Spinach Rag - Nobuo Uematsu - 植松伸夫 - sight-read by Tom Brier

[TheGuajiroo]

bueno bueno bueno buenísimo!!

[Genralix]

this man must have sold his soul to the devil

[Keeper1st]

@Genralix Well, ragtime was known as "the devil's music"...

[stolenrims]

The second play-thru definitely was improved, but still pretty remarkable to have done this on a sight-read (1.5). I tried to get my mom to play this. I got her some sheet music for it, but I think it was a little more than she could handle. I believe if she dedicated more time to it, she could probably do it, but I guess she doesn't care that much about video game rags. Oh well. This will have to do, and it's well done.

[gabbyfromTX]

@Keeper1st

Ironically, I hate rootbeer. :P Perhaps a cok-float would work?

[gabbyfromTX]

"It's right under the fingers." Hehehe..yeah....I need to start taking whatever Tom does before he plays. I took one look at the score to this and my hands started hurting.

[Keeper1st]

@gabbyfromTX Well, I can tell you what Tom had before playing this: A rootbeer float!

[Henry1993bc]

"the keys move so that they land underneath my fingers"

[iamprocrastinating]

Tom Brier, you just brightened up my day no end! completely awesome, thanks man

[vanwyk555]

His power comes from the 70's outfit. Nonetheless, amazing player thanks for sharing

[Keeper1st]

@vanwyk555 '70s outfit? Let me guess: You weren't around in the '70s.

[Azremodehar]

Hearing this piece waaaay back in the day, when I played FFVI for the first time, is what made me fall in love with ragtime as a whole. Made me want to learn piano, too.

[xturtlex]

the music from this game was so good.

[PopTartNeko]

Beautiful! It's been lots of years since I've played Final Fantasy VI and then I heard this familiar tune again. Realized it has never really left me.

[Sasori915]

Woah, woah, woah. You're telling me that a friend of Nobuo Uematsu sent you a piece of ragtime music... written by Nobuo Uematsu? That has to be the most amazing thing ever!! What's next, is Koji Kondo going to send you his original copy (if such a copy exists) of the orignal Super Mario Bros. Theme? You're so lucky. :)

[Sainty01]

Lol what, did someone fart at 3:51?

[Keeper1st]

@Sainty01 Perhaps you did...? What makes you even think such a thing? It's not like YouTube is in Smell-O-Vision, and you wouldn't be able to hear if someone did over all the laughing and my talking from right behind the camera.

[Sainty01]

@Keeper1st The sound is somewhat similar, actually it's more like 3:52. Well nevermind anyway, I tend to pick up odd stuff sometimes. +1 for the performance btw.

[Keeper1st]

@Sainty01 That's me saying "Yeah."

[llamatube]

@Keeper1st lol I asked that previously, funny sound glitch.

[Mapinga78]

2:34 onwards shows an amazing understanding between you two

[Keeper1st]

@Mapinga78 I dunno about that; he just knows what I mean by "one-step" which I would expect of any musician.

[SurvivingTheHorizon]

this makes me want to quit and ive been playing for 20 years lol

[IsaacLJ]

That lady was a jerk! I didn't care for her at all... and I've had people like her hovering around me while I 'work' too. =/

[jere3416]

OMG you know some1 who's friends with Uematsu???

Damn lucky man!!!

[Keeper1st]

@jere3416 No; I just got email from one way back when the internet was a much, much smaller place.

[jere3416]

@Keeper1st aww you mean like a random one?

[jere3416]

@Keeper1st aww, u mean like a random mail?

[pcachu]

That improv on the last run-through is what makes it pro.

[WillGameRecord]

just amazing!!!!

[roshidon]

You get some mad hoes with those skillz.

[Henry1993bc]

"the keys move so that they land underneath my fingers" that pretty much sums up Mr.Brier

[MewMeg]

Yeay! a cowboy song! ^^ XD

[Keeper1st]

@MewMeg Where?

