Translator: Tijana MihajloviΔ
Reviewer: Denise RQ (Piano music starts) (Piano music ends) (Applause) (Cheers) Adam Ockelford: Right.
Thanks very much, Derek. It's wonderful to be here in Warwick. I promise there won't be
too much of me talking, and a lot of Derek playing, but I thought it would just be nice to recap on how Derek got
to where he is today. It's amazing now,
because he's so much bigger than me, but when Derek was born, he could have fitted
on the palm of your hand. He was born 3,5 months premature, and really, it was a fantastic fight
for him to survive. He hadn't have a lot of oxygen, and that affected your eyes, Derek, and also the way you understand language,
and the way you understand the world. But that was the end of the bad news, because when Derek
came home from hospital, his family decided
to employ the redoubtable nanny who was going to look after you, Derek,
really for the rest of your childhood. And nanny's great insight,
really, was to think, "Here's a child who can't see.
Music must be the thing for Derek." And sure enough, she sang,
or as Derek called it, warbled to him for his first few years of life. I think it was that excitement
with hearing her voice, hour after hour every day, that made him think maybe, you know,
in his brain something was stirring, some sort of musical gift. Here's a little picture
of Derek going up now, when you were with your nanny. Nanny's great other insight was to think, "Perhaps we should get Derek
something to play," and sure enough, she dragged
this little keyboard out of the loft, never thinking really
that anything much would come of it. But Derek, your tiny hand
must have gone out to that thing and actually bashed it, bashed it so hard they thought
it was going to break. But out of all the bashing,
after a few months, emerged the most fantastic music, and I think there was just
a miracle moment, really, Derek, when you realized that all the sounds
you hear in the world out there is something that you can copy
on the keyboard. That was the great eureka moment. Now, not being able to see meant,
of course, that you taught yourself. Derek Paravicini: I taught myself to play. AO: You did teach yourself to play,
and as a consequence, playing the piano for you, Derek,
was a lot of knuckles and karate chops, and even a bit of nose going on in there. Here's what nanny did also do
was to press the record button on one of those little,
early tape recorders that they had, and this is a wonderful tape
of Derek playing when you were 4 years old,
having taught yourself. DP: "Cockles and Mussels." AO: It wasn't actually
"Cockles and Mussels." This one is "English Country Garden." DP: "English Country Garden." (Music: "English Country Garden") AO: There you are. That was a bit... (Applause) I think that's just fantastic. There's this little child who can't see, can't really understand much
about the world, has no one in the family
who plays an instrument, and yet he taught himself to play that. As you can see from the picture, there was quite a lot of body action
going on while you were playing, Derek. Now, along - Derek and I met
when he was four and a half years old, and at first, Derek,
I thought you were mad, to be honest, because when you played the piano, you seemed to want to play
every single note on the keyboard, and also you had this little habit
of hitting me out of the way. So as soon as I tried
to get near the piano, I was firmly shoved off. Having said to your dad, Nic,
that I would try to teach you, I was then slightly confused
as to how I might go about that if I wasn't allowed near the piano. But after a while, I thought, well,
the only way is to just pick you up, shove Derek over
to the other side of the room, and in the 10 seconds
that I got before Derek came back, I could just play something
very quickly for him to learn. In the end, Derek, I think you agreed that we could actually have some fun
playing the piano together. As you can see, there's me in my early,
pre-marriage days with a brown beard, and little Derek concentrating there. I just realized this is going
to be recorded, isn't it? Right. Okay. (Laughter) By the age of 10, Derek really
had taken the world by storm. This is a photo of you, Derek, playing at the Barbican
with the Royal Philharmonic Pops. Basically it was just
an exciting journey, really. In those days, Derek,
you didn't speak very much, and so there was always
a moment of tension as to whether you'd actually understood
what it was we were going to play and whether you'd play
the right piece in the right key, and all that kind of thing. But the orchestra were wowed as well, and the press of the world were fascinated by your ability
to play these fantastic pieces. Now the question is,
how do you do it, Derek? Hopefully we can show the audience now
how it is you do what you do. I think that one of the first things that happened
when you were very little, Derek, was that by the time you were two, your musical ear had already outstripped
that of most adults. So, whenever you heard any note at all
- if I just play a random note - (Piano notes) you knew instantly what it was, and you'd got the ability as well
to find that note on the piano. That's called perfect pitch, and some people have perfect pitch for a few white notes
in the middle of the piano. (Piano notes) You can see how - you get
a sense of playing with Derek. (Applause) But Derek, your ear
is so much more than that. If I just put the microphone
down for a bit, I'm going to play a cluster of notes. Those of you who can see
will know how many notes, but Derek, of course, can't. Not only can you say how many notes, it's being able to play them
all at the same time. Here we are. (Chords) Forget the terminology, Derek. Fantastic. It's that ability, that ability
to hear simultaneous sounds, not only just single sounds, but when a whole orchestra is playing,
Derek, you can hear every note, and instantly, through all those
hours and hours of practice, reproduce those on the keyboard, that makes you, I think,
is the basis of all your ability. Now then. It's no use having that kind
of raw ability without the technique, and luckily, Derek, you decided that,
once we did start learning, you'd let me help you
learn all the scale fingerings. So for example using your thumb
under with C major. (Piano notes) Et cetera. Yeah. In the end, you got so quick, that things like "Flight of the Bumblebee"
were no problem, were they? DP: No. AO: Right. So here, by the age of 11,
Derek was playing things like this. DP: This. (Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee") (Music ends) AO: Yeah. Alright, Derek,
let's have a bow. Well done. (Applause) The truly amazing thing was,
with all those scales, Derek, you could not only play "Flight of the Bumblebee"
in the usual key but any note I play, Derek can play it on. So if I just choose
a note at random, like that one. (Piano notes) Can you play "Flight of the Bumblebee"
on that note? DP: "Flight of the Bumblebee"
on that note. (Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee") AO: Or another one? How about in G minor? DP: G minor. AO: Here we go. (Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee") AO: Fantastic. Well done, Derek. So you see, in your brain, Derek,
is this amazing musical computer that can instantly
recalibrate, recalculate, all the pieces in the world
that are out there. Most pianists would have
a heart attack if you said, "Sorry, do you mind playing
'Flight of the Bumblebee' in B minor instead of A minor?"
