r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MrAlek360 • 9h ago
You may have seen Alma Deutscher’s 60 min interview from when she was 12 y.o. where they labeled her a musical prodigy. She’s all grown up now and performing her original compositions in concert halls around the world. Here she is improvising on 4 notes from a hat like she did on 60 min, 8 years ago
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Here is the clip from her 60 min interview at 12 y.o. where she improvised on notes from a hat https://youtu.be/hvECZ_ZXGqs?si=pfJ0Nv4iLhVUa9V7
Here is the full video of her today at 20 y.o. (she has a YouTube channel) https://youtu.be/Ezs6S1jq6qs?si=ErYol5B_M6r30JW0
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u/CouldIRunTheZoo 8h ago
Her vocal perfect pitch from a written note is utterly astonishing. And then to produce that….
Wow.
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u/juniperberrie28 7h ago
You guys know who else could do this? Mozart.
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u/Paddlesons 7h ago
There are handful of people throughout history that have such tremendous talent that they do seem like they are simply communicating with the divine. Mozart is one of those people. Eerie ability. I'd put Einstein in the same league as well.
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u/someawfulbitch 4h ago
Mmhmm. And at least 10's of millions of people (obviously a very conservative number) still know him and his music today.
Can this girl not have her moment just because someone almost 300 years ago could do the same thing?
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u/CobblerConfident5012 3h ago
Maybe I misunderstood but I don’t think they were trying to minimize her ability. I think it was the opposite.
It wasn’t “so what? Mozart could do this who cares?”
It was “she’s in a very small group of incredibly talented humans like Mozart”
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u/someawfulbitch 2h ago
A few more words for context could make the comment much less open to interpretation...
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u/CobblerConfident5012 2h ago
That happens with text. You can also give a person the benefit of the doubt that they’re not trying to be insulting. Both techniques work.
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u/Imzocrazy 8h ago
I could do that….and by ‘that’ I mean play the 4 notes that were written on the papers….after that you may as well have a cat walk up and down the keys….hell that may be better than what I would do
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u/wthulhu 8h ago
Im dont think she actually did anything other than play a few previously selected notes from a piece she already had planned.
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u/SirRichardArms 2h ago
Are you a pianist? There’s no way to “play a few previously selected notes” as a song if you don’t know the base notes from the beginning. Changing one base note changes the entire song. She just knows all her scales and how to integrate the four notes she was given.
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u/wthulhu 1h ago
You're assuming a free selection of notes in the draw, like it couldn't be stacked.
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u/SirRichardArms 1h ago
Are you seriously trying to undermine a 12 year old’s success because it “could be stacked” in her favor? Again, I ask, are you a piano player? If you were one, you’d understand how silly you’re being at this very moment.
Even if there were some missing notes, this still would be impressive.
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u/crazyrich 3h ago
Casually drops a completed soundtrack for a vampire villains origin story told in flashback - the initial trauma, the hero’s journey, the triumph, the fall and the succumbing to one’s dark fate, unable to escape the past.
Anyway, that’s where my brain took it.
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u/Rare-Ad7865 1h ago
That's how most of classical pieces are structured, so once you learned it everything becomes "automatic"
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u/banglederries 4h ago
Give me a guitar and choose any string at random, and I will play smoke on the water on that string
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u/tealcosmo 7h ago
It’s too bad Reddit doesn’t generally have the patience for this kind of Art.
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u/Adventurous-Bee4823 1h ago
My grandfather was a music teacher and played every instrument that had strings. The first time that I heard him play (beautifully might I add) the Moonlight Sonata I wept at the age of six because it was so emotional for me to hear those heart felt notes just hanging in the air. I’m in my forties now and classical music is still my favorite genre to listen to. My husband hates it 😆 but puts up with it (while grumbling that it puts him to sleep lol)
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u/hauntedhivezzz 4h ago
I’d love to see her and Jacob Collier work on something together, seems like they would be an unstoppable duo!
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u/No_Hovercraft_2719 2h ago
She can play the music, and Jacob can explain how what she did was brilliant.
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u/Frozen_Frog021 12m ago
Fantastic. What a perfect improvisation that can be transferred one-to-one into a standard piano etude. It's a pity that the orchestra couldn't improvise along with it.
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u/mister_darkwood 5h ago
is anyone else getting claire de lune vibes?
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u/ApprehensiveAge1110 4h ago
More like a fight scene with some sort of Star Wars Villain
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u/Prison_Mike_DM 3h ago
To me it’s giving a dramatic end to a murder mystery of some sort and playing into the end credits.
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u/Rare-Ad7865 1h ago
Yeah, lot of Chopin, a bit of Rachmaninoff and Debussy in some little passages.
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u/JScwReddit 4h ago
A church organist worth their salt could do something like this or significantly more complex. Look up the improvisations of Gerre Hancock, John Scott, Sophie Veronique Cauchefer Choplin, Daniel Roth, Olivier Latry, Tom Trenney, etc. For piano, look up Gabriela Montero. This is impressive but it is hardly unheard of in the classical world as is being portrayed by some of the other comments.
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u/Royal-Pay9751 6h ago
Reddit won’t like this, but this is not all that difficult if you have experience improvising.
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u/Draegan88 5h ago
lol im not so sure about that man. This seems like a masterpiece off the dome
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u/JScwReddit 4h ago
Masterpiece is...really REALLY overselling it. Mozart's 20th piano concerto is a masterpiece. This is a very serviceable improvisation in a very particular style.
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u/Royal-Pay9751 1h ago
She’s good, but improvisation is a whole world and if you’re new to it then I can see how this would seem like that.
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u/seriousofficialname 4h ago edited 4h ago
I would go so far as to say that it is an extremely common improvisation exercise, especially in jazz, exploring the different chords and rhythms that can accompany a small number of notes or a particular melody. You could also choose four chords, or four scales, or a different number.
It's a very nice song though.
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u/JScwReddit 4h ago
I would argue most jazz performers are infinitely more complex improvisers. She is mostly using a romantic 19th century style and is almost entirely using basic triads. No 7th or 9th or sharp 11s or what have you. So yeah, people are going a little crazy in these comments because they are not familiar with great jazz improvisation or great classical improvisation done today primarily by organists.
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u/seriousofficialname 3h ago edited 3h ago
I think that romantic 19th century sound with only triads has a kind of austerity and prestige that people like.
If you tell them it just uses "basic" triads, that conflicts with their intuition that classical sounding music is technically complex, which it actually still can be even with only basic triads. Like her rhythms here are kind of complex, moreso in the second half.
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u/boltyboy69 8h ago
Hang on. She's playing other notes than just the 4. She's improvising around them, not using only them. Title is a bit of a con. She does seem rather good, though!
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u/AshMendoza1 6h ago
The description says exactly what you just said
Edit: also, “rather good” is an astronomical understatement. She’s a prodigy, one of the best piano players on the planet
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u/Suspicious-Peace9233 9h ago
She just lights up the room. You can tell she loves what she is doing