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Topic: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?  (Read 2437 times)

Offline ttpiano

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For inspiration, I've been watching a lot of piano players on Youtube (Not just pianists, but ordinary people posting videos).

I have noticed that almost every single person on Youtube, without exception, plays much better than I do. What does this mean? Does it mean I'm very bad, or are the people who post videos on Youtube a self-selected group of talented musicians?

Offline quantum

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #1 on: August 01, 2014, 07:46:16 PM
I think it is wise not to come to quick conclusions based on a relatively small sample set of recordings. Can you honestly say that you have listened to every piano video on youtube?  You are being too hard on yourself.  Why is it important to you to rate your own playing based on what you hear on youtube?

Here's another perspective: I continually seek out musicians that are more skilled than me, in order that I can learn from them and build my own skill set. 
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline coda_colossale

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #2 on: August 01, 2014, 07:47:38 PM
Why don't you try practicing?

Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #3 on: August 01, 2014, 09:24:19 PM
Don't worry about it and do your own thing.
Live large, die large.  Leave a giant coffin.

Offline ttpiano

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #4 on: August 01, 2014, 09:39:19 PM
I think it is wise not to come to quick conclusions based on a relatively small sample set of recordings. Can you honestly say that you have listened to every piano video on youtube?  You are being too hard on yourself.  Why is it important to you to rate your own playing based on what you hear on youtube?

Here's another perspective: I continually seek out musicians that are more skilled than me, in order that I can learn from them and build my own skill set. 


Good point. Most of the time, when I hear people playing much better than I do, I am inspired to practice more. So on the whole, I think it's a good thing to be able to hear people who are better. But we're all human and there are definitely times when I feel a bit discouraged when everyone seems to be better.

Offline iancollett6

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #5 on: August 01, 2014, 10:13:30 PM
 It's hard, I know, especially when you see a seven year old kid playing HR2!
Apart from the odd crazy dude with delusions of grandeur, I wouldnt imagine that there are any pianists in the world that at sometimes havn't felt doubt in their abilty.
But this is what makes people work harder?
 How long have you been playing?
"War is terrorism by the rich and terrorism is war by the poor." Peter Ustinov

Offline bronnestam

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #6 on: August 02, 2014, 10:59:26 AM
The winners are those who have the best time at their piano. If practicing starts to feel like struggle and misery, then you should carefully consider your choices.

Piano playing is an art, not a contest.

Offline hfmadopter

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #7 on: August 02, 2014, 09:47:08 PM
Good point. Most of the time, when I hear people playing much better than I do, I am inspired to practice more. So on the whole, I think it's a good thing to be able to hear people who are better. But we're all human and there are definitely times when I feel a bit discouraged when everyone seems to be better.

When I go to You Tube generally I'm seeking out better versions than my own or just another approach to my music etc. Sometimes a whole new avenue to take. I'm not so much comparing as seeking. And yes it can be very inspirational, for me anyway. I know everyone is not the same. I've hit on whole new genres of music to me and ultimately it spurred my creating music of my own. Again, I don't so much go there to compare but to seek something, be that something new to me or how someone famous went about something. Use You Tube as a tool . Just be sure of what you are watching ! Not everyone posting there is all that good but many are. I tend to look for the famous or successful people there and listen to expression, rendition, look at form etc. I go to enjoy sometimes and to walk away with something other times. Great tool and entertaining.
Depressing the pedal on an out of tune acoustic piano and playing does not result in tonal color control or add interest, it's called obnoxious.

Offline kevin69

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #8 on: August 03, 2014, 12:11:19 AM
When you watch someone on youtube, you have no idea how many takes it took for them to produce that performance. I've seen a couple of videos where the pianist says that they spent several hours recording in order to record a piece of under 2 minutes. So you could regard those performances as the best that pianist could do, not how they typically play.

Offline brogers70

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #9 on: August 03, 2014, 02:15:16 PM
What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you? It means you haven't looked hard enough.

Offline pianoplayer51

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #10 on: August 05, 2014, 12:22:13 PM
Generally speaking, people would not put youtube videos of themselves playing badly.  That would be embarrassing.

