Tom Brier plays Maple Leaf Rag in A, G, B, and as a waltz in B
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- (Originally published in A-flat.)
As well as people asking to hear Tom play Scott Joplin rags, I had one person specifically ask, "Can Tom play the Maple Leaf Rag?" Well, of course I knew he could, as I've heard him play it with other musicians (and, honestly, what ragtimer can't play it?) . I even participated in an after-hours four-piano rendition with Tom, Scott Kirby and the late Patrick Gogherty in the early 1990s when I could play it reasonably well.
However, I'd never actually heard Tom play it solo. The closest was hearing him play the song version (which is in E-flat) for a stage show on Joplin's life.
I mentioned this to Will Perkins, whom you see on the right, and Will commented that he'd never heard Tom play Maple Leaf solo either, so he asked Tom if he'd play it for us.
Of course, simply playing Maple Leaf Rag in the original key of A-flat would be boring, so Tom decided on a whim to play it in A natural. Then he shrugs and plays it again in G, before taxing himself by attempting to play it in the hardest key, B.
When I joked, "How about as a waltz?" he complied with an on-the-spot waltz rendition of the final strain, but still using the difficult key of B major.
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?
Please see this follow-up video -- • Maple Leaf Rag in 12 k... -- in which he and a couple others play this in all 12 major keys and four different time signatures.
wristwatch on the outside of the shirt, pro level
MrSourkrause ultimate power move
tom is the master of style
It's not a watch, that's the union between his arm and his robotic left hand, capable of the fastest chord changes ever
Slorviga Slarven, I'm pretty sure he could make an out of tune piano sound good.
999 likes
his left hand octaves are like a machine gun.
on steroids xD
It’s not hard😂
@@GooseGooseDuck797 post a video of you doing it then
MrTrollinglol I would like to if u will get me music
@@MrTrollinglol it really isn't though, Maple Leaf Rag is considered a relatively easy piece.
Finding him, and falling in love with his talent, and then hearing about his accident, now I’m crying. The world isn’t fair folks
Harris Morgan Booth he has severe brain damage from a car crash
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.
Yeah I feel so bad for Tom it keeps me up at night
@@bruhmoment8114 where can we see updates of tom?
Thought Gains The owner of this RUclips channel has a discord server with updates on Tom. discord.gg/DbK5bnb
00:09 A
02:47 G
04:10 B
06:51 Waltz in B
Thanks!
Don’t ruin it. It needs to be watched in its entirety. 🙂
@@danielwatts7375 yea
Daniel Watts it’s for people who want to rewatch certain parts. 🙂
thanks
I wonder how it must feel to understand music in such a superb way like this genius. Must have such a great sense of freedom and power when playing.
Unfortunately Tom got into a severe car accident and can't play anymore. :(
Music is something anyone can learn, I can play this as well as improvise and it is only my second years, he is not a genius
@@Smile4theKillCam456 hope he gets better!
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.
@@TomCL-vb6xc _what_
@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.
Keeper1st talent need no excuse indeed 👍🏼
My god... that’s is just very very impresive. Wow
That’s not how pianos get out of tune... I find that very hard to believe
@@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'm still 🤯 about B major
dat watch over the sleeve.
NO NO it’s so the watch doesn’t slide down and hit the keys. I have to take my watch and bracelets off when I play sometimes or they get in the way.
NO NO its fashion sweatie look it up XD
He kinda came straight from the 70’s.
Ber M. No it’s not lol it’s for the watch to not move like she/he said lol don’t correct if you can’t correct yourself
🥵
I can't get over the watch placement.....
It's just practicality, keeping it from flopping around when moving the arm so much to play the march left hand.
I think it just stops the watch from bashing on the wood/keys, but yeah it looks really odd at first!
It’s to keep the watch from hitting the keys, I have to take off my watch and bracelets before playing or they get in the way and I can’t play.
Looks funny but helps keep it in place, Tried playing a gig with a watch one time, never did that again lmao
1
This guy is disgustingly good.
Absolutely wonderful to listen to! Thanks :)
@@susanmund-hoym9462 oh wow I did not expect my comment to get this many likes lmao
@@Theycallmehoff Hi you 5years later
@@jrexx2841 hello sir how's it going lol
Indeed!
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.
Its Doug I’m just discover this man. What’s up with him??
@@t_e5pin0 he got into a car crash a couple of years ago that paralyzed him.
@@itsdoug7814 NO WAY what I'm so sad now I never knew this I can't believe it
WTF
@Some Guy its real bad and im unsure but i think it effected his memory and other intellectual faculties aswell
i love the sound of a very aged piano, it give the song a"genuine rag" feeling.
It has a mandolin-like sound.
I think those old pianos have a richer spectrum of overtones... my parents have an old piano, built ca 1912. I love that sound.
I know what you mean. Like if Tom played this on a fresh Steinway it just wouldn’t have the same character as this piano does.
That's honky-tonk for you! (Well, close enough anyway...)
