I remember when Jacob did the call for people to meet him at the church over social media. These aren't hired vocalists, just people who showed up. The dudes a legend.
True - but there are clearly a few ringers in there to act as sort of section leaders. I know when I have sung in a choir, it really helps to have those strong, experienced singers to follow.
It’s surely a mix of voices. Pros and amateurs by design. I’m positive he opted for that sound and vibe and openness to all rather than a perfect thing.
I agree. I always love Michael’s reactions, but this one is so special. It goes from a reaction video (with great musical insight from MP) to an experience of awe that we are having together.
Totally.. you can literaly hear his mind blowing away. So did mine and if you have any feeling inside of you, got to be in tears too. Too powerful and beautiful.
Agreed. Paul is great at asking questions as well as listening and Jacob gave great answers that really seemed to materialize his thought process in a way that ordinary musicians and listeners can understand because, as Michael has stated, he is in a league of his own.
It was so interesting the way Jacob described himself as not being a traditional guitarist and needing to find a special guitar to allow himself to find the sounds he wanted to make.
We saw Jacob and his impeccable band last night in Toronto. That bit with the audience singing harmony? Yeah I always that the versions we saw on RU-vid were spliced together. They are not. I watched him bring around 4,000 people along for the ride. I sat in absolute tear-inducing amazement at the way he could plant a note in our heads and have us nail it down in literally one second. And then do another note in harmony with ours elsewhere in the crowd. And again. And again. And then drift us up and down, in and out. Dude, I’m 62. Seriously enjoy music in many forms. And nothing in my life has come anywhere close to this level of pure love in shared musical passion before. And likely never will again.
wth just happened ? I watched this....as a lifelong musician and guitar player of over 50 years...Im 57. It hit me so hard, that I literally cried. I suppose it brought out a bunch of crap I had stuffed inside, but damn... I knew music is powerful, but this guy is tapped in. Thanks for sharing Mike.
Hans Zimmer said about Jacob Collier: "There's musicianship, there's genius, and then way, way way above all that, out in the stratosphere, is Jacob Collier" Jacob is truly Herr Music. Thank you for reacting to this--I admire your bringing the love of the guitar to so many and helping make it accessible to more people. In your way, you are helping do what Jacob does with the people fortunate enough to see him in person. He reaches inside you, and brings out the music in your soul that you never knew was there. You got a new subscriber for this one.
He certainly hears a lot, but even more interesting to me is that his choral direction with just "imprecise" movements of his hands, which I believe is also a staple of live shows, demonstrates how much we all hear given the right context. The whole group feeling and landing on notes makes me feel the power of the music as much as anything in this performance.
yea im so excited for this choral chapter he's been on! Do yourself a favor and go check out stellenbosch university choir here on RU-vid, they are led by André van der Merwe and he is a literal genius, so good
My favorite is when he is able to use wrist movements to get the audience to move up or down chromatically rather than diatonically - as in this video from Rome: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q-R3M0VlQoQ.htmlsi=96Ckw4GNxohxYpQ7
I play instruments and I love music. Even though I know I will never be as talented as Jacob, I love that he's just giving me so many ideas in his music and interviews. Re-ignited my love for discovery and learning instruments. I appreciate videos like this, breaking it down, because it is beyond my understanding.
My wife and I were able to be in Jacob’s concert and we were 20 feet away from him. The things that he does are surreal. A modern day genius. Very underrated.
Five strings for five fingers. I think the tuning was D A E A D. He likes the symmetry. The Paul David’s video is fantastic and worth the time to watch. He’s also got a five string electric which is wild. He’s in the learning stages and is still way ahead of many of us.
This is not the tuning. It's D-G-D-A-E. The highest four strings are tuned in 5ths like a tenor guitar or an octave mandolin, and the lowest string is a fourth (D to G). Personally for me, I recently got a 7 string acoustic, and I coincidentally did a similar tuning to Jacob, only it has two extra strings which facilitate triads more fully: D-G-D-F-A-C-E
@@SurfingSerpent it isn't. It's 5ths between lowest 3 strings, then 4ths between the middle string and higher strings. Open D major chord would only require 1 finger on 2nd fret of middle string.