as we went on. In fact, the first time, Derek,
you played that with an orchestra, you'd learned the version
that you'd learned, and then the orchestra, in fact,
did have a different version, so while we were waiting in the 2 hours
before the rehearsal and the concert, Derek listened to the different version
and learned it quickly and then was able to play it
with the orchestra. Fantastic chap. The other wonderful thing
about you is memory. DP: Memory. AO: Your memory is truly amazing,
and every concert we do, we ask the audience
to participate, of course, by suggesting a piece
Derek might like to play. People say,"That's terribly brave because what happens
if Derek doesn't know it?" I say, "No, it's not brave at all, because if you ask for something
that Derek doesn't know, you're invited to come and sing it first,
and then he'll pick it up." (Laughter) So just be thoughtful before you suggest
something too outlandish. But seriously, would anyone like
to choose a piece? DP: Choose a piece. Choose, choose,
would you like to choose? AO: Because it's quite dark.
You'll just have to shout out. DP: Would you like to hear me play? (Audience: "Theme of Paganini.") AO: Paganini.
DP: "The Theme of Paganini". (Laughter) (Music: "Theme of Paganini") (Music ends) (Applause) AO: Well done. DP: Thank you. Derek's going to L.A. soon, and it's a milestone, because it means that Derek and I
will have spent over 100 hours on long-haul flights together, which is quite interesting,
isn't it Derek? DP: Very interesting, Adam, yes.
Long-haul flights. Yes. AO: You may think 13 hours
is a long time to keep talking, but Derek does it effortlessly.
Now then. (Laughter) But in America, they've coined this term,
"the human iPod" for Derek, which I think is just missing
the point, really, because Derek, you're so much more
than an iPod. You're a fantastic, creative musician, and I think that was nowhere
clearer to see, really, than when we went to Slovenia, and someone - in a longer concert
we tend to get people joining in, and this person very, very nervously came
onto the stage. DP: He played "Chopsticks".
AO: And played "Chopsticks". DP: "Chopsticks". AO: A bit like this. DP: Like this. Yes. (Piano notes) AO: I should really get Derek's manager
to come and play it. He's sitting there. DP: He played "Chopsticks" like this. AO: Just teasing, right? Here we go. (Music: "Chopsticks") DP: Let Derek play it. AO: What did you do with it, Derek? DP: I got to improvise with it, Adam. AO: This is Derek the musician. (Music: "Chopsticks" improvisation) (Music) (Clapping) (Appluase) Keep up with Derek. AO: Boom-boom. (Music) (Applause) I think the TED people will kill me, but perhaps there's time for one encore. DP: For one encore. AO: One encore, yes. So this is one of Derek's heroes. It's the great Art Tatum - DP: Art Tatum. AO: - who also was a pianist
who couldn't see, and also, I think, like Derek,
thought that all the world was a piano. Whenever Art Tatum plays something, it sounds like there's 3 pianos
in the room. Here is Derek's take
on Art Tatum's take on "Tiger Rag". DP: "Tiger Rag". (Music: "Tiger Rag") (Music ends) (Applause)
wonder how often the crowd requests something that isnt really popular : im sure chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach are common and i wonder if he gets bored
That chopsticks improve was awesome.
In case anyone is interested, he has several albums out. I bought his first album a little over 10 years ago. http://www.derekparavicini.net/#music
Thank you for posting this it's amazing! My brother is also autistic and a musical savant w/ string instruments (not so much Piano though) so I can't wait to show him this video :)
found the autistic kid from the babysitter's club book. except the book said that autistic savants are like computers and have "no deeper meaning" in what they play. Derek uses wonderful interpretation and improvisation. His music is playful, intelligent, and sophisticated.
Fucking insane man. Props to his mentor too he seems like a really calm and caring guy.
Piano players of reddit, is he good mechanically?
When Quentin Tarantino stayed working in that VHS store instead and decided to start watching all piano concerts and lessons.
But seriously, this guy is brilliant.
There was a House MD episode similar to this, piano playing musical savant. In the episode, the patient had a similar behavior of responding to everything that was said. You can hear he occasionally rambles in response to things said. Absolutely astounding. Amazing mind.