Honkey tonk piano. I have one that’s a tone and a quarter flat which can’t be tuned
If that ain't the most well kept neck beard I've ever seen...
He might have a neck Bush, but he ain't no neckbeard
And there don't grow neckberries
well kempt a really obscure word that
darn tootin'
I like your moustache, wah-wah wee-wah, very nice!
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?"
Though sadly it is not true anymore since TBI suffered in 2016.
Keeper1st Damn is he okay. Heard he got in a car crash.
@@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
@@hallvard3739 So incredibly sad.
The fact that he can play this song in different keys show that he understands structure instead of relying on muscle memory.
It's still muscle memory. The brain does care much where you play it so long as you keep the intervals between the notes the same.
@@davidhess6593 yes but with different key signatures things get complicated...
@@home.coffee4559 For sure!
@@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.
@@russell7667only if you understood what you were playing to begin with. Or you play by ear, basically
You can tell everybody in the room is just loving it. I really wish that Tom was healthy and playing the piano again like this.
This, my friends, is talent.
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.
He has one-upped himself now: ruclips.net/video/V6oYBE-ttV4/видео.html
Keeper1st Dang!! Pretty über
Both. Achievement = ability times effort.
It's also practice.
It's May 2024. No matter how many times I listen to this, I never get tired of it ...from Fort Worth, Texas
Are you near fort worth?
Imagine how many fucking lines of code he could write in a minute LOL
+Uchiha Sasuke Well, he is a professional computer programmer...
Keeper1st That's the joke...
Keeper1st :D
I don't think it is >.> look up his wiki
MA BOI bro Keeper1st is good friend with him, i think he would know
Next video: Tom Brier defeats Thanos,
with his left hand only,
without looking..
In all 12 keys
In C major
In Re minor, I want to listen a sad version of it like Moonlight sonata first movement is.
With the infinity tones
In B major
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!
So true!!
He was critically injured years ago in a car accident and will never play again.
@@andybaldman damn you really gotta give 'em the bad news like that
@@sydssolanumsamsys It's the truth. What else can you say.
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!
Honestly one of the best pianists I've ever heard!
Agreed
Asparagarius agreed
4:25 human ... after all!
Even robots mess up from time to time :)
That's true, haha! And thus, humans are the root of all problems! xD
0liverwarren y
Try it. Then with a crowd. Then while being videotaped. I've played for 50 years. This guy is doing a very credible job.
That’s the sad reality of playing piano
This man is the only one acceptable to have a neckbeard
Amazing, he even plays the same way as Joplin did with this piece, notice the left hand in second section.
Please elaborate...
He probably means the little riffs with the left hand in the 2nd part
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.
Michael George he didn't though, it was edited
Michael George if you go to Wikipedia you can find the original recording sample, it isn't there
It's 10 years old and i'm still listening to it
I've been on youtube for many years now and I've never found anyone playing Joplin as good as Tom
And yet there are so few examples. ruclips.net/video/Juta0yfKNS8/видео.html -- ruclips.net/video/HbUoqSjzAXU/видео.html -- ruclips.net/video/vCOfiMsoZqI/видео.html -- ruclips.net/video/TPpCwTl67UE/видео.html -- ruclips.net/video/qhiHQvR9KyI/видео.html -- and lots of duets like this one ruclips.net/video/MK3LGPnFpR0/видео.html . Tom preferred not to play Joplin because everybody does that. He on the other hand could present extreme rarities from his vast collection.
He has fully mastered the piano. He is the ultimate piano god.
Not hes playing a black gods music sorry.
@@mysticqueen74 nigga shut up, damn
@@mysticqueen74 ur black god couldn’t play like this even if he tried🙂
@@jamjam9930 Completely wrong. Tom would be the first to say that Scott Joplin is a musical giant, and Tom is walking in his footsteps.
@@mysticqueen74"WE WUZ KANGZ N SHIEEEET!"
The guys talking to him seem like some good lads
I will call him a musical locksmith. He can make any key work and make it look easy.
@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.
So true i didnt consider this!
The left hand octaves are incredible
"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 RUclips videos right now. I like the performances with an informal, "loose" feeling to them.
Maple Leaf Rag is like four awesome songs slammed together.
0:22 that roll he does. Gives it that true ragtime feel.
AS A WALTZ OF ALL THINGS. This man can do it all! :D
Nice 'vette pic. Looks like a 68-77 from what I can see in that little circle.
that guy is a musical genius
The way his hands bounce off the keys... incredible. Tom is in our prayers.
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 ❤️
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:
The one in A is one of the best takes on Maple Leaf i've heard, and he transposed it on the spot? Damn
In my opinion Scott Joplin was one of the most under rated musical talents of all time. The complexity of ragtime amazes me.
Couldn't agree more. Music that heals the soul.
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.
Honestly ,one of the best pianists I've ever heard .It's amazing...
Great playing. That piano has a perfect saloon sound. Perfect for ragtime.
did he actually just transpose on the spot?