I sent another Jacob Collier video (Wild Mountain Thyme w/ Dodie + Laufey) where the audience conduction is intensely beautiful to my mother in law, and this was her response: "When I hear that kind of group singing I always remember what my room-mate Lila once said at a no-nukes protest in the '70s, when the crowd sang some Dan Fogelberg song together (he must have been leading it?): "We always talk about how whales and wolves sound when they sing. I guess this is how humans sound." Unaccountably, we sound beautiful."
I love watching Jacob Collier reaction videos from professional musicians as by the end of the song most of them are in the same state of complete awe, having just seen perfection at work. John Henny (voice coach) reaction videos are some good ones on his earlier songs where he's almost in tears by the end of it
The mental gymnastics required to move the choir notes around underneath him while singing at the end is what gets me 🤯. You can rely on muscle memory with playing cords on an instrument but he's essentially keeping track of which note each section is singing, which direction they each have to move to next, and singing different notes himself...
I think what you're getting at is they key difference between hacks like myself, and those who can really play. Most improvising musicians have developed an ability to hear the note(s) first in their head before they play/sing them, rather than just going through a series of memorized physical movements (muscle memory). In Jacob's case, since he is able to improvise on so many instruments, the ability to "play" the choir while singing is probably not that difficult for him - although he has clearly been developing this for years since he started playing in front of people. Even in his "one man show" tour, he started incorporating audience participation similar to what Pete Seeger or Bobby McFerrin have done in the past. From there he has developed it into something quite special.
Not difficult for him, sure. But he is essentially playing two instruments at the same time. I've never seen any other human do that. Even the greatest conductor's in the world don't sing the song they are conducting. Those are completely different areas of the brain. This dude is beyond genius.
ok, but people, including JC, sing and accompany themselves on various instruments all the time - it's impressive, and what Jacob does is unique, but I don't think dissimilar or requiring different parts of the brain. Not sure what that even means. Think about a guy like Cory Henry on the organ - he's singing, playing with all fingers individually on both hands, controlling drawbars, playing bass notes with his foot, controlling swell with his other foot, all at the same time. Jacob is singing and gesturing with two hands to "play" the audience and the intervals being played are usually diatonic and very slow moving. It's wonderful but let's not get carried away. @@aaronstuckel9864
I LOVE this moment - that I experienced for myself years ago, watching Jacobs youtube clips - when musicians realize, that there is a person who understands, lives, teaches and loves music more than everybody else. Only once in a generation. And than the fact that it seems to be a very decent, humble, nice guy
Michael, I assume that was the first time you watched it, because your face just said everything I felt when I watched that for the first time. I knew what was coming, as I've watched that video a hundred times...you were tagging along, working stuff out, thinking ohhh that chord, ahhh nice inner voicing, then suddenly you just stopped, turned down your guitar, and sat back in awe. Your look to the camera at 13.10 says it all. JC is jaw dropping. Not a show off, not a clever clogs, not a "check me out I'm so great, watch this"...he's just tapping into music in a way most other musicians search lifetimes for and only taste here and there. And when his talents applied to something is beautiful as this recording, in that space, with those people, that song, that arrangement, that vibe, it's unbelievable. These are the JC moments Im waiting for. (I don't like the album version, much for instance). As you perfectly put it, he makes you want to give up music and practice harder at the same time. I laughed so much when you said that. Exactly my thought...but I read someone somewhere say something like "I feel like giving up, then I realise that JC would NEVER want that, for anybody to EVER give up exploring music because of him" and that stuck with me ever since. The thing that strikes me most about him, which I think you can see too, is that it's just pouring out of him and he's probably just enjoying the ride as much as the rest of us. It's like a pure creativity tap that is open, without filter, without doubt, without ego. Such a lucky combination of skills, curiosity and character that he's got, including just seeming to be a nice guy, good with people. The choice to record this with just regular folk is just a genius decision. He could have had some A-list choir in there. but this makes the whole thing just so much more beautiful and relatable. there's a few moments when the choir are not quite in perfect tune, but that flaw makes the moment so much more fragile and perfect that way. So glad I'm around to see him appear. Thanks for your video, it made my day.
