It's tough but we have to keep going.
So this podcast is really lots of support and lots of news about all the tools I do because of course I learn has a music school. Cat has arrived. Um has a music school as well. And if you go to iservalan.com you can find the music school there. And you know the the lovely thing I think about learning to play music is it unites. you suddenly become part of a a it's not an exclusive club in terms of you know you need lots of money or um you need to wear the right clothes or anything like that. It's just one simple connection. You either love music or you love making it one or the other and you're united. you're part of this sort of huge energy, this organic energy that's such a massive important um and a massive important section of the world, of the universe, of society. So, um yeah, I'm I'm sort of excited about that. Anyway, you know, I can talk. Yes, mommy can talk, can't you?
You know, I can talk a lot about music. Um I will try and keep the podcasts as No, I won't. I'm not going to do that. I can't make promises. I can't keep there's no point in me saying I'll I'll stop the chat and be a bit more um what's the word a precis uh a more streamlined version of what I what I'm doing that day. Look I've just started Suzuki book two for viola.
We're going to do all the book twos. So um just looking really at the you know the the exercises. Now, the really important part of Suzuki and why it's so successful is because of this this routine of of doing, you know, oral of of listening and that oral training and also the little exercises to I mean, I've just done the exercise that uses this the the position where the the forefinger and the middle finger are very close together and we haven't done that really.
That's a sort of a bit of a new maneuver. So you have to you're changing key essentially and and we've got to move those fingers together. So the importance of practicing that maneuver over and over again, you know, it can't really be overemphasized and you could actually become a very good musician you just using Suzuki and but you have to do the exercises and you have to do um you know the the sort of groundwork I guess is what I'm saying. So I I'm going to suggest actually that the exercises are more important than the pieces. Unless unless this is the caveat, you want to be a performer and you want a repertoire. If if that's the case, you really need to work on the pieces, but you've got to do the exercises as well. So and if you're working towards exams, you usually have one or two or three pieces that you've got to do.
So I know for ABRSM, you need three pieces from section A, B, and C. So, you know, you they're a massive part also. But if you've got if you're a bit restricted on time, for example, if you've you know, what about that odd 15 minutes you have before school where you or before work if you're grown up cuz Suzuki is great for grown-ups as well, where you you know, you want to you usually sit and check your phone. Maybe you're having a coffee.
You're in your bedroom. You're actually on on your phone already, you know, on online chatting to people or looking at Facebook or whatever it is. Or you could actually use you're going to find out when you get up and go out the house and get to where you're going. You're going you're not missing anything. I can assure you it's a really good time just to pick up your instrument. And what I love about the viola is it's really small. Um mine always sits, you know, on top of my um recording studio apparatus. or I'm looking at it now. You know, it's it's there. I never put it away.
The reason I don't put it away is because it's, you know, it if it's away, your mind automatically thinks, well, I've got to go and find it, lift it up, open it up, get it out. I've probably got to do a bit of um, you know, rosin, and I've I've probably got to do a bit of tuning. Well, if it's always tuned and it's always rosined up, you won't have that drama. it was always out of its out of its case. Um, look, you know, you probably will have to retune. Um, so I was just looking there actually at tuning advice as well. I'm going to get fine tuners for every string. The reason I'm doing that is because I want every string to be easy for me. And I do find that the viola is the hardest using the pegs to tune. It's much harder than a cello. My cello actually has geared um tuners on it, so it's really easy to tune. And the double bass has geared tuning on it as well, so that you don't really need anything else.
The geared tuning is so easy on the hand. You can turn it very very slowly, very slightly. Um, I just think, you know, if if you're learning an instrument, the Yes, you do have to learn to tune it, but why make it as hard as possible for you? That's, you know, that's ridiculous. Make it as easy as possible. This is my theory or my practice on writing the names of notes as well above, you know. Now, when you because I play lots of different instruments and I use different cliffs, um you know, the the Ccliff and I play piano as well. So, I've got the treble, I've got the bass, I've got the Ccliff.
I have to translate in my head all the time, you know, I have to think what am I what am I looking at? So, the biggest one for me is the viola. It's always very the trickiest. Um the cello also has the autocliff. You know, you've got to learn all these things. You get very good at spacing. you think that's a third higher. So if you learn the skeletal um you like all the spaces um which I've sort of learned on the viola as the first thing and then you know where are all the the you know the lines so it's one extra one you know you start thinking about distancing distances but you need to know this the the certainly the open strings that that's key if you learn the open strings on a viola if you're coming from um you know different string instrument strument, learn the open strings, and then you've got that skeleton that you need, and you can then look at spaces, you can look at thirds, you can look at octaves, you can look at fifths, um, and and fourths, and you know, when you get really good.
So, you know, I mean, obviously the second is the easiest one because it's just one note above. Um, and it's either a semmit tone or a tone, isn't it? Depending on your on your key signature. So all these all these little things, you know, by doing these exercises in your Suzuki book, too, they're they're really going to get you in tune with um you know, understanding what key you're playing, understanding where the notes are on the viola. And if you've come from another instrument actually, you know, great the the book two isn't, you know, you're not very far into it, I'm afraid. So you need to really by book two, you need to have this licked, you know, so do all of the and I personally I think it's a good idea to be able to do both and listen and play it by memory, but also look at the music.