[MewMeg]

@Keeper1st when the piano plays, it's like on the westerns films, in the bars (or pubs I don't remember...) =D

[Keeper1st]

@MewMeg In films, maybe, but it's not historically accurate to call this "cowboy music".

[GeorgesVI]

@Keeper1st well some cowboys must have listen to, since it was during the same time ...unlike country western which started long after the wild west

[Keeper1st]

@GeorgesVI Same time (well a bit later) but different place. This was music in the cities -- particularly the ethnically diverse cities, as it came from African-American musicians. In many predominantly white areas, ragtime music and its related dances was banned for being obscene.

[Lashmush]

@Keeper1st hahah, its always refreshing to go back and look on what society deemed upsetting and provoking through history. strange how such an often energetic and generally joyous genre could be considered "obscene"...

[jere3416]

@Keeper1st wait, are you guys talking about spinach rag from final fantsy 6?

[Keeper1st]

@jere3416 Not specifically. Referring to ragtime music in general.

[jere3416]

@Keeper1st oooh, sry its b4 my time

[Keeper1st]

@jere3416 Well, it's before everyone's time, unless there's like a 120-year-old out there...

[jere3416]

@Keeper1st i see

[328805]

It's all in the wrist.......and the beard

[cloudparter]

This is amazing! What a rendition. He got the timing almost down perfectly and he Sight Read this?!? I call shenanigans!

[calaverx11]

Holy shit, that was awesome.

[TolaMacarino]

That customer is so funny. He should play some more music at that place!

[Keeper1st]

@TolaMacarino He does, every two months. Next date is July 23rd at 7 p.m.

[shadowfangVII]

ahhhh! so awesome!

[genjutsugaara]

Holy Mother of God..you so god damn fast..damn,lemme be ur student

[Keeper1st]

@genjutsugaara This is nothing. If you want to see him at full speed, check out videos of him playing "Razor Blades" or "Redneck Rag"! Or even sight-reading the Horse Race theme from Legend of Zelda at 163 beats per minute.

[yervacore]

No mas decir que el piano es el mas hermoso instrumento de todos, en todo sentido :)

[tazp123]

that ending :3 :3 :3. He is the Rag-master

[fisher1277]

This is wonderful!!!

[civilwildman]

Damn! And that's pretty much at the same speed as it's played in the game! Awesome job, Keeper1st! :D

[Keeper1st]

@civilwildman I'm just the guy holding the camera... well and I made the sheet music he's reading.

[GOREG4SM]

Oh great. Outbid by that damned kid wanting the replica airship. For the 15th time today.

[cabbitsd]

...Like he's ringing a freaking bell.

[Scorpiondesu]

Man, he's banging on that piano.

[sonohito]

My most fave RPG of all time and one of the best pieces in the game. Well done! Thanks for uploading this, it really made my day!

[scarletkitty]

I'm crying. Tears. So beautiful

[RicoLen1]

Long time fan of Uematsu, honest he's one of the very best composers alive. I was only like 14 or so when I first heard this song and I got Final Fantasy 3 for the SNES. I was really surprised at how 'authentic' this song felt compared to much older and well known ragtimes.

[WyattEpp]

So someone claiming to be one of Uematsu Nobuo's friends sent you a MIDI file in 1999? That's blowing my mind, no joke. Was it another composer?

[Keeper1st]

@WyattEpp It was earlier than '99, I think. I was still using dial-up unix shell accounts, so it was probably '96, '97...? I didn't know what game the tune was from for many more years when I happened to come across Uematsu's name and looked around. Don't remember the name of the person who sent it either. The person had mistaken my site for a MIDI ragtime music repository, when actually it's just for my own MIDI sequences.

[Keeper1st]

@WyattEpp It was earlier than '99, I think. I was still using dial-up unix shell accounts, so it was probably '96, '97...? I didn't know what game the tune was from for many more years when I happened to come across Uematsu's name and looked around. Don't remember the name of the person who sent it either. The person had mistaken my site for a MIDI ragtime music repository, when actually it's just for my own MIDI sequences.

[PhillipLu]

Man, where can I get one of those player pianos. The motions seems to be all I can do.

