Behold and be amazed, at the level of sophistication that some human life forms have managed to achieve in their respective musical instruments! These human life forms are specifically bred, and besides their obvious talent they have trained relentlessly to achieve a near perfect technical and emotional understanding of their instrument. All the people you will see here will be at the very top of what is currently possible in their field of expertise. Do note, this is a selection of ones I know about, if you have any more feel free to add them! Spoiler: To start it of, something I believe is one of the hardest of the entire list and strangely enough with a cello! Spoiler: Bass Slap Bass: (I would've added 'A show of hands' from the same artist, but I couldn't find a vid of him doing it, which is kind of the point) One of the better yt bass players with a hugely successful channel -- DEADMAU5 said this Bassline is IMPOSSIBLE... That's about all the bass I know. Spoiler: Guitario Firstly, allow me to recommend a movie about three very influential guitar players that have totally different styles, but talk about their accomplishments and styles: It might get loud Yes, I know you can't see him playing, but due to him sadly dying in a helicopter crash this is the 'cleanest' audio. There's loads of vids of him actually playing but its quite old so a lot less in terms of quality. Still, he was a genious with a guitar and this song holds a special spot in my heart. Undoubtedly one of the most influential guitarists that ever lived. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PVjcIO4MT4 Another gathering of hugely influential guitarists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQFZ6hhGAFw Tapping has a huge guitar following too. Passionflower by Jon Gomm is a recommended listen too. Not to mention antoine dufour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4 Though there's a newcomer in town who I believe surpasses even drifting (the video above) Luca Stricagnoli. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMPWfHqVj40 He's seriously amazing, and plays very recognizable songs like Sweet Child O' Mine, Bittersweet Symphony, and his newest from The Prodigy Dream Theater, they are the equivalent of what Mozart would be in his time, or what Queen was back in their time. They're very popular in their genre for a reason. Their melodies and arrangements are rooted in a deep knowledge of technical genius and music theory. I absolutely love another song of theirs but there's no denying they have some of the best technical players of the world in their band. (not just one instrument. All of them are pretty damn amazing) A quite note: If this sounds bad to you, it's probably because this is a highly technical song that's pushing the edges of what's possible in terms of time signatures and musical theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ik9qECIWgc Absolutely iconic for its time, that put the guitarworld upside down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_lwocmL9dQ Probably one of the hardest shred songs, a close second would be through the fire and the flames. A guitar hero classic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmfzWpp0hMc Let's get a bit more classical with the cliffs of dover, as the man's signature tune, you can see him utilizing a variety of techniques, all while putting musicality first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nAwmVLQSk And the hardest classical piece goes to : (Do note the piece itself had to be heavily altered before it was even 'playable', and calling this playable is already a stretch) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J29k1LtHq9M In our next installment you can look forward to instruments like the piano and violin (since I'm running out of text here)[/spoiler]
Now things get serioso. As a long time piano player I actually have some knowledge about what is hard and what is easy on this instrument. I mean, I do play guitar, voilin, drums and bass but not on the level as I play the piano. A great quote I saw somewhere was (and I completely forgot the actual quote so I'll paraphrase) "If you are a complete beginner all you can see is a hill, you can not see beyond it. You can not even imagine how hard the climb to the top will be. But the higher you go, the more experience you will gain and the more you will realize how hard certain parts are" My instrument of choice, piano Now let me start, the hardest technical piano piece (like pretty much all other instruments) are highly debated. As 'hard' is something individual. You might have an easier time with certain technical skills than me and the other way around. But it's mainly agreed upon that the following composers have one of the most demanding pieces: Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel Gaspard, Boulez, Rachmaninov, (etc) A name I often see when I look up the most technically fast and difficult pieces, Valentina Lisitsa. I'll try to include other pianists, but just know that she's one of the top pianists currently alive. There's plenty of lists on youtube that give you some of the hardest technical pieces. Kyle Landry, the OG of youtube pianists. I remember my jaw dropping by his arrangements as far back as 10 years ago. He's still active and sometimes plays classical, but mostly anime/meme related songs. Rick and