@giorgiopicker Last year, Tom played for a band on a piano that was a semitone flat. So he just played everything a half-step higher than written, even as he read the pages of tunes he hadn't memorized.
@@jaredfieseler6654 Oh yes, sometimes a tuner is asked to tune a piano that is seriously out of tune and flat, and the tuner may initially tune it a semitone or even a full tone flat, with the idea of restoring it to pitch gradually. On rare occasion you will encounter a piano that's being used for baroque historical music, tuned to A415 instead of A440. It will seem a semitone flat.
I know. I've been so sad about it too. He literally is the coolest guy ever to me. I make my little brother listen to his music and he's 9. And Tom Brier is the reason I learned to play the piano. Any song he has played I learn. He is just so inspiring. Every time I feel a song is too hard to play, I just listen to him. And it makes me try again and again every time. I really hope he can recover and be able to play the piano again but things don't seem to be looking to good with the updates.. At least he's able to play with his left hand. But he must feel so depressed right now. I love this guy. Sorry for the long comment.
Nathaniel's Phone Perfect pitch is not evidence of genius. Some people are born with it which is great but it can be developed as well. If you know the progression of a piece well enough ( which for Maple Leaf Rag is not as difficult as it seems ) and simply know your keys then you can learn to play on all keys. Add years upon years of practise of this and similar exercises and you get what we saw in the video. Not to say the pianist does not possesd natural ability, which he obviously does.
It's really sad knowing Tom's condition now. I really pray he is able to get better so he can play and compose more pieces. Someone with talent like his doesn't deserve to be in a spot like that.
The last line of the description is fire: "So, to answer the question, "Can Tom play the Maple Leaf Rag?" Yes, he can. In what key and what time signature would you like?"
@@BudderB0y2222 Late response but i can assure you that he is very much not ok. He will probably never recover to his former glory, as he strugles to play even after years of recovery
@@davidhess6593 That's so false. Muscle memory refers to your brain memorising the physical distance between the notes and where to put your fingers in 3D space, meaning it's specific to the key. Changing the key means you have different black and white key orders and combinations so it's not like just moving your arms down a note and playing as normal. Also, you don't necessarily have all the intervals memorised, especially not if there are so many notes at the same time like this. You can see that Tom understands the structure when he struggles with the B major part and then finds the correct chord before playing the rhythm and individual notes. If having the intervals memorised meant you could play it with a different set of sharps and flats he wouldn't have stumbled and recovered like that.
I could fall in love with this man, with his struggles to find the correct chords in the B major transposition. To see him sit and work it out, and finally to succeed, is both inspiring and simple recreational joy! And to see it done with the modesty of a man who is simply having some fun with his friends in a bar is the best of all. Thank you, Tom Brier, from my heart!
Dude, performing the entirety of Maple Leaf Rag in B on the spot is something very few pianists would even attempt. Tom is a legend. I love watching him show us how his brain works in real-time!
And yet there are so few examples. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Juta0yfKNS8.html -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HbUoqSjzAXU.html -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vCOfiMsoZqI.html -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TPpCwTl67UE.html -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qhiHQvR9KyI.html -- and lots of duets like this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MK3LGPnFpR0.html . Tom preferred not to play Joplin because everybody does that. He on the other hand could present extreme rarities from his vast collection.
Yonkerbonk Scott Joplin never played those riffs, that was added on to the piano roll after editing Scott's original recording to hide his condition effecting his piano skills.
Though I cannot say wether the talent was there to begin or not(it probably was though yeah...), what we see here is experience, at it's best. This is the best exampe of "practice makes perfect" I have ever witnessed.
Tom is officially the only person I've ever seen who can pull off a neckbeard and wear his watch on the outside of his sleeve, and make it awesome. One of the most brilliant pianists I've ever seen C:
"Of course, simply playing Maple Leaf Rag in the original key of A-flat would be boring" Well, thanks a lot. XD I kid, of course. Seriously though, this is one of my favorite RU-vid videos right now. I like the performances with an informal, "loose" feeling to them.
@mathsquadforlife Obviously the hand positions are completely different for every key. B is difficult because ragtime is usually in flat keys, but B has five sharps. It's difficult to think of F# as a V chord, and so on.
