Studying languages is mandatory in France starting in elementary school, up until high school graduation, even in most technical schools. And English is the first pick in 98% of cases so I don’t know why you’re surprised people speak English in France. People who speak as well as Ray are obviously very rare but everyone can understand “Do you know Runaway”.
@@LordAsturgis you're missing the point. When you approach a random person in France, who is not speaking, and you haven't met them before, you wouldn't speak to them in English. You especially wouldn't interrupt their performance to speak to them in a foreign tongue, unless you want to annoy them on purpose.
@@LordAsturgis You’re wrong. Studying foreign languages is not mandatory from primary school in France. It’s an option. Most of the time, we French people are not really comfortable with the English language. Alas! Besides I used a translator to answer you! 😁😁
@@NicolasConnault I’m not missing the point. The french guy is the last one who’s collaborating with Ray. It’s completely normal for a foreigner like Ray who’s visiting France to ask for something in English. What is he supposed to speak, French? What are the chances of that? Taiwanese? No one would understand. It’s completely normal and logical that he would approach anyone with English, and it’s also completely normal that most people would understand the rudimentary questions he’s asking.
@@pedroantares9826 Dumb response. The guy is right. I have played the violin for 12 years. I know for sure that most of the "spontaneous" performances are fake.
I think the problem isn't the fact that these performances (might be) are staged / planned. It is perfectly fine to play together. But the way they present it and probably tell in the titles and descriptions that they just so happened to come across world-class musicians at times is ridiculous.
I had the misfortune to be at a station in Paris waiting for my train and having to witness the repeated takes taken for fake videos. It’s really annoying as they play the same sections repeatedly and do the same walk on. They have zapped all the joy of having a public piano space and everyone too polite to tell them to stop being so irritating
finally someone is speaking about this. nothing pisses me off like a completely contrived video being played off as a genuine human interaction. it’s completely soulless content that is deceptive for the singular purpose of getting more views. it’s despicable behavior and the people that make those videos should feel ashamed of themselves.
@@nancyjfsbecause they are lying. They could have just said they were performing in public with ray Chen and that would've been fine, the videos would have still been hugely popular, people love ray. But they are so incredibly greedy that they instead opt to lie to their audience, the majority of which being young children. They fabricate an entire fake story for the express purpose of manipulating the young and naive. I don't know why that shouldn't be offensive, to be honest.
These videos are proof that classical musicians are actually witches and wizards, they can get summoned by a certain melody, they can summon their instruments and a chair, and they can read each others mind. And they magically disabled Twoset's camera to stop them from spilling their secrets 😂
Oh mind reading, of course. That's how the cellist and the 2 violinists knew they weren't going to play the melody even though being the first ones to join in. They heard the melody guy's thoughts through the crowd 😊
@@devyysk I totally disagree! Why can't Ray and all the others show what they can do internationally and build their audiences, not to mention entertaining people who would never come to a concert!
@@nancyjfsit is not about the playing, it is about the concept they are building. They are pretending to play everything on spot, no script, but it is actually the opposite way. So sad that Ray need to do this to get more fame :(
For the first one I saw a woman on Tiktok complaining about the pianist. She said they stay there for min 2 hours rehearsing and staying on the piano until they're done so no one else could play... It's so sad 😒
But, there are also many performers who are purely performing, and they also perform several songs in series at a time, which lasts about 2 hours. Most of these performers are creators of different audio and video platforms. They will set up cameras to shoot but do not deliberately rehearse. Since it takes the same amount of time, why not shoot using templates? I don't think there is a difference. And public pianos are meant to be used freely, no one goes and says, "Hey, you've played 5 songs, it's time to change.",right?