[PersaconClassics]

-gasp- "He's playin' the devils music!"

and it never sounded so good. ;D

[thapL4y]

Makes me wanna learn to play the piano : )

[amplimax]

What's a one-step?

[Keeper1st]

@amplimax Notice how he plays it after I suggest it as a one-step, if you compare it to how it was played before, the bass line moves twice as fast in relation to the melody.

[Potztausig]

Composed by a genius and interpreted by another genius. Damn for a moment I was sitting in the Saloon watching the girls dance concorde :3

[amphreded]

I love that Tom's always having fun

[Chris246t8kr]

I would like to see this "future preformance" :-).

[nineko]

6:49 to 7:08 sounds like something I would never be able to do, even if I practiced for 50 years in a row.

[llamatube]

Hahah did you fart at 3:52?

[Keeper1st]

@llamatube Huh? Not that I recall! I'm saying "Yeah" there.

[FezzAndCompany]

i here a bar fight a comin

[phatcorns]

1:47, my life for AIUR!

[Wiggymaster]

Piano's a bit out of tune, but aside from that fan-fricking-tastic. 5 stars.

[josiah566]

oh man that customer was so win. So was Tom's response. XD

"The keys move under the fingers for me."

[MrCokeLolx]

What a madman!

Spinach Rag is probably my favourite song from Final Fantasy 6 and Tom did a great job playing it.

I didn't even know what Ragtime was before seeing your videos of Tom and reading up on it. I often contemplated what the "Rag" in Spinach Rag was supposed to mean and I feel like an idiot now. Only if I were as good at English as Tom is at playing the piano, haha.

[Keeper1st]

@MrCokeLolx Part of the reason I post the videos of Tom playing these tunes is to introduce ragtime as a genre to people who like the tunes but are unaware that this style is a living genre outside of video games and Disney theme parks. They see videos like this, then see videos of "normal" ragtime and realize the style of music as a whole is what makes these game tunes so catchy and memorable. So, you're a case in point. These videos have introduced you to ragtime as a whole. That's great!

[MrCokeLolx]

@Keeper1st What a noble cause. After learning of Ragtime I realized that several of my favorite video game music tracks happen to belong to the Ragtime style.

Thanks for enlightening me!

I've been wanting to be able to play the piano for a long time and I wish I had picked up it up when I was younger. It's a good thing that I can still enjoy the playing of great pianists such as Tom.

[adamrulesworld]

I wish he would record a CD of these video game tunes. I would be first in line! I love listening to him play. Really inspiring to me as a fellow piano player.

[Taedrin]

The link to the score is 404ing for me. If it isn't just me, I don't suppose you could post a working link to it? I would *love* to be able to try this amazing piece!

[Keeper1st]

@Taedrin Oh, sorry about that. I had moved all my web space to a new host and domain last year. I thought I had updated all my links, but I must have missed this one (which didn't matter until now because the old host still hadn't taken down the space that I hadn't been paying for since about this time last year!). Anyway, I've put the new link in the description now.

[VegasBilgeRat]

This piece of music is so powerful to me... Truly a masterpiece IMO.

[XxDEBUGxX]

I'd rather like my own Tom Brier player piano, got any in stock?

Just slot in any sheet music and away it goes!

[Dymdez]

This has been like my 100th time watching this and it really just dawned on me how amazing this is, around 1:48 is just unbelievable....This must be so much fun for him to be able to do this.

[DarknessSavior]

You should make a playlist of all of the videos you have of Tom playing video game tunes. I've tried finding them all in your videos, but you have -so many-. I found this one by accident when I found the Earthbound one. XD

He's so great!

[Keeper1st]

@DarknessSavior I've been loath to do that because one of the reasons for posting these videos is to introduce gamers to the genre as a whole -- including ragtime music from sources other than games. If I were to do it, I wouldn't just have the videos of Tom, but my sheet music transcriptions and my video of Martin Spitznagel doing the Mario theme in stride piano.

