Meet the World's Most Extreme Pianists

So by now you know that the piano can be crazy, and that pianists are not necessarily the stereotypical nerds pop-culture has deemed them to be. But today, we’d like to take you a step further than that. Today, we’d like to prove that not only are pianists not nerds, but some of them are downright hardcore. So prepare to feel that nothing is impossible, and perhaps just a little bit inferior… let’s go ahead and meet the world’s most extreme pianists.

1. Sky Mundell: A Pianist Who is BOTH Deaf and Blind

Have you heard of Beethoven, the deaf pianist? Of course you have!

Have you heard of Ray Charles, the blind musician? Of course you have!

Now, we’d like you to meet Sky Mundell- 26 years old, amazingly talented pianist, both deaf AND blind.

Born with cerebral palsy and brain damage that severely impaired both his vision and hearing, Sky has evidently never heard of the words “disability” and “can’t”, and thankfully so. Oh yeah, and he also won Vancouver’s Got Talent at the age of 19. As you hear his music below, just take a moment to appreciate that as wonderful as his music is, it becomes even more beautiful when you realize that he can neither see nor hear what he is playing, and it’s still probably more pathos-filled and just generally better than any of us can play.

2. Asher Denburg: Succeeded in Playing the Death Waltz (U.N. Owen Was Her?)

Before we introduce you to this next extreme pianist, we must first introduce you to the death waltz, appropriately named because if you attempt it you DIE, plain and simple. Arranged by a computer, the piece was never intended (and physically can’t) be perfectly performed by human hands.

Now that we’ve established that the death waltz is “The Ring” of the music world, we’d like you to meet the Harry Potter of the music world (aka the one who lived). Meet Asher Denburg, a talented young lass who got as close as you can possibly get to conquering the madness.

Oh, and good luck getting that jingle out of your head now. If attempting it didn’t kill you, the infinite loop of the tune in your head will. 🙂

3. GuiGui Zheng: The One-Handed Pianist

Up next is a delightful young lady named GuiGui Zheng. Born with only one hand in a small and poor Chinese village, GuiGui hadn’t even seen nor touched a piano until the age of 13. Three short years later, GuiGui was performing on national television in front of roughly 300 million people on “China’s Got Talent”. And just like any other talented professional, GuiGui makes playing the piano without fingers on one hand look downright easy. Trust us, it’s not.

And if you thought that was impressive, meet…

4. Liu Wei: The Handless Pianist Who Plays with his Feet

Clearly, playing piano when you have 5 fingers missing is a challenge. But what about playing piano when you have 10 fingers missing?? Impossible right? Nope!

Take a look down towards the ground for a second. See those 10 stubby little things coming out of your foot? Bam. There’s your answer. Turns out toes can make for quite a good finger replacement, once you become flexible enough and develop those toe muscles of course. With enough practice and will-power, you can gain enough muscle control to be able to operate your toes individually, much like fingers. And with A LOT of practice, you can become this guy:

That’s Liu Wei, another amazing discovery (and winner) out of “China’s Got Talent”. After losing both arms in a terrible electrocution accident, Liu started intense physiotherapy and with time was able to pick up right where he left off- living independently, writing, and yes, playing piano. Today, he plays piano with his toes better than we can with our fingers. All we can say is, China really does got talent!

5. Daniel Menendez: Plays Piano with… Balls

No, we’re not still talking about body parts. Meet Daniel Menendez, a wild man who plays the piano without even physically touching the piano. If you thought aiming the ball at the basket in basketball is hard, think again. Not only does Daniel aim perfectly and precisely at the desired keys, but he also somehow manages to inverse juggle at the same time, ultimately succeeding in playing some pretty great music amidst all the bouncing ball chaos that surrounds him.

6. Yuja Wang: The Crazy Fast Pianist

We’ve previously introduced you to the world’s official Guinness World Record holder for fastest pianist in a previous post. Now it’s time to tell you that that was child’s play. You see, while the record holder was indeed able to hit one key a mind-blowingly huge amount of times in one minute, that was only one key. Yuja Wang, on the other hand, is able to play a whole song at a speed worthy of the road-runner’s respect. You must see it to believe it, folks!

Make sure you don’t blink. 😉