I cannot think of a song that better embodies "kindness" than this one. It feels like he's bottled it up in a single experience. It makes me sob. Jacob could easily be so pretentious because of his k knowledge and ability, but he engages with these fans singing with him with such patience and care. I have never seen anything like this before.
If you haven’t already you should check out his cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water and/or Moon River - you will be blown away. I’d love if you made a video about it
You hit the nail on the head brother when you said he just somehow finds a way to make some of the most odd and complex music theory digestable to the common ear. Hes out of this world!
I'll never forget the time when I went to the comment section on a video of him years ago and every comment was.. "Welcome back Mozart" It was like everyone was connected to this idea that this level of genius was just tied to the world and that it will come and go over time and present itself as it is needed.
It took me a while to figure out why this version of the song is so beautiful to me, and I think it's that he's taken all sorts of different people, many of which wouldn't be professional singers. He's taken them and used all of their vocal imperfections to create this incredibly beautiful choral sound that has so much depth and meaning with them.
Sometimes listening to Jacob is just too moving to put into words but you did it well man. The look on your face is the same face I had…. Plus a little tears haha.. this guy is so damn inspiring
I feel so lucky to live in a world in which this event happened, and even luckier to be able to experience it by watching it on RU-vid. What a remarkable, indescribably moving thing to see.
There’s a Jeff Buckley quality to some of the moments. I saw Jacob at the Hollywood Bowl some months ago. It was really jubilant. A weird thing happened afterward when my wife and I were walking out. A girl, probably college aged, was with a friend. She said “only intellectuals see Jacob Collier.” It really…made me want to hurl 😂 He is amazing. I’m grateful for his skill and energy and what he wants to bring to the world. The note about how he makes the chorus comfortable really sticks out to me. A person could watch this and think that the turn was for the cinematography, but I don’t think that’s true. I think he was really trying to bring those people into the music. Beautiful.
I fell in love with Jacob Collier almost 10 years ago for his technical ability and recently had a new appreciation for his new music where he can take the more technical aspects and make music that is so easy to digest even for people who don't understand the technical side.
watching him try to understand a guitar jacob invented and only he owns is amazing, parts of it are tuned like a bass because jacob learned upright base first, its tuned so he can move around the fretboard in thirds which helps the way he thinks about the instrument, another interesting thing is that its a 5 string on a six string neck! so theres more room for your fingers to run around. he just had a really interesting interview about it recently
It's the first time I've heard this song. For the longest time it felt for me that he was just some really talented dude who was throwing all the advanced stuff he knows here and there. I've listened to his songs & performances from time to time and had a really hard time connecting with it. He finally hit it for me with this one. This is the song.
Listening to this song is an emotiianal humbling experience in a good way, IMHO. Michael's explanation properly demonstrates that, going from the (very interesting!) musical technicalities (the chord changes etc.) to the emotional experience this is and we all can relate to! A great complementary video to Jacob Collier's original video, thanx Michael 🙏!
Go to a concert and you won’t believe it. On top of his own mastery, there is the way he uses technology and the atmosphere he is capable to create. Last tour basically just had some LED strips on the stage and ohhh, the magic. Of course, the sound and light techs are “la crème de la crème” too. Plus, the band is amazing, the repertoire is beautiful and you will end up questioning every other concert you have ever seen and your own skills. I wish I can understand his points of view and do something similar. His creativity is inspiring.