[DarknessSavior]

@Keeper1st That would be fine too. Basically I was just saying you should put all of the video-game tunes on a playlist. Believe me, once gamers realize some of their favorite songs are ragtime tunes, they'll look at some of the other videos you've got that are non-game related. :D

[MetroidDatabase]

7:45 onward ftw...

That lady was annoying...

[TurquoiseStar17]

@MetroidDatabase

She's just doing her job, though yeah I guess she picked a bad time to walk in.

[necronopticous]

This is the best video on YouTube.

[ragtimeguy93]

i guess this was the 6th time i added this to my favourites :D

[coollein]

Oh, so one of the greatest vgmusic composers did rag too! The Chrono Cross music is my all-time favorite, that combined with my favorite pianist =D Just plain greatness

[Keeper1st]

@coollein There are a couple more ragtime tunes from Uematsu (and indeed from the Final Fantasy series) that I discovered recently and showed to Tom this past weekend. Video was taken, so stay tuned...

[TheTrickerL]

amazing

[nmslayer]

Finally, someone who doesn't play it too fast or too slow.

[ReturnOfTheStienway]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE THIS TUNE@!!!!!!

[chaff5]

"When it does that slow down bit, I always imagine it going into a one-step."

*laughs* "I could do that" *makes it up on the spot*

Look in the dictionary for the words "awesome" and "pianist". Pianist shows a picture of Tom, Awesome says "please see pianist."

[Keeper1st]

@chaff5 Actually he says, "I could see that..." before doing it. I kinda figured that if I put the idea into his head, he'd run with it like that. But the result is almost always better than I imagined!

[shadowzero9200]

Treno! He would be PERFECT for playing Treno from Final Fantasy 9. It was so made for him.

[Keeper1st]

@shadowzero9200 Oh, that's a great rag. I hadn't heard that one before. Definitely will make a score of it. Thanks for the heads-up! I also have Slide Show Part 2 from FF VII in the queue of tunes to make readable scores from (scores exist for both of these tunes but they're either overly simplified or have a lot of wrong accidentals or are in the wrong time signature, use too many ledger lines, etc., so I have to score them myself to make them truly readable).

[Keeper1st]

@shadowzero9200 I posted a video of Tom sight-reading the Treno tune last night.

[Keeper1st]

@geniehu You mean besides the one linked to in the description?

[PinkFloydrulez]

sick playing

[Locke1620]

Wow that was amazing. What I love about this tune is that you would never guess it was from a video game, which is how all VG music should be; good enough to stand on it's own.

[VegasBilgeRat]

is this video in the Wand shop on Diagon alley?

[Keeper1st]

@VegasBilgeRat Heh, no, but it is a rather old building -- about 160 years old. It's the Sutter Creek Ice Cream Emporium, at 51 Main Street, Sutter Creek, California.

[xarboy5000]

OHHH if i could only remember what this is from!

[Keeper1st]

@xarboy5000 It's in the description. Final Fantasy VI.

[xarboy5000]

@Keeper1st Epic facepalm. Thats right, i should know for how much i played the game. This plays in like every bar/pub-type place if i recall correctly.

[isambo400]

Was that lady drunk or something?

[Keeper1st]

I don't think so. She was just a customer at the ice cream shop who came in with her husband or boyfriend.

[jf3d]

WTB 1/1200 scale model of an airship, pst

[Jostone102]

WTS 1/1200 scale model of an airship, 1 million gil, pst.

[Jostone102]

Sold, to this lucky person!

Take it away, please!

[Martiumx]

Give Tom to play Those who Fights from Final fantasy 7 i know its not Rag but ir would be nice to see :)

[shockwave0eternal]

Wow!

[RetardedG4M3RX]

Theres some bad sound in the video thats making the song sound bad. DX

[ClassicTracks2]

This, and lonlonjp's version are my favorite covers of this tune.

[TheOpinionatedPerson]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu­uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu­uuu---

[Welytomm]

Ahah! Amazing! This guy is the guy huh?!