(wishing him a full recovery :) )
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
Regular folks (by that I mean people that don't play any musical instruments) do not even begin to understand how awesome AND difficult this is.
@@caskunze i think they would have the greatest appreciation, if they're smart? maybe.
@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!
Transposing on paper is tough enough, doing it on the fly live is just incredible.
That piano is enjoying being played so well
It's an ice cream shop full of families. What do you expect? This isn't a concert venue; we're just goofing off.
My favorite ice cream shop in Sutter Creek
That moment when you’re so good at sight-reading that you don’t even need the sheet music in front of you.
I just don't get how he is able to transpose this on the fly, it's incredible! Wish I could just sight-read, that would be enough! :D
Getting pleasantly friday-drunk, making peanut butter cookies and listening to this song in 2023. Tom, you make things alright 🖤
Have recently just fallen in love with this incredible pianist and learned about what happened to him .
His brain is working exponentially harder than most peoples. As a pianist I can attest
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.
Unfortunately Tom will probably never be the same again.
swear i heard the thomas the tank engine theme in there somewhere
Forget2BHuman fuckoff - Yep, Thomas used this tune.
@@nellieou sauce?
@@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
ridiculous levels of talent
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.
Instead of taking off his wrist watch, he secures it around his long sleeve. This man is a legend
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.
I've literally watched this over 20 times now
Hope you recover soon Tom
We’re in the same boat man😂 I’ve seen this video so many times it’s awesome
20? I've lost count already, maybe 100? I don't know 😅
every morning, every hour, in every break, every afternoon, every night, anywhere
I’m listening to this with the volume all the way up drinking whiskey watching old western
I always find myself coming back to watch this
ps how on this earth does he do this ?! I mean I play the guitar and can transpose a few odds and ends but this is taking things to another galaxy :p
Another ragtime buddy of mine has done something perhaps even more amazing: Maple Leaf Rag on two pianos in two different keys at the same time!
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 :)
Tarvu it's all about having the funk. You discover the funk. You must become one with the funk.
@Tarvu Transposing on piano and especially on accordion is much easier than on guitar.
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.
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.
He looks like a man who found his paradise on Earth. Better yet: He shares it with us!
when you think he's done, he surprises you with another level of difficulty... he's amazing
I will always come back to this video for motivation and inspiration, and also because it's simply incredible to watch.
That looks like a lot of effort, that mans hair has moved from the top of his head to his chin!
That's Tom, dude!
Jajajajajajajaja
hahahahahahahah :) hahahah
Throat*
it had too get closer s it could hear him better
@martiniman777 I don't know about "genuine". Modern piano design wasn't really finalized until the late 1800s, so most pianos that the original ragtime pianists played on were fairly new.
Tom was from another galaxy! I love him so much. Thank you for all your incredibly valuable recordings!
Great changes in tempo also, so human. I usually don’t like fast, but I like Tom’s fast. So elegant end of B key.
Get well soon Tom, the world needs your music and your fans are all wishing you the very best.
He can play a tiny bit still, there is a video of his from just a few weeks ago on his birthday party where he played “dill pickles rag”. It’s on the discord.
@@SQUAREHEADSAM1912 that’s really great news! Thanks for telling me!
@@chriswilson2431 it’s not a good as before, but it’s better then nothing.
1:19 some nice left hand octave runs he added in, wow. Great arrangement and serious talent
I can't even fathom what's happening in his brain here...
@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.
Keyboard's transpose: *"I'm about to end this man's whole carrer"*
Genius is not a word one should throw around lightly. Tom Brier is a genius.
off beat claps at 0:11
Well, I don't think he was trying to clap in rhythm, but that guy had had more than few, shall we say...
I love this. And I would really, really love to hear a full version of a Maple Leaf Waltz by Mr. Brier.
man he just sounds like a blast to be around
To this day, the moment when Will turns to the camera and exclaims in awe "B-major" remains classic.
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.
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!
Dude is damn near a musical genius if he ain’t already
search up tom brier maple leaf rag in every key and see for yourself
technically it's more keys cause theres a key change in to actual song so, very well done :D
True, but that would have made for a rather long title...!
Wow, that’s beautiful, You rocked that! 🎼🎹🎹🎹🔥
The stamina to play it so many times in so many ways
I like how he literally cuts off the guy to his left telling him he’s awesome and just starts playing.
to be able to overcome the muscle memory so easily astounds me. a true master.
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.
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
It is heartbreaking to watch this video of such an amazingly talented man play the piano, only to read that he suffered life changing injuries in a car crash. I wish him all the very best.
THE KING
HEAL UP TOM YOU ARE LOVED
2:43 the claps were in 3/4 polyrhythm holy shit
HAHHAHAHAHAH this made my day
Me: how many tunes can this guy play?
Tom: piano.
WOW, Excellent playing, i am enjoyed listenning,, well done,, Alain,,greeting from Canada
Unbelievable talent. Praying for him to be able to play music again.
*sigh* I learned the song, but how could it ever sound as good as this legend? lol tom is an amazing inspiration