Fastest ragtime piano yet heard by mere mortals; Tom Brier on "Redneck Rag"; 174 bpm

Tom hits an ungodly 174 beats per minute at the end of this performance of the show-off piece Redneck Rag. Previously the fastest I've clocked him at was 162 bpm.

This was Saturday evening at the July meeting of the Mother Lode Ragtime Society in Sutter Creek, California. He is joined by his "Saloon Sweeties": Julia Riley on piccolo and Kitty Wilson on washboard.

Of course, Tom doesn't just play fast stuff, which you know if you've been watching my channel for a while. This is just a yee-haw sort of barn-burner that is meant to be played as fast as you can.

The rag is attributed to "Brian March" but we all figure that it's Tom's doing... or maybe, as I suspected, he and Eric Marchese -- Bri & March...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ludicrous speed
• spaceballs
• ragtime
• piano
• rag
• fast
• crazy
• insane
• pianist
• yee-haw
• dad-gum

[Bellairs120466]

Playing a single sheet of music for 3+ minutes...Tom Brier

[Keeper1st]

@Bellairs120466 Heh, actually the sheet on the piano is something else. He has this tune memorized for it's very often requested.

[SumoBoo]

haha liked the spaceballs reference.

[Keeper1st]

@SumoBoo Yeah, I think it's safe to say this is the only time that both The Jazz Singer and Spaceballs have been referenced in the same video!

[gingersnnapps]

WOW!!!! Pretty incredible! I had the pleasure of watching Mr. Brier and the ragtime band he plays with called "Rasberry Jam Band" perform recently at the West Coast Ragtime Music Festival, 2011. Mr. Brier certainty has a gift for shaking and tickling the keys!!

[Keeper1st]

@gingersnnapps Awesome. It was a great festival this year, for sure. Were you at the afterglow buffet? On the video monitor showing clips from past festivals there was a rare sighting of the Pre-Beard Brier!

[ferimentodefoice]

I'm in a very nice area of youtube =D

[Alaeriia]

@Zlaterrr And why not?

[Zlaterrr]

@Alaeriia Teh luls, u cant compare apm in starcraft and this

[Lmanyakaa]

such beautiful music! it's a shame that most of the kids and youngsters listen to justin bieber and other craps these days.

[chozos64]

For a second I thought seeing a third hand coming out of his beard.

[Xbonechiller]

@Bellairs120466 wow is that even possibly or is it like phtoshoped??? THATS CRAZY

[DrSpideybug]

Fingers of steel! :D

[ditto56789]

im surprised the lady with tthe flut didnt collapse.

[SplashyEcho]

Amazing!

[Alaeriia]

176 beats/minute. Assuming there are an average of two chords in the left hand and three notes in the right per beat, that comes out to about 880 actions per minute. Considering that 400 actions/minute is extremely impressive for a professional Starcraft gamer, and considering that most of said 400 actions are irrelevant spam, we can safely assume that Tom Brier has the fastest hands in the world. I suggest you call Guinness about getting Tom a nice world record plaque.

[ThunderhorseOfHell]

Holy santa clause shit!