@@cypdclamp Say you're in an amusement park that's free for only one day. There's a group of friends who wants to ride the only roller coaster and they want to ride it all day long without letting the other visitors ride it. I don't think any of them would be happy, right? The piano is free... so is the respect for others 🙂
@@florinnebaix5720 Amusement rides have time limits, right? You take a spin and then you gotta queue up again. But that’s not the case with the free piano. Unless, of course, today they decide to set a number limit or time slots for playing it. Otherwise, you can’t really compare the two. And about that friend who’s got just one day off, what if it’s not just one person hogging the piano for ages, but a whole bunch of people lined up to play? He won’t get a turn either, will he? You talk about respecting others, but isn’t ‘first come, first served’ also a form of respect? That’s just how it goes with free stuff. If it’s free, you can’t expect to always get your hands on it. If you want a guaranteed shot, you might have to go for something that comes with conditions. That’s capitalism for you - it applies to pretty much everything.
@@cypdclamp You missed the point but it's ok, you'll understand when it'll be your turn to play (or not, because someone would be there for hours). If you think you're right, that's good for you!
I can relate. I've experienced something similar to that in the ping-pong tables back in college; a couple of newbie girls just hog it and play for 3 hours straight, and when some people ask their turn, they go "later" but they never budge for those who ask. It's very selfish to do that. Same for those people hogging the free piano for hours. I don't know what that cypdclamp is arguing about, but there are unwritten norms that you have to follow, out of common sense and courtesy. Not yielding not only makes you selfish; it makes others see you as a jerk.
Most of these are filmed in Paris, Gare de Lyon. I have to go there quite often, and honestly it is PAINFUL to see them orchestrate and film the whole thing. Not a wholesome music moment overall. More a Tiktok Fame thing... :/
Ce serait comique de voir un de ces tournages TikTok en vrai, je me demande comment ça se passe juste pour avoir une idée de comment ils font entrer les “comédiens”, si ils tournent en plusieurs fois ou en one shot, combien de figurants qui sortent le téléphones pour faire semblant de filmer etc…
@@jj22arc90je connais le jeune garçon sur la vidéo il s’appelle vantoan. On peut dire que c’est une connaissance. Alors pour ces genres des vidéos normalement les musiciens sont deja prêts avec leurs instruments, ils font quelques essais avant d’enregistrer
Thats weird to say. He is a violin player that started about 4 years old and stuck to it. Violin is hard and there is so much it can do but one needs hours and hours to mater it.
As a classical and improvisational pianist, it is obvious to me this is all faked. If asked if I know a given classical violin piece, and am requested to play along, I will first consider if the piece has a piano part. In most cases where there is none, I will improvise something. If it has a piano part, I will play it; as opposed to these meticulously arranged accompaniment parts. If I "knew" La Campanella, I would play the tune as part of my improvisation, or else I would play an arrangement that most likely contains the tune, rather than kicking out a clearly arranged accompaniment. Unless the piano player had a LOT of experience accompanying solo violinists alone playing classical music (unlikely), they would not be able to formulate arrangements like these on the fly. If these piano players are as good as they make themselves out to be, they would be doing a lot more, or a lot less with their playing. I saw no sign of improvisation, all of these pieces were clearly rehearsed, in fact, I doubt they have any improvisational skills at all. Just as any string player can spot the difference between a violinist and a fiddler, I know when someone is improvising or playing from memory. These people are fake!
You raise a good point that the pianists would be doing a lot more or less; improv is a skill all on its own. Like yes, these performers played the exact pieces well, but improv is the time to add to music, bring in some personality, to build on what already is. I love watching improv to see performers adjust and experiment in real time. There may be mistakes or miscommunications, but it’s beautiful in its flaws. And MAN can some performers really pop off!
You can tell the difference as well as a violinist can tell The difference between a fiddler and a classical violinist, wow! That’s neat I didn’t know the difference was so obvious lol
@@Hannah-CatLady There is indeed a big difference between a person who plays the piano, and a musician who plays the piano. I am also a violinist, but there are many more qualified than I to dis their fakery, so I will leave it to them :)
i was mostly referring too the fact that you can tell if they are improvising or playing from memory, not someone who plays the piano compared to an actual musician.
They could just say "we collaborated to surprise the audience with a musical flashmob" or something. I don't see why they would need to try to fool their online audience too. Plus if they're open about it being a planned collab they can actually promote their collaborator/friend too.
Totally! You're so right @SirStrangefolk - it would take nothing away from the music - but they've gotta treat us like dumbasses, which makes me a lot more likely to scroll right on past this BS!! So annoying.