Morty, Pokemon, Naruto, Kingdom hearts, pirates of the carribean,... all are part of his legacy. (I got lazy searching url's halfway through so I linked his channel on top) Godamnit, I'm now stuck listening to a pokemon medly on the piano *cough* back to the important part of finishing this post. VKGOESWILD Capitalized due to the sheer awesomeness of her playing. She's a russian classically trained pianist gone metal. She now mostly plays metal arrangements on the piano, but she also does most of the rock classics like Guns & Roses or even contemporary songs like Muse. She's a beast, a magnificent transcendent pianist being who just breathes and lives piano. I think her arrangements are even better than KyleLandry's, but to me, she is simply amazing. It pains me to only select one of her amazing renditions, but this has to be one of the most recognizable songs (and the only song that I've learned myself! ) If you talk queen, I have to include this one as he very impressively adds percussion to piano playing: I also wanna add this song (as it took me godamn weeks to learn it myself and im proud of it!) Another person who took modern arrangements to the next level on youtube would be Evan Duffy. The way he captures the mood and emotions of a piece is just breath taking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTwoMGCtPT8 Anarrangement from the ragtime genre that's simply brilliant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCfGXwx1mJs PS: if you find more video's like the one above and below... Please notify me! I love mashing up classical with contemporary! It takes quite a lot of skill and ingenuity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S75gYhODS0M Okay let's move on to: Violin Another instrument that has way too many good options to show. Just like the piano, the violin is an instrument that is very good on its own. It gets solo's, it gets fast pieces, it gets their own concerts.. there's enough choice when it comes to violin pieces. I do want to start with these two songs. One, amazing and probably very well known, another horrible to probably 90% of people (including me) who can't appreciate the huge technical difficulties that go into it as its one of the hardest pieces to play. In the world. Period. 1: Well known and amazing. (do note, I couldn't find a better live version. And I'm honestly not a fan of this version as it doesn't convey the intent and emotion I'd like to hear) https://youtu.be/g65oWFMSoK0?t=8m12s 2: Probably horrible, but hardest piece in the world. period. I'll also leave you with the actual explanation instead of having to type it all out: https://youtu.be/IaLwrLRpZ1w?t=6m47s STRANGELY I haven't touched this part yet, as youtube seems to be flooded with Child Geniuses. They annoy me, they make me feel inferior, yet I can't help but respect them. they are simply jaw dropping annoying. Every -godamn- instrument has a few of them.. Sungha Jung on guitar, Emily Bear/Tsung Tsung for piano and here's the violin equivalent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDJdh13gHrE Spoiler: fun bonus here's two professional players being annoyed by it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDJdh13gHrE I once went to a random pub/restaurant in france where we were randomly treated with a group of conservatory students who joined a professional irish band during their break. They there learned many, many new techniques but me as a youngling child was treated with something even better.. Authentic irish music and professional musicians who tried their very best to attain an entirely new level of skill. As seemingly the classical teachings completely differ with the way irish violinists play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZfR4CG-3_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMPtwM8avs Then we get to the pretty much obligatory classical technical pieces, but since I find it hard to imagine anybody actually enjoying these I'll just post one out of a handful of potential choices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAMK3kiz5c And a new addition, new technical engineering vs violin: The magic of Loop pedals (Something I wanted to include with the piano section too, but I ran out of space )! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fIFQtqx0ew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8jUWoyBeQ And unless you've been living under a rock lately, I'm sure you've seen this gall jumping and twirling around your screen lately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSLPH9d-jsI Bonus! I'm def not adding a catagory for this but as a bonus.. this guy is simply amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Bn4m6dQbI
More please. Only had time to go through the first, having a quick listen of some of the others. Pretty cool stuff
This is my schools marching band and I think its pretty cool and definitely worth a watch this was from my freshman year.
[RandomAnnoyingYoutubeChannelMode] Hey awesome people, thank you for reading this thread and if you enjoyed this post, make sure to leave a like as the reply and share it with your friends! [/RandomAnnoyingYoutubeChannelMode] Seriously though. I've hit a wall with instruments that I've got any clue about. All I've got left are drums and saxophone, but i don't have that many examples for them. If you have any more impressive knowledge, let me know!