Offline bernadette60614

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #11 on: August 09, 2014, 02:45:03 PM
I don't feel that playing is about who is better than I.  I think it is about how I can form a deeper relationship with music by studying piano.

Offline liszt1022

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #12 on: August 09, 2014, 03:18:48 PM
It took me 2 days to record my Godowsky study for Youtube, and even the one I kept has some missed notes and is kind of slow. If I had made a video of all my attempts at recording it (including the near-nervous breakdown in the first day) then there'd be a 4-hour long video that would probably make you feel somewhat better.

Offline bronnestam

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #13 on: August 09, 2014, 04:27:29 PM
I have considered making a video showing how I study and learn some piece ... ruthlessly revealing how awfully bad it is from the beginning. I would certainly be a laughing stock but perhaps it could be encouraging as well for others, showing what reality really looks like for an ordinary piano student. I am tired of 4-yeard-old progidies who play Flight of the Bumble Bee in double speed.

Offline mjames

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #14 on: August 09, 2014, 07:03:25 PM
It's hard, I know, especially when you see a seven year old kid playing HR2!
Apart from the odd crazy dude with delusions of grandeur, I wouldnt imagine that there are any pianists in the world that at sometimes havn't felt doubt in their abilty.
But this is what makes people work harder?
 How long have you been playing?

WHO IS HE

THE CRAZY DUDE

I know who you're probably talking about but I forgot his username. He posts some weird comments all over YouTube like "I'm better" and he's playing is SOOO WEIRD.

Offline bernadette60614

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #15 on: August 09, 2014, 08:22:01 PM
Also, I think while YouTube can be fun, there is something about everyone having to be validated or seek their 15 minutes or seconds of fame on YouTube.

Offline awesom_o

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #16 on: August 09, 2014, 08:40:28 PM
I don't feel that playing is about who is better than I.  I think it is about how I can form a deeper relationship with music by studying piano.

Well-said!

Offline cbreemer

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #17 on: August 10, 2014, 09:04:26 AM
True, YT bristles with phenomenal pianists, many of them you've never even heard of. But there
are just as many bad pianists around. It is quite inconceivable that one would be a worse pianist than all of these ;-)

I like to cheer myself up sometimes with this original thought : Ok, so there's 100000 pianists who play so much better than I do. So what ! There are countless of millions who play much worse, or not at all, and would look up at me in awe for playing even a simple piece. I'm still
one of the, what, 1% of people who can play halfway decently at all.

Hope that helps ! And as said, it is not about who is better than who anyway. As long as you 
are still improving your own playing, there's nothing to worry about.

Offline toolsche

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #18 on: August 15, 2014, 08:57:57 AM
How about doing youtube posts of learning a completely unknown song from first sightread to acceptable performance? Could be annoying and frustrating but maybe also interesting.

By the way... I found this interesting page some time ago of this canadian guy posting his jazz piano practice sessions as midi files:
https://www.gpeters.com/lounge/practice/

Offline rmbarbosa

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #19 on: August 15, 2014, 03:43:09 PM
There`s another thing, I think: generaly speaking, we dont love our own performance, even whwen it is very good. But after hear our recording 3, 4 or more times, we feel itsnt so bad like we feel...
And another thing: in youtube, we can listen the great pianists indeed. But there are there a lot of horrible guys who play nothing...
So, dont worry! You are what you are, you play the best you can play and this must be the suficient to you.
Best wishes.
Rui

Offline cwjalex

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #20 on: August 17, 2014, 02:19:24 AM
i wouldn't be bothered if you feel that everyone on youtube is better than you because there are tons of people out there that are worse than you, they just aren't posting videos of themselves.  the people who are posting videos are the players that have a certain amount of confidence in themselves and their playing ability.  i think it's a mistake to think that youtube players represent the average pianist.

Offline senanserat

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Re: What does it mean if everyone on Youtube is better than you?
Reply #21 on: August 17, 2014, 09:05:02 PM
You do know that recording gives the benefit of playing the piece N time until one of those turns out near perfect right?
"The thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears, the thunder that strikes the earth is my anger!"
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