As a pianist, I don't feel annoyed by those videos, but rather amused. This even if it is fake. I am a French expatriate and when I visit my family, I play on that very same piano at that train station when time allows. My experience playing on that piano: - the bench is tightly attached to the instrument. So tightly that it makes it hard to set it up so that I can play with a good posture. I am a small person and even for me, the maximum distance I can put it is too close. Last Christmas, I even had a hard time to move the bolts to set the bench higher. - the accoustic of room: the piano is located in the last floor, just next to fast-foods and supermarkets. There are tables and chairs where people eat. A few steps away, the regional train stop (you know, old trains that make noise). So imagine the noise. It is quite hard to hear what you play, even forte. When there is less crowd, it is fine but... - the BUT... when I was lucky enough to play in quiet times, I found it out of tune and the state of the damper pedal not so great. This is why when I watch these videos filmed there, I just laugh... or cry. I have played on many public pianos (I won't say "street" because they were in train stations and airport. 1-2 times in a non-music shop). Barely no-one stops to watch what you play. This even happens to professional musicians (see the experiment made with Joshua Bell). Not because of supposedly lack of talent, but because people don't have time. They do their stuffs. I had a few people watching me playing but it was brief. One problem I can find with such video is that people come to believe that a full blown performance, collaboration can just be made up out of the blues, and that it happens every day. No it doesn't because: - To do so, you may need a special permission from the municipality or other authorities: In France, I witnessed once a spontaneous attempt of collaboration between a pianist and violinist, but a security agent came and asked the violinist to put his instrument back. Despite their protest, the guy said that they needed a permission. - Many musicians struggle with some kinds of performance anxiety. A random dude coming to ask to play A,B, C and staying close to the piano would make many feel uneasy. A pianist in this kind of mood would have their intimacy circle bigger than their audience. - In this day and age where everything can be recorded (and used against you), musicians have to be extra careful when playing in public. They have a reputation to maintain. - As you mentioned in the video: rehearsal and improvization skills are not things that one can do at random. Even the best music improvizers and transcriptors need some thinking time and to listen to a song before working on it. Even if they know which song random dude is talking about. Even knowing how to play songs/pieces or having learnt them before, the latter need to be maintained through practice and rehearsals.
Can confirm, I'm not a pianist or anything but like to mess about on the piano a bit and play some songs, and I've tried to play on those public pianos a couple of times e.g. the one underneath the BHP building in Perth CBD. The one near the newsagency side is in bad condition, some notes don't play. The one on the other side sounds good. I've played a couple of times and I've seen people playing and even when it sounds great, I don't stop to listen and no one else does, because I'm busy, I need to get to work, or I'm on the way home and need to get to the train station on time etc, and so is everyone else at these times. Plus it's in a windy passage so any time other than middle of summer it's pretty cold to stand there with the wind blasting.
Hey! There's some stuff I can add some stuff to your comment. (Well, for most things, our experiences line up.) I'm a violinist, and I've done spontaneous duos with pianists on public pianos in a train station about a dozen times in Paris. From what you describe (last floor, next to a fast food, close to the regional trains, pedal occasionally malfunctioning), there's a chance that we're talking about the same station, or at least one with similar characteristics. I mostly see people stop to listen at less crowded times, mainly in the evening (also because they might have to wait up to 15 minutes for their train anyway). And, the one time I did join a pianist at 6pm, about 40 people ended up stopping to listen to us, a dozen of them also started singing alongside (it was a pretty magical moment) - until, indeed, a security agent came to tell me the violin wasn't allowed. On the other hand, playing after 9pm, I've never had any issues or anyone tell me anything. Either way - thank you for spreading the music, and perhaps someday we'll wind up playing together without knowing it!
There is no crowd noise. Those places are very noisy and you can’t hear any background sounds at all. Thanks TwoSet, I was trying to convince a friend this was staged only a few days ago.
I got the impression from the various captions that English probably isn't Editor-san's first language, but no shade from me because I can't speak a second language! The style was a bit distracting for me but it was still impressively done.
