Definitely fun to watch musicians destroy their own egos but we already do that on a daily basis. Build your confidence and awareness with Tonic: tonicmusic.app/join-in 🎵

It's so insane that the female pianist got ranked 5th by the audience despite being the only one of the group who showed some advanced musicality. The fact that most people in the audience are unable to perceive that is kind of shocking. Then again, looking at the sort of music most people listen to, it's not that surprising.

If you can destroy your self-esteem slowly, you can destroy it quickly.

Hey @RayChenViolinist ! Summer-the female pianist from the Jubilee vid-here :) I believe I initially heard about you from TwoSet a while back, but I recently saw a clip of your Playing God cover! I played + co-wrote the piano part on Playing God Acoustic, and was so blown away by your cover, so it’s wild and unexpected to see this pop up. Thanks for your kind words, they mean a lot coming from you!! I’ll try to respond to a few things you brought up in your commentary. First off, I was honestly expecting at least one or two other musicians to be closer to your / Tim Henson / Yuja Wang level, so was initially taken aback by the overall skill level. I’m a studio/touring musician and composer/arranger who was classically trained, so you were spot on with that assessment. I didn’t go to conservatory / didn’t major in music (B.A. Legal Studies), but did grow up taking classical piano lessons for 10 1/2 years and violin for about 6 years too (I was pretty terrible at violin). To explain my ranking of the other musicians, I have to note that in the touring backing musician world, multi-instrumentalists are very sought after, especially by artist management with tighter budgets, so Michael (guitar/backing vocals/pedal steel)’s skill set would rank highly in that sense …but that doesn’t necessarily equate to talent, I realize; I just wasn’t expecting him to have any intonation at all (I was expecting worse tbh, so was surprised. He was not a cellist that I would personally hire as my string contracting standards are high/pro, but he still played cello far better than what I’d expect from a guitarist who picked up a cello). His voice was also pretty solid and better than my own singing voice (I’d never sing lead vocals publicly; I know my strengths and that isn’t one of them lol). For instance, my tour with Kings Elliot, I both played keys and ran triggers; my tour with Chon, I played keys, sang backing vocals, wrote the string arrangements, contracted the string players, and music directed the show, etc. The more you can do at a high level, the more employable you are as a touring backing musician. Another important note: Jubilee had IG rank us all based on who was people’s “favorite musician”-yup, they used a different metric. Why? I don’t know, and imho, comparing rankings by different metrics kinda invalidated the social experiment, but I digress… I also believe that if I’d played something recognizable-like you mentioned-instead of an original composition (my piece “JFN”), I possibly would’ve ranked higher with IG. Another pertinent note, the keyboard that Sèdo an I played on was a Nord Electro HP which has fully weighted keys; it certainly doesn’t feel quite like a Steinway / Bosendorfer / Fazioli / Shigeru Kawai, but any trained pianist could easily play expressively effectively on it because of it’s high-quality fully weighted keys:) That all said, I enjoyed hearing your insight! If you ever want a non-classical pianist to collab with, plz lemme know; I absolutely love working with violinists - and/or I also would love to interview you for my AAPI Musicians blog if you’re down🙏🏽🙌🏽🎵 All the best to you and yours regardless!

I used to be Julius, I can relate how he feels, but one day he will grow up and realize how insignificant his 'skill' is and how much more he can improve or correct his past ignorance about music making.

Julius's self esteem went down so much in that short period it was so funny watching him at the end

Thank you for making clear that the biggest issue with a format like that is that the term „talent“ is not defined properly here. Most people vote following a feeling of „I like the type of music“ or „well, I think I cannot do that“… both are not very meaningful approaches to judge a talent.

6:51 that transition to Tonic was CLEAN

a fun note to add is that with jubilee, most of these people actually sign up for these videos months before. they have to go through a questionnaire and acceptance round and all that before filming. so the fact that the blue hair guy said he just learned it a week ago is strange because that would mean he signed up with no experience?

As a musician who dabbles in almost every aspect (primarily a drummer), I feel pretty qualified to rank them objectively. First, the way I define talent is the amount of technical skill someone has or rather, how much *time* have they put in (ofc u can be naturally talented too but generally). I would obviously put blue hair last, then the lala land guy (not great technique nor musicality, probably self taught or a few lessons), then the drummer (he was okay, not good, not bad), then the lapsteel/cello/guitar guy (learning multiple instruments is difficult even if he wasn't proficient in all, he was def decent at guitar), then guitar girl (decent guitarist, great voice / control and confidence), and finally piano girl. Piano girl was the most talented because she displayed her musical knowledge (classically trained perhaps). She had dynamics, phrasing, tempo, technique, etc. she knew how to play her instrument and not only that, how to express herself best. Ofc this is my opinion, but I feel it is 90% accurate

thank GOD a musician finally reacts to this video, I was so cringed out about it😭

Really curious where Ray would rank himself if you named five other currently performing soloists

Hey Ray! I just wanted to say love the content you make and wanted to thank you for introducing me and my 5yr old daughter to Tonic. I was having a tough time to get her to practice her violin even once a week.. Now she just got to a 20 day practice streak!! She's gotten much better and its all thanks to Tonic which helped gamify and open up her practice to perform live (which makes her take it more seriously too!) Thanks and keep up the great content

It’s the one Brett and Eddy reacted to right? It was so funny!

I would place purple woman 1st cuz hers was way more mature and the phrasing was very well made

They did quite a great job of showing unrepresentative moments of the performances. Drummer guy actually played quite complex grooves. From what we see here it is hard to understand how well he played. Also we see it is hard for people to understand what’s good playing and what not if you don’t play yourself. If you play piano you see that the second pianist has not much in terms of trained technique, while the female pianist had those movements you only get with years of practice. But when TwoSet reacted to this video they immediately devaluated her because of the choice of music. They were on the other hand quite impressed by the second pianist starting with the fantaisie impromptu, which was quite slow and