[mizeryschild]

haha! "It's a very smart piano. The keys just land right under my fingers and I just go through the motions -- then it plays."

[gangstakilll]

If this was a game I'd call speedhack on him.

[LiiChinHo]

Honky Tonkers!

[Donkelo]

This video alone makes me want to abandon everything in life and learn how to play ragtime instead. Wonderful!

[Phooey80]

ZOMG lol, I wanna go to an auction and buy some Magicite now.

[SmaddyDiva]

This is great! Thanks for sharing.

[rdwoodw]

Watching this makes me feel so inadequate. I think I'll just learn how to play the iPod instead.

[Chugalg]

Was that entire speed change at the end, both the slow and the mid speed, on the sheet? Or did he just decide to do that right off the top of his head?

[Keeper1st]

The score does say to begin the strain slow but accelerate to the normal speed within a few measures. His second time playing the tune here, he decides instead to play the strain slowly all the way through, then play it in one-step rhythm (i.e. where the oom-pah bass moves twice as fast but the melody stays the same). It is not notated that way; I just suggested it to him after the first take and he made up a one-step version off the top of his head.

[PinkFloydrulez]

Holy shit.

[bystrzaque]

that WAS awsome, totally :D

[Kaep0raGaeb0ra]

This is now my most favorite Rag song of all time! Lets hope Keeper doesn't run out video game rag material. Keep up the great work both of you!

[archael18]

I hope he will never have an accident and hurt his hands. It would be an unrecoverable loss.

[StrayerFox]

Wo-WOW! Thats incredible. 0_0

Great. 5*

[kinghippo423]

how many years it has been since you've played this one?

42 !

That was funny

BTW, I can't wait for the MOO MOO FARM song.

That one will be epic.

Like every song Tom plays.

You rock !!!!!

[Keeper1st]

Heh yeah, Tom is a HHGG fan.

[Slavispa]

lol his hands were moving so fast my video froze up XD

[jakesbrain]

2:42 just kills me. Flawless transformation.

[LudwigVonKoopa64]

Thanks for putting up my request! :) this is great, just what I wanted to hear Tom play!

[Medsas]

thank god you gave him your own home made sheets, because they're much better than the official sheets lol... which are chokeful of notation mistakes.

[Keeper1st]

Yeah, besides the wrong time signature, they seem never to have heard of a double-sharp. The score I made a long time ago was just a quickie which still has some problems, though. The bass beats aren't separated, the grace notes are written out as 32nd notes (Encore would likely crash if you tried to start a measure with grace notes), and there's one place where I put an F-natural when it should have been notated as an E-sharp. But it's readable, at least. Most videogame scores online aren't.

[daikonv]

thank you very much again for sharing this

[Enderjim]

surprising "as usual" :D

If you will rearrange the piece, let us know!

[Maturkus]

Wow, that Tom guy is hopeless... Notes just go right in his eyes, and right out his fingers...I don't even know if he's actually reading the notes, there's like a direct route from his brain to his fingers. The brain's all like: oh crap it's notes... better redirect this to the hands or something... 'see what they can make out of this...

[shinobi2k8]

AAHHAA YUUR SOO RIGHT!

[daikonv]

that was awesome!  Thanks for uploading this :)

[dippydawg827]

hes so good :O

[ben1996123]

perfect!

[Keeper1st]

No, not perfect, but if we give him some time to practice it... If he does learn this tune for real, I'll try to capture it too.

[jebeebus]

always excited to see new Tom Brier videos, still waiting to hear Moo Moo Farm!

[Keeper1st]

Maybe next month. I'll see him again at the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival. He played it flawlessly (with plenty of wild embellishment) when I showed him the score two months ago, but I didn't record it 'cause I thought I'd let him practice it first. He didn't need any, unlike some of these others like this one.

[chocotiger]

this guy is amazing!!

[MisterMulluc]

Seeing the comments requesting the piece, I hastened to find an mp3 (having never heard it before). This is of course superb.

[mangobat827]

haha, i was just gonna request this song! XD

[ThisIsKuroCat]

HE IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!