The thing I love about this video is that Tom plays the piece rather quickly, but the style and integrity of the music remains intact at the faster tempo. That’s something I feel is often lost at these faster tempi.
I just want to say that I was crushed to hear about the news of Tom’s accident. I’m going through my own issues at home at the moment and I have to say that going back through his music has brought back so many joyous childhood memories and helped me to get through some of these tough times. If you ever read this, please give him my condolences and remind him, piano or not, what an honest and pure treasure he is ❤️
I discovered this channel around 2011 or 2012 and I still come back to watch them all. I hope Tom's doing well, as well as everyone else present. Thanks for filming and sharing these. They were a huge inspiration for me taking up piano, myself so I can play the same songs. Though not nearly as well.
he makes this piece sound so easy but being an intermediate piano player and attempting this piece myself, it's just amazing to see his fingers literally do minimal effort and recite the rag. I know one day I won't be able to be as good as Tom, but I'm just praying i'll be able to move on from classical and start doing some rag stuff! Hope Tom's doing well regarding his condition. He really was a genius and perchance a prodigy. I hope he's able to get back to the piano one day.
@redclone By knowing the piece's chord sequence not in terms of names but in terms of numbers. Instead of thinking of the fourth strain's chords as Db, Ab, Eb7, Ab etc., it's IV, I, V7, I etc. Then you can know instantly which chord to use in any given key... provided you've played in that key often enough that your fingers can go there instinctively. The key of B major is not such a key for a ragtime pianist, however!
Keeper1st Mind blown! I struggle with 6 strings haha! I really enjoy listening to music like this, I found your video with Tom Brier playing Animaniacs hugely entertaining too, looks like you guys have a great time :)
Vojtěch Nižňanský Not really. On guitar you can just move up on fretboard without changing how you play the scales and chords. On piano you have to take sharps/flats into consideration. Though, if you know your scales well and understand chord relations, transposing is not that difficult.
Makes sense that he’s a computer coder. He is literally able to transcribe music just like that into a different key similar to a computer program code. Truly amazing that he learned how to do all this at such a young age before learning to read which evolved into what we all know him as now. Tom is a prodigy.
This makes other professional piano players sound like preschool students by comparison. I've been told my whole life I'm talented on piano, and I'm not even a fetus on this scale.
@@oliviasenes7478 i couldnt find a source but a lot of music is based off maple leaf rag mechanics and the thomas the tank engine song definitely sounds like rag time
Oh man I used to watch your videos everyday 10 years ago and always loved tom’s performance, it’s so sad we can’t get any new videos with him. Atleast we will always have these old once!
So many people ask me to play fur Elise or moonlight sonata when I tell them I play piano but there’s a reason behind why Joplin is my favorite and this....this is a perfect demonstration. So much more alive, this videos awesome
Incredible. His sight reading ability is also amazing. You can tell that Tom has played his whole life and I would have to say life well spent! What a great guy :) Must be fun to know him personally.
Indeed, though he'd probably played in G and A before. One year, playing with the Raspberry Jam Band, they encountered a piano that was a semitone flat, so he had to play everything a semitone higher than written, right on the spot. It was pretty amazing even if it meant fewer embellishments than he might normally do.
That is absolutely amazing, just their luck that they were playing with the mighty Brier, otherwise they would have had a polytonal ragtime disaster hahaha
@@Keeper1st good god, that is hellish, no one would really expect even a pro to play that piano. He probably enjoyed the challenge based on how much he rides the edge on these vids
Seriously amazing how he can just make a new song out of an already exciting song. The DJ of yesterday. And the fact that he just keeps going after every applause. God damn.
I see a lot of comments about his watch being on the outside of the shirt. This is because Tom has transcended the human form and needs time available at all times to make sure he's not in hyperspeed around humans
I will automatically click on any video of Tom that you've uploaded. I love him, I love his playing, and I really hope his condition is improving. Love from Canada
@HYrohith He's just deciding to do it on a whim. I've seen him read music with a band on a piano that was a semitone flat, so he had to transpose everything up a half step in his head while reading. It was pretty amazing.
