2022 our 25th year online!

Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums
Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments.
Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers (it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

SEARCH
Piano Forums & Piano World
(ad)
Who's Online Now
64 members (1957, Animisha, Barly, bobrunyan, 1200s, 36251, benkeys, 20/20 Vision, 10 invisible), 1,885 guests, and 332 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Hop To
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
#1454968 06/12/10 03:32 AM
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
P
Full Member
OP Offline
Full Member
P
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
Some people on these forums are probably going to hate me for this, but I really don't care. Here are my picks for You Tube's biggest Hams (in no particular order).

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqw7NQk0cdY
(Please! Someone stop this kid before his bad acting becomes a habit!)

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMVJ0P-Sfvg&feature=related
(If Michael Bolton played the Piano this is what would result)

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAsDLGjMhFI&feature=related
(The ghost of Beethoven is so going to strangle her in her sleep)

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubVVSWHkxs8&feature=related
(What can one say except, "Would you like some Stilton with your ham?")

5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byGI1mDi3no&feature=related
(His acting is as much a gimmick as are his clothes)

6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWTd-e41U0
(Oh no, I think he is having a seizure!)

7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd0UAdpBNUg
(Inspiring, truly Inspiring!)

These are my picks, what are yours?

Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 854
B
500 Post Club Member
Offline
500 Post Club Member
B
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 854
I had to look that up to be sure

"Slang: an amateur or incompetent performer, esp. an actor who performs with showy exaggeration"

No to amateur or incompetent performer, yes to showy exaggeration in most cases.

Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Online Content
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
The first three seem fine to me.

Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 162
Full Member
Offline
Full Member
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 162
Meh. I expected these to all be amateurs, and it was a surprise to see Yundi Li and Valentina Lisitsa included in this list. (Maksim Mrvica ... not such a surprise.)

But I can't really find fault with most of these from a musical standpoint. I thought the boy in the first clip was really very good, even if his emoting was thoroughly over the top. But as long as kids are coached to integrate that kind of faux-expressiveness into the music, or see it in other performers and emulate it themselves, I don't expect the trend to change. We live in an age of indulgence, after all, not restraint.

Did the guy in #6 remind anybody else of Rod Blagojevich (another certified Master Thespian)? smile

Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Online Content
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
Originally Posted by Chopinist
But I can't really find fault with most of these from a musical standpoint. I thought the boy in the first clip was really very good, even if his emoting was thoroughly over the top. But as long as kids are coached to integrate that kind of faux-expressiveness into the music, or see it in other performers and emulate it themselves, I don't expect the trend to change. We live in an age of indulgence, after all, not restraint.
I really can't see the slightest example of over the top emoting from #1. He reminds me a little of Haochen Zhang, recent Van Cliburn winner, in terms of his degree of emoting. I also don't think that many young pianists are coached to do this or that it's faux expressiveness. I think more often than not young players are coached to reduce their expressive movements.

Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,746
D
6000 Post Club Member
Offline
6000 Post Club Member
D
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,746

1. You didn't have to pick on a kid did you?
2. It looks as if the producer thought he might get this on MTV.
3. What's wrong with this?
4. Number one probably watches this guy.
5. I'd pretty much like to slap this guy.
6. This one is weird enough that I'm not sure he's seen himself play.
7. How does he play with his elbows so much lower than his hands?

Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 162
Full Member
Offline
Full Member
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 162
Originally Posted by pianoloverus
I really can't see the slightest example of over the top emoting from #1. He reminds me a little of Haochen Zhang, recent Van Cliburn winner, in terms of his degree of emoting. I also don't think that many young pianists are coached to do this or that it's faux expressiveness. I think more often than not young players are coached to reduce their expressive movements.

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree. There's nothing that could convince me that such drama is authentic to a 10-year-old boy (never mind intrinsic to the music).

Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 13,837
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Offline
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 13,837
Originally Posted by philosophyfan
These are my picks, what are yours?


This is my pick. One of my idols. And I honestly wish I had half this guy's talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qblN-ILuiyQ


"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt)

www.pianoped.com
www.youtube.com/user/UIPianoPed
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Online Content
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,799
Originally Posted by Kreisler
Originally Posted by philosophyfan
These are my picks, what are yours?


This is my pick. One of my idols. And I honestly wish I had half this guy's talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qblN-ILuiyQ
I have seen Chico Youtube clips between 30 an 50 times. He seems to have a fairly small number of "tricks" in his playing, but I don't seem get tired of watching. I'm not really sure why this is! Maybe his personality is so appealing also?