I'm a bit of a stickler for the music because the music tells you so much and if you just rely on your ear, yes, you can learn much faster. But, you know, it's a bit like being able to speak Russian and understand it or or rather just to understand it if you listen to it but you can't speak it or perhaps you can speak a bit of it but you can't read it. So you suddenly you've got all these, you know, barriers in your way that that actually impede your musicianship and that's I think that's a bit difficult or a bit dangerous, especially if you're a multi-in instrumentalist. So So my advice really for tuning is make it as easy as possible. Use the uh you know, we learn this in double bass that you know, the the best thing you should do is is to use your um your tuning device.
You can use them on your phone. you can get one that you clip on the bridge um and then tune the instrument to itself. So, as soon as you can learn the harmonic tuning of your instrument um and this is really useful and it's useful for all string instruments, although they seem to push it a little bit more um for double bass. Um, I guess that's maybe because it's harder to hear double bass notes, especially the low the low that low E.
It doesn't necessarily especially when you first start playing it, you can't hear it. You can't, you know, it's difficult for the human ear to actually differentiate. So, you know, there's there's a reliance, I think, um, especially on those lower strings to use whatever technology you can. Um, and there are other things as well. You know, you can play a top C um with with your fingers down obviously and and then play an open C. Well, that would be that's obviously not double bass. I was thinking cello there. Um, so you know, all of these sort of little tricks and tools that you have for each instrument, um, they're really good and you can actually I mean you the more armor you have or the more um, weaponry I should say that you have to your arsenal of musicianship actually the better. So if you can tune with the the big pegs, fair enough. I mean, I'm quite old now and especially on the bigger instruments, uh, especially with cello, I find I've got one cello with that isn't geared, and I I find it really hard. In fact, I had to just remove all my pegs and, um, sort of sand them down a bit and and use the the peg um, wax stuff to to realign everything. And it's it's a bit better now. But, you know, you have to same with the viola.
You know, you have to take the instrument or I do off off of my neck position and put it in front of me and then sort of turn the pegs and and actually that's quite a physical, you know, the physicality of it. It's it might be a bit taxing. Um maybe, you know, you're you're quite little and you've only got little hands. That's quite taxing actually. So, if you can use fine-tuners, if you can use apps, if you can use all these different little sneaky ways you have, well, they're not sneaky.
It's just sometimes you don't know them. Nobody's told you. Um, this is problem actually with with YouTube is is you don't often hear things that might actually help you. You hear you personally, you hear lots of generic tips and discoveries. Um, the wonderful thing about having a a teacher is is the the idiosyncrasies are passed down from human to human and they're much more interesting and much easier to remember because a human taught you.
And the downside of AI is that it's quite hard to remember because they're not very interesting in their delivery. Human beings are much more interesting in their delivery. Um, so yes, there we go. So that's uh we've changed the name I serve music and method and the other podcast immersion static is going to be much more about sort of film um and when I can be bothered you know what I'm really busy person not sure I can be bothered to do too much anymore. Um we've got a new website coming as well um which is much more about art if you're interested in my my work as an artist. Um, but if it's music that you're into guys, you have come to the right place.
You're definitely in the right spot. So, welcome to, you know, Suzuki method, ABRSM, all the other things. And I'll be talking each day about each section of the Suzuki books. And we are doing at the moment Suzuki Viola book two. And I'll broadcast tomorrow with um Suzuki double bass. Exciting. Very exciting.
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Press Kit
Press kit for iServalan and her work with Tale Teller Club Publishing, with a focus on her homotech music, The Book of Immersion, and multimedia innovation. It’s formatted for printing or PDF use, and you can add links/logos/QR codes as needed. Please feel free to copy and share.
๐ผ iServalan – Homotech Music Artist
A sonic visionary blending AI and human creativity
๐ Tale Teller Club Publishing | www.taletellerclub.com | @iservalan
๐ Artist Profile
iServalan is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and sound artist working at the bleeding edge of human-machine collaboration. As a founding Homotech of Tale Teller Club Publishing, her work fuses traditional instrumentation with AI-assisted sound design, creating haunting, futuristic scores for film, immersive literature, and experimental performance.
She coined the term “homoteching” to describe her hybrid process: a blend of analog recording, glitch art, algorithmic composition, and emotional storytelling. With each track, iServalan explores how machines can enhance—not replace—the artist’s voice.
๐ฌ Featured Project
The Book of Immersion
A multimedia sci-fi epic blending audio books, experimental animation, and AI-fused music scores. iServalan composes each Strata soundtrack with a unique emotional and philosophical tone, guiding listeners through themes of identity, loss, evolution, and machine consciousness.
Notable Chapters:
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Strata 1: Arrival – glitch drones & digital rain
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Strata 5: The Drift – cello loops & AI choir ghosts
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Strata 20: The Perimeter – industrial ambience meets elegiac synth
๐ต Discography & Releases
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Immersion Vol. 1 – Strata Scores (Tale Teller Club, 2025)
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The Homotech EPs – AI-assisted sound experiments
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MoMo's Memory Loops – generative sonic artefacts
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Beats Ministry Sessions – club meets code
All available on:
๐ YouTube.com/@TaleTellerClub
๐ www.iservalan.com
๐️ Live & Online
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Virtual performances and listening parties
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Collaborations with visual artists, animators, and AI developers
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Podcast and blog features on sonic futurism, tech philosophy, and the creative process
๐ก Contact & Press Enquiries
๐ง taletellerclub@gmail.com
๐ London-based, available globally for interviews, festivals, and audio commissions.
"I don’t just use AI—I duet with it. Homotech music is the sound of collaboration with the unknown." — iServalan