Holy Crap....awesome piano skill

Playing by ear isn't necessarily difficult, if you have been playing the instrument for a long time then you're going to naturally have an 'ear' for playing certain melodies and chords; mostly due to muscle memory and general experience on the instrument.

It's even more likely for someone to be able to play with no music if they have never bene classically trained or taught how to read music, you tend to rely on learning things heavily on repetition.

To be honest, that Coldplay track is hardly the most complex of songs to learn, after all it follows a very common pop song structure, there aren't any necessarily difficult chord voicings. rhythms or melodies, any pianist with a moderate amount of time playing the instrument could probably work that out by ear and arrange it for one piano.

Edit: the rick wakeman video is a funny one, a lot of people would find that impressive because of the sheer speed, but in reality any experienced musician should be able to tell you that playing fast isn't necessarily difficult, anyone can learn how to play fast given the right practise and above all, time. In my opinion real musical talent comes from being able to express what you intend to with your instrument, whether this is through composition/improvisation or performance.
 
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Andelusion said:
Edit: the rick wakeman video is a funny one, a lot of people would find that impressive because of the sheer speed, but in reality any experienced musician should be able to tell you that playing fast isn't necessarily difficult, anyone can learn how to play fast given the right practise and above all, time. In my opinion real musical talent comes from being able to express what you intend to with your instrument, whether this is through composition/improvisation or performance.
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I agree - it's basically keyboard shredding. My opinion on shredding: Technically good, but it's only practice. The notes are basically picked for you, there's no emotion involved. I'd rather listen to David Gilmour any day.
The Wakeman video only impressed me because I physically can't move my fingers that fast (even over just one note). I just wondered if anybody could actually reproduce it.
 
Re: the Coldplay cover in the first post - it's not that impressive. Sure, the guy can play the piano, but so can loads of people. Most musicians with an amount of training can work stuff out by ear - hell, I teach my 8 year old flute and clarinet students to work out songs by ear!

For some good keyboard skills, check out Joey de Francesco. Bear in mind this is a Hammond Organ, so he's playing that super fast (240bpm ish) bassline with his left hand, whilst playing his crazy solo with his right hand!

 
Playing by ear isn't overly impressive, some people can do it naturally and most people can do it after a decent amount of musical training. It's also not uncommon to be able to remember a lot of different pieces, especially if you practise them enough.

If you want fast, look up Flight of the Bumblebee.
 
I was going to start a new thread but I might as well put it here.

I work in a building with around 20 women and today I walked into one of the offices and picked up a colleagues MP3 player and started to scroll through it.
I'm looking down the playlist which featured a lot of rock and classical until I saw her name and opened up the folder.
I'm now looking at her name next to something like Bachs 5th Piano Concerto and asked her if that was her playing.
She became very sheepish but I put on the headphones and proceeded to listen to some amazing piano skills and then asked her what grade she was.
'I'm not a grade'
'Not a grade, you're bloody amazing'
'I've gone past that, I'm a fully trained classical pianist who trained at the Royal College of Music'
:eek:

Now double this with a 22 year old girl who works in the office and we've just found out she's a grade 8 classical guitarist.

Funny thing is they're both envious of me because I play in a rock band.
I hate to see such great talent go to waste.
 
It's not just about the playing, i was also referring to playing by ear, not by ear to the music you hear but also to the adaptation to the lyrics into notes on the piano. That's what i find most impressive.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It's not just about the playing, i was also referring to playing by ear, not by ear to the music you hear but also to the adaptation to the lyrics into notes on the piano. That's what i find most impressive.
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It's much easier to pick out a melody than backing music, anyone with musical training can do that.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Anyone?

You made it sound so easy.....
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That's because it is easy. When you play an instrument you get used to how different intervals sound, being able to do so is even part of theory training. When you're constantly practising and hearing the differences, it's also easy to estimate where a note should be on your instrument.

It's exactly the same as singing along to something and hitting the correct notes.
 
I can't view the video at work. First thing I thought, even though it probably is impressive as I don't play the piano, but:


I can't imagine the piano piece to clocks being supremely difficult to play, purely for the fact it is such a simple little tune!
 
russ0r said:
My favourite piece of all time and probably one of my favourite performances. Granted it's an organ piece but this is a piano thread and the only piano arrangement/performance that does it justice.
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No, no piano arrangement will ever come even close to doing it justice. Now I have to interrupt this piano thread to fix what you have done :mad::D

 

nothing special in terms of speed and probably not that diffcult, but this is what music is about for me, a piece that evokes an emotion. i giorni is fantastic imo :]
 
This is v impressive too (often without looking!) (Its from the Amelie Soundtrack)


He plays the accordion very very well too - I love this version:

 
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