Having watched the video about the piano player, I think the simplest explanation is that the brain injury caused a change in personality that resulted in him being intensely interested in playing the piano. If somebody were to suddenly start practicing the piano intently for some large portion of every day, they’d become very skilled very fast, much faster than most learners (who would be unlikely to put in that much time).
The only part that doesn’t fit with that explanation is the claim that he played skillfully the first time he sat down at the piano, but since there’s no recording of it, I chalk that up to the inaccuracy of memory. It would have been surprising enough for him to play it at all that it could have seemed impressive even with not much technical ability.
Otherwise, I just don’t see where the motor skills could have come from. There’s a certain amount of arbitrariness to how a piano keyboard is laid out (such as which keys are white and which are black), and you’re going to need more than zero practice to get used to that.
The kind of fluency that we see in the video is something that a normal person cannot acquire in just a few days, period. Even if he didn’t literally play perfectly the first time, playing perfectly after one month would still be incredibly impressive. You plain don’t become a pianist in one month, especially without a teacher, even if you spend all the time on the piano.
Also, this guy is apparently still not able to read sheet music and still doesn’t know anything about music theory. It’s difficult to explain in non-technical terms, but his music is exactly the kind of music that I would expect from an incredibly talented person who knows nothing about music theory.
What about the theory that this is all simply a lie, a hoax, an exaggeration?
9/10 when I investigate these kinds of stories they turn out to be false or misleading in some way.
You are very welcome to investigate! I don’t deny that all of this is very perplexing. But it is at least plausible (in the sense of “not requiring to break laws of physics”) than a head injury could have a one-in-a-million chance of modifying your brain in strange ways.
Consider that this guy holds public concerts since 2007, we have no way to deny that he can actually play piano (albeit in a strange, untrained way). The only way for this to be a scam would be for him to have trained alone in complete secret for something like 10 years.
Also, he claims to “see” music in a way that reminds me of one historical anecdote about Mozart (he also claimed to “see” whole symphonies compressed into points, waiting only to be unraveled).
Yes, literally longer than I can remember, since I learned around age 5 or so.
The kind of fluency that we see in the video is something that a normal person cannot acquire in just a few days, period.
The video was recorded in 2016, 10 years after his 2006 injury. It’s showing the result of 10 years of practice.
You plain don’t become a pianist in one month, especially without a teacher, even if you spend all the time on the piano.
I don’t think he was as skilled after one month as he is now after 10 years.
I would guess though that you can improve a remarkable amount in one month if you play all day every day. I expect that a typical beginner would play about an hour a day at most. If he’s playing multiple hours a day, he’ll improve faster than a typical beginner.
Keep in mind also that he was not new to music, since he had played guitar previously. That makes a huge difference, since he’ll already be familiar with scales, chords, etc. and is mostly just learning motor skills.
Having watched the video about the piano player, I think the simplest explanation is that the brain injury caused a change in personality that resulted in him being intensely interested in playing the piano. If somebody were to suddenly start practicing the piano intently for some large portion of every day, they’d become very skilled very fast, much faster than most learners (who would be unlikely to put in that much time).
The only part that doesn’t fit with that explanation is the claim that he played skillfully the first time he sat down at the piano, but since there’s no recording of it, I chalk that up to the inaccuracy of memory. It would have been surprising enough for him to play it at all that it could have seemed impressive even with not much technical ability.
Otherwise, I just don’t see where the motor skills could have come from. There’s a certain amount of arbitrariness to how a piano keyboard is laid out (such as which keys are white and which are black), and you’re going to need more than zero practice to get used to that.
Have you ever played piano?
The kind of fluency that we see in the video is something that a normal person cannot acquire in just a few days, period. Even if he didn’t literally play perfectly the first time, playing perfectly after one month would still be incredibly impressive. You plain don’t become a pianist in one month, especially without a teacher, even if you spend all the time on the piano.
Also, this guy is apparently still not able to read sheet music and still doesn’t know anything about music theory. It’s difficult to explain in non-technical terms, but his music is exactly the kind of music that I would expect from an incredibly talented person who knows nothing about music theory.
What about the theory that this is all simply a lie, a hoax, an exaggeration? 9/10 when I investigate these kinds of stories they turn out to be false or misleading in some way.
You are very welcome to investigate! I don’t deny that all of this is very perplexing. But it is at least plausible (in the sense of “not requiring to break laws of physics”) than a head injury could have a one-in-a-million chance of modifying your brain in strange ways.
Consider that this guy holds public concerts since 2007, we have no way to deny that he can actually play piano (albeit in a strange, untrained way). The only way for this to be a scam would be for him to have trained alone in complete secret for something like 10 years.
Also, he claims to “see” music in a way that reminds me of one historical anecdote about Mozart (he also claimed to “see” whole symphonies compressed into points, waiting only to be unraveled).
Yes, literally longer than I can remember, since I learned around age 5 or so.
The video was recorded in 2016, 10 years after his 2006 injury. It’s showing the result of 10 years of practice.
I don’t think he was as skilled after one month as he is now after 10 years.
I would guess though that you can improve a remarkable amount in one month if you play all day every day. I expect that a typical beginner would play about an hour a day at most. If he’s playing multiple hours a day, he’ll improve faster than a typical beginner.
Keep in mind also that he was not new to music, since he had played guitar previously. That makes a huge difference, since he’ll already be familiar with scales, chords, etc. and is mostly just learning motor skills.
Ok, fair enough. But he started playing in concerts long before 2016, and the first recorded album was released on February 2007. Apparently he was selected as the 2007 Independent Artist of the Year by the LA Association of Independent Artists, which seems still quite impressive for someone starting to play less than one year before (is this a real association? I’ve never heard of it before).