I think editor-san is mocking the source material. Brett and Eddy are even poiting out that everything has to be plastered onto the screen. Editor-san is just ironic (I hope).
The editing was purposefully wacky because it was copying/making fun of the trends in the tiktok videos... They're doing all the things (way too many captions) that Brett and Eddy are making fun of. It's intentional
@@sagebauer1077 I understand this, but there's been a noticeable change since previous videos, too... Of course change is inevitable and experimenting and improving is always good, but I feel it's just *a little* too much, with all love and respect to (new?) Editor-san, of course ❤️
If I remember correctly, you two did the similar content creation - you made a story of going to Curtis to have audition which I knew immediately was acting - in your word “fake”. But I took it as humor. Chill bro, you are all making contents for views. In those videos with Ray Chen and the pianists, their music was marvelous and I can’t have enough of it. Thank you Ray and Emil, etc, for bringing such joy to all the folks on the spots and for spreading the joy of classical music to a wider audience via live music and on social media.
Those were great, and one of the reasons they were great is because you could imagine the huge effort needed to plan and practice for them. Pretending they occurred spontaneously would have made them look absolutely stupid.
I mean, to be fair they're roasting the *setup*, which is honestly pretty unbelievable. There is no way I would believe Ray Chen would just happen to hear some piano from way up thee escalator (those Malls are *noisy*) and just stroll down already playing. Like, where'd he leave his case? Did he just assume his violin was already in tune?
@@moonwatcher99 I remember watching a video on Ray's channel where he reacted to this kind of videos and said "Oh, I want to appear in one" so he went to paris (or somewhere in France idk) and did it. For the meme.
@@KSubsItalia Which is fair. I can totally see that. I'm just saying it's not like Twoset is calling out Ray, specifically, just pointing out how *extremely* unlikely it is that this isn't staged.
I mean it’s a smart way to draw in a crowd, but you can have it be part of your act. Just bow together at the end and say that you’re friends that practiced the piece together. Don’t trick people on social media. Have social media be in on the act. Film people being surprised by the musicians appearing instead.
Actually these people are all just ray chen’s stalkers, they all know when he’s going to be somewhere with a public piano and they make sure to start playing moments before he arrives within earshot, because they know ray is biologically hardwired to join in with his violin anytime he hears music in public and to telepathically link with the other musician so they know exactly which part of the piece to play together 😂
These things are obviously staged, but I still sometimes enjoy the music. I just wish they would be more honest about it. "The crowd would never suspect who was waiting in their midst to play with me." Something like that. That's why flashmobs are fun to watch. The crowd has no idea the person sitting across from them is about to stand up and sing the tenor part in the Hallelujah Chorus. Those are fun to watch. I wish they would just be honest that they have a surprise guest hiding in the crowd.
TwoSet is out there deeply analizing the music and in the first second of the first video I'm like "2 french people in France would NEVER speak English spontaneously, fake"
maybe its because im not that good at harmonizing by ear and coming up with stuff on the fly, but it always makes me curious how these performers know literally every song they're asked to play. like im familiar with viva la vida but i would not be able to improv the song on the spot.
The short answer is they don't. They know what song will come before they're "asked" it. Some caveats: If it is truly a spontaneous performance, there are some ways you can perform decently. If it's pop music and you've got a good ear, you can usually reproduce the melody and some of the primary instrumentals fairly quickly, especially if you're told the key by another performer. So if you jump into a group performance, the person least familiar with the group may be given the melody if they're familiar with the song, or they may end up with a more repetitive instrumental part. If the song is super basic pop that doesn't do a ton of jumping between notes, it'll probably go well. If it's something more jazzy or singer-songwriter with pitch modulations, then you can probably do pretty well but may end up with some imperfect notes as you figure out the piece. If that happens, then its more about your confidence to just play through it and hope the audience doesn't notice. For classical pieces, if someone has been in orchestras or done competitions for a while, there's a fairly common repertoire of pieces (especially solos) that you'll end up knowing in common with other performers. Our state orchestra competitions had a cycle of solo pieces that they'd rotate through each year as the audition pieces. Another regional competition let you pick a piece of your choice from a list of about 15 options and the options were almost always the same every year because they'd been selected by expected skill level for your age. Eventually most of us who were doing these auditions ended up learning all of these pieces, because they were the right difficulty for where we were in private lessons even outside of the audition season. There's also some pieces that are well known in popular culture, so if you know those they are pretty transferable to a lot of situations. Vivaldi four seasons, Bach cello suites, etc. This can also apply to chamber groups who perform for weddings or as background music for events and may be frequently playing with new members for one-off gigs - some of the same pieces get used at a lot of different gigs. If you've ever talked to someone who was in high school band in the US, they can probably play Pomp and Circumstance without thinking too hard about it.
To be fair, this could be confirmation bias. After all, if they didn't know the piece, or played it badly, the resulting video probably wouldn't be shared at all.
One thing that strikes me a lot is the amount of people reacting in awe to these musicians all coming together to play, usually people in train stations and malls especially in Paris, they really don’t care about music, they have better things to do, they use their smartphones, listen to their own music, speaking to each other between friends, walking from point a to point b, no one cares about music, if someone plays music nobody will come up to bother them or just stand by to watch, people are too busy and probably train agents will come to tell everybody to tone it down because it’s too loud, there are many amateur videos of good pianists playing in train stations on YT and we can see that in these non-staged videos : people don’t care !
I saw the video of Ray reacting to the same type of video's as in this video and then he said something like ''I am going to France to find out'' and in the next video he is supposedly searching for the pianists. Ray never once actually pretended that the meetings were genuine, but it is funny to see that those pianist still posted it as if they were.
True. Ray has given many clues about their collaborations on his IG story or RU-vid videos. The video they played SUMMER together is actually the first time they met each other. Ray once reacted to these types of videos on RU-vid and said he's going to find out the truth of these coincidences. So he flew to Paris, found Emilio, and made the SUMMER video. Then they became friends, and both wanted to do it more for fun.
So the first guy is a french cellist whose name is Charles Gaugué (you can check him out he is rly good) and the pianist is french too and they made multiple "spontaneous" videos together What language do you speak while in a french train station ? English ofc
I know that when I’m playing piano in a public space only to have multiple musicians spontaneously join me, I always have 2 - 4 cameras already rolling, it’s totally a thing. 🙄
Those videos are actually a lot of fun, I just don't understand why they've to lie about it. But I do think most people realize it's fake and people who don't are probably the minority
im a lingling wannabe and i agree with all the sus call outs tho, but like... all these, even fake, still bring good vibes to the people at the spot right? and of course to many who watched their vids as well. then why must they be stopped? if they actually portrait wrong expectations of music or musicians, or they annoy people, they should be stopped. but i don't think they do in these cases. they are real skilled musicians, not tiktok autotune singers. my take: they must not be stopped.
The criticizing on the fake video trend is legit, but can't deny their attitude is mean to Ray. Reminds me of high schools days, when some 'funny kids' made fun on one kid whom just always acts a bit weirdly. Time to grow up two sets.
I mean come on. Twoset does a bunch of fake stuff too. That is my complaint. I don't believe these fake busking videos any more that I believe the staged videos of twoset learning to play an instrument in a day, or applying to music schools. It doesn't matter if it is fake, it matters if it increased classic music exposure.
These arent hate videos. These people are purposefully advertising "not scripted!!! Really just happened!!" They can can easily make people happy by giving an honest title like, "we surprised onlookers with surprise collab" but they don't. Theyre lying and no one likes a liar
TwoSet should review the newest Doctor Who episode! It’s called the Devil’s Chord. It has some really sacrilegious violin playing (maybe piano too). Idk if I can deal with them dissing Doctor Who but it’d be fun to hear their input!
When Ray Chen posted "Professional Violinist Calls out Classical Music Tick Tocks" , at the end he questioned the same thing like Two Set about the whole thing being prepared and rehearsed before. THEN , he said he was going to find that pianist and see how the thing works, because to him it was very SUS. AFTER THAT, he started appearing in all those short videos. All very SUS, too.😅😊 Obviously it was all planned, and gave the clue in that video. You can check it up. It is at the end.