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 240
J
Full Member
Offline
Full Member
J
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 240
Replying to the first post: number one already has this as a habit... It seems that when Lang Lang became famous, a lot of people seemed to like his style. Personally, I can say pretty critical stuff about it but all I'm going with for now is:

Pianists are not actors - their finger are!


Chopin, Brahms, Schubert, Rachmaninov
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
P
Full Member
OP Offline
Full Member
P
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
Originally Posted by babama
I had to look that up to be sure
"Slang: an amateur or incompetent performer, esp. an actor who performs with showy exaggeration"
No to amateur or incompetent performer, yes to showy exaggeration in most cases.


Ham
Pronunciation: \ˈham\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm; akin to Old High German hamma ham, Greek knēmē shinbone, Old Irish cnáim bone
Date: before 12th century

1 a : the hollow of the knee b : a buttock with its associated thigh —usually used in plural

2 : a cut of meat consisting of a thigh; especially : one from a hog

3 [short for hamfatter, from “The Ham-fat Man,” minstrel song] a : a showy performer; especially : an actor performing in an exaggerated theatrical style
b : a licensed operator of an amateur radio station

4 : a cushion used especially by tailors for pressing curved areas of garments
— ham adjective

Originally Posted by William Shakespeare
SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

Enter HAMLET and Players
HAMLET
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

First Player
I warrant your honour.

HAMLET
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.


Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Offline
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Originally Posted by Kreisler
This is my pick. One of my idols. And I honestly wish I had half this guy's talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qblN-ILuiyQ

Hey, you love Chico too? smile

I like how easily he got rid of the 'real' piano player. That guy must have been a moron. ha

P.S. I see that you're not thinking "ham" in a negative way. And from the several that he picked, I wasn't sure he was either.

Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 635
500 Post Club Member
Offline
500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 635
Oh frown kissin didnt get mentioned?

Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Offline
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Originally Posted by Chopinist
....There's nothing that could convince me that such drama is authentic to a 10-year-old boy.....

You have to take into account that this is no ordinary 10-year-old boy (or whatever age he is). It seems that you're not.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6,437
6000 Post Club Member
Offline
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6,437
The opening post seems a little unkind.

I love Chico too.


Best regards,

Deborah
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,741
4000 Post Club Member
Offline
4000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,741
Bad picks.

Here's a great one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ8WP4YkGY0



"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth."
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Offline
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Originally Posted by AngelinaPogorelich
Bad picks.

Here's a great one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ8WP4YkGY0

No no.....here's a better version.

Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
P
Full Member
OP Offline
Full Member
P
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 34
Originally Posted by EtudeBasher
Oh frown kissin didnt get mentioned?


8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sPxr539mts
(I can't tell what's worse, his acting or his hair)

Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 419
L
Full Member
Offline
Full Member
L
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 419
I agree that employing over-the-top gestures and facial expressions during performance is not desirable. Horowitz was opposed to that, as he believed that you should express the emotion through the music, not through facial expressions.


Recent Repertoire:
Liszt: Concerto #1 in Eb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dY9Qw8Z7ao
Bach: Partita #2 in c minor
Beethoven: Sonata #23 in f minor, Opus 57 ("Appassionata")
Chopin: Etudes Opus 25 #6,9,10,11,12
Prokofiev: Sonata #3 in a minor
Suggestion diabolique
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Offline
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,600
Dunno about that......what about this: ha

[Linked Image]

(just kidding, just kidding!)

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  Brendan, platuser 

Link Copied to Clipboard
What's Hot!!
Piano World Has Been Sold!
--------------------
Forums RULES, Terms of Service & HELP
(updated 06/06/2022)
---------------------
Posting Pictures on the Forums
(ad)
(ad)
New Topics - Multiple Forums
Country style lessons
by Stephen_James - 04/16/24 06:04 AM
How Much to Sell For?
by TexasMom1 - 04/15/24 10:23 PM
Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive
by FrankCox - 04/15/24 07:42 PM
New bass strings sound tubby
by Emery Wang - 04/15/24 06:54 PM
Forum Statistics
Forums43
Topics223,385
Posts3,349,194
Members111,631
Most Online15,252
Mar 21st, 2010

Our Piano Related Classified Ads
| Dealers | Tuners | Lessons | Movers | Restorations |

Advertise on Piano World
| Piano World | PianoSupplies.com | Advertise on Piano World |
| |Contact | Privacy | Legal | About Us | Site Map


Copyright © VerticalScope Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.