I’ve never commented on anything online before. Watching your reaction to this made my heart sing. You were so clearly moved and described it so well as a musician and a human being. As a teenager, I remember buying the book and tuning my guitar to play Joni Mitchell’s music, and thinking only a true artist has the intuition and the courage to think like Joni “Why should I have to tune my guitar like everybody else?” Or, like Jacob, “I have only 5 fingers, why not a 5 string guitar?” Bravo.
You and others in the comments nailed how I felt seeing him live. Watching your expressions captures a tiny bit of that magic; I think we all could use more of that kind of connection. Jacob emits this weird, unifying, precious force. You feel like it could break or snap at any moment, but he shepherds you through. So, thank you for covering and sharing this.
Little Blue is my favorite Jacob Collier song so far. 💙 I truly hope you get the chance to experience Jacob Collier in concert. There's nothing better! Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thank you for honouring this song so well. Beautiful reaction. If you’re interested in how beautiful group guitar can be, please consider doing a reaction to The White Horse Guitar Club and their song If I Needed You. It’s simple, beautifully arranged and leaves lots of room for your own creative addition.
Jacob is a musician’s musician with a deep musical soul that he freely shares with all who listen to him or watch his videos. I’ll never be able to get enough of him. As a musician, I am in awe of his massive talent.
I've recently found Jacob Collier. I've decided that one of my most favorite things now is watching YT vids of MUSICIANS reacting to him and his music. It's fascinating to see what you all pick up on, admire, find astonishing & challenging. There's almost always a moment when the reviewing musician stops, jaw drops, then they say "What?!" or "What was THAT?" and then try to figure out what happened (often on a guitar or keyboard). I love that so many of you have such a deep regard for his work and his skills. It's helped me appreciate him even more, for sure. Thx Michael.
Yes! I’m also pretty late to the JC party having only discovered him last Summer but have become utterly obsessed with him since and ‘Jacob Collier reaction videos’ have become my new favourite RU-vid genre lol. Seeing him in concert in about 3 weeks and can’t wait!
Wow, Michael! Greetings from Los Angeles. Thank you so very much for sharing this. I’m not very familiar with Jacob’s music, but I was so deeply moved by this beautiful composition and performance, that I went straight to Ticketmaster and bought tickets to see him on May 20th at the Greek Theater. Again, thank you sir! 💛🎶🎸
Oh yeah buddy… you might never want to attend another musician’s show ever again. Get ready for a transcendental experience of warmth, love and innocence. I went to his live show in the outside auditorium in Rome, Italy. It was nuts.
@@FromPoetryToRap Oh wow, thanks for sharing! That show in Rome sounds like it was otherworldly. I’ll surely refrain from previewing any of Jacob’s live shows on RU-vid beforehand, and instead experience it myself in-person.
@@johnanderson290It truly was. I don't think watching his shows beforehand will lessen the real-life experience, but I do understand you'd want to do that!
I still have a recording of the first show in Toronto a few years back, and his orchestrating of the crowd is just so interesting and mesmerizing. A whole crowd of a few hundred people being guided just by vague hand gestures and his voice was just amazing, and it's even more amazing in that session.
The way he conducts the choir, he does this with audiences all the time. And when you learn about how he grew up it makes total sense why he's this good!
It's one thing to have that level of musical genius, but it's so much more elevated because he's such s kind and genuine and humble human who is able to lead and inspire. Great reaction man!
He plays music through other people in the same way we play music through our instruments, and he loves and respects them as you would your instrument. Watching him "play" people in this way is like watching a master play their instrument...but bringing a whole new dimension to it by bringing all the subconscious/internal thoughts and emotions right out in the open. Music exists everywhere all the time; Jacob is our tour guide, showing us just enough to feel it ourselves, and then letting that be felt. I cannot imagine what incredible things he will show the world in years to come, and I hope to keep these lessons with me forever. What a time to be alive where we can experience this wisdom at a click of a button.