I spent three summers busking nearly every weekend, people sometimes made requests, but not once did someone ever come up and ask to collab live on the spot. And the requests were never classical music, it was usually, “hey, can you play any Beatles?”
I used to frequent a bar a few years ago where a pianist used to hang and you could quite literally ask for any song and he could play it, if he didn't know it, which wasn't often, he'd ask you to hum it and then he would play that part for you. It was quite unique. I haven't seen him since then, hope he's doing alright. That aside, this trend is ridiculous. That bar is now closed, there's a far right government in my country, and the other day I saw, for the first time, someone in the subway fake playing a keyboard with a recording. So I'm sad.
I think to some extent people have the agreement on these kind of videos can be scripted, but I don’t think focusing on is this meet is true or not is out the two musicians purposes, what they what is let more people appreciate the music itself, plus Ray already did a response video, be nice…
@@GlennTheSadMarinersFan lol at the very beginning the 2 violins said that the video stated very clearly that is wasn't a set up/fake. Hence this video breakdown. But you have to say this as a copy/paste against multiple comments 🙄 🙃😅
@@lifeisbutadreamsodreamon The one they are focused on and in the Thumbnail.. Ray Chan and the pianist never claimed it wasn't set up.. just watch Rays response video too. These 2 are just going for content.. like I said.
The most important part of this video is your social commentary that the internet is treating the audience like they are stupid. Timing is everything isn't it? And the shiny thing right at the scroll moment is a great call out of the "lowest common denominator" formula. Thanks for putting yourselves out there and telling it like it is. Ray sure is an amazing violinist.
I'm so glad you guys are calling this out. Sometimes those videos are entertaining to watch when absolutely bored, but when they advertise their videos as being real, it's pretty annoying bc it's obviously not real.
To be honest, I know or assume they were planned or scripted, but it is fine. It is others' freedom whether they want to do it or not. In brief words, they are just for fun. There are so many trends like this on TikTok, I don't think anyone is titled to say "the trend must be stopped."
it’s the fact that they are lying about it that’s annoying. sure they have the right to say anything they want but no one likes to be deceived when it is so obviously fake and unnecessary to lie about it.
I liked that flash mob orchestra from 2014. It it was just fun that the musicians were hiding in the crowd until they joined in, they never really pretended like it was some kind of spontaneous thing. They had a conductor so it was pretty clear they were an organized group.
Personally I don’t feel there’s any reason to be annoyed by these videos. It’s obvious to me that everyone in the comments that watches those videos already know it’s fake and are just there for the music. No ones getting fooled by this.
That was a good investigation based on video evidence, but what we need is a TwoSet investigation in the field. Most of the pianists who post these seem to film that in public locations that they seem to regularly play at. Go there or get someone you know and trust from that area to go there when they are playing and see if they really will do a spontaneous collaboration.
I sing opera with some unknown pianists in railway stations. The pianists play some well known pieces (classical, pop, film, jazz) and I make an improvisation without rehearsal. It's funny and the result is nice. People enjoy listening a new version of a famous piece. A few excellent pianists play their own compositions and I discover a new universe with them. My voice gives them a new version. So it's a real musical exchange in live and it's my favorite exercise.
Guys, you made a series of videos having fake beef with davie504 then turn around and criticize other musicians for also making scripted "fake" videos. Isn't that hypocritical of you? Only you can do it but they can't? I like your content but this is just poor behavior man.
If anyone wants to watch a genuine spontaneous performance, two that come to mind are the Lion King broadway cast singing on a delayed flight, and some traditional Irish musicians jamming in an airport. In fact, as long as they don't pretend to not know each other, semi-planned "spontaneous" videos can still be good. There's one with a music teacher and her students singing Love Yourself in class. Not actually guaranteed that it was 100% spontaneous, but still feels like it could've been regardless
it makes me happy seeing a public piano everytime but the very thought of someone may come up scares me and stops me from playing on it i’m glad you expose how scripted these are i hope i’ll have the courage to enjoy playing on a public piano one day