One of those rare Artist who raises the vibration of everyone involved. I worked with someone like that many years ago, a singer. I didn’t even recognize my own song by the time we finished up rehearsal. It was truly mind boggling. The entire band just stood in silence after listening to her. She raised everyone’s ability to perform with her presence. I accepted it with immense Gratitude. Interestingly, she asked me the story behind the song-why I wrote it, firstly. Once I told her, she informed me she felt the emotions the lyrics wanted to evoke, and let them guide her performance. What ablessing and such a gift. I felt the same thing watching this video of Jacob. 😉🎸🎶🎤
Three musicians with perfect pitch show what that means toward the end. (Way out in left field comment: the last quarter of the song reminds me of Charles Ives, exploring just what fluid instruments for tonality voices can be.)
Jacob is like musical energy manifest in human form.. he’s not to be compared against. We play music. Jacob IS music. Michael .. love how started by breaking down the technicals in this video and then you hit a point where you succumb to the same realization I did (above) when I watched Little Blue. Nothing to do but appreciate this kid of wondrous talent. Some of us are lucky to get touched by the muse… but she has her hands all over Jacob.
I love your videos when you hit these gems. Reminds me of your reaction to Hi Ren. Beautiful how you start off with your normal approach to a deconstruction of a song and then eventually you just succumb to the brilliance of it.
I must have watched this video 20 times. Love your breakdown of this iconic Jacob Collier song. You're understanding of music is on a wave length I can understand and digest. Thank you!
I don't know if this is what you were getting at with the "reminds me of a composer" comment at the end, but Jacob's talent just makes me think of someone like Beethoven. A musical genius that could hear everything in his mind before making a sound on an instrument. Of course, Beethoven couldn't hear for the last few years of his life, a period in which he produced absolutely ground breaking monuments of Western music. This performance of Jacob's is truly special.
Oh my God watching you react to the final choir part was absolutely incredible. Made me feel like I was listening to it for the first time and rediscovered how magnificent this performance was through your awe. Thanks for that! Subbed within the first 2 minutes, I love your approach.
I went to Jacob's concert in San Francisco last night. What an amazing experience to be part of one of his "audience choirs". He doesn't just guide you to the pitches. He also guides you to shape the vowels. We started on an "oooo", but at various points he had us shift to "ah" and "eee" and so on. I know he's done this a lot so he's figured out what works well for directing people, but even for a non-singer like me it was obvious what he wanted. Honestly makes me want to be better at singing.
I agree with everything you said man and I had the same reaction. I just can't believe I'm alive when such a genius exists and get to be a fan of him. its inspiring as a musician and makes me want to get better. It makes me wonder where I would be at if I put my absolute soul into music and learning everything I can about it with an open mind like Jacob. honestly hearing this song made me bawl my eyes out and made me feel ashamed of myself a little bit for not being as passionate about music as I wanted to be. but I feel really inspired and have been playing more music lately! great reaction video
beautiful, complex, humble, uplifting. this is true music. we are lucky to be witnessing Jacob in his ascendancy. history is about to be written. Love.
Trying to understand a prodigy will hurt your head. Jacob Collier is beyond where most people are in their musical understanding. Jacob is an industry genius.
I'm so glad you reacted to this performance. Everytime I listen to thi,s tears come to my eyes, but they are tears of joy. And I feel exactly like you said : it makes me stop learniing music because his music is overwhelming, and at the same time all I want to do is singing and making music because he is such an inspiration! Jacob is a gift for everyone to enjoy.
I love all of your videos. But this is by far my favorite because you’re appreciating this with the same mind-blown amplitude that I experienced the first time I heard this. Cheers.
I’ve been binge watching reaction videos to Jacob and first time I watched one of yours and it was just so great to see your reaction when you’ve heard something like this extraordinary song is music comes from such a pure genuine place. I neat to see you hearing that.
My first reaction was just as overwhelming. I am happy to get to know such greats during my lifetime. New worlds are opening up again. It's a good thing that men are allowed to cry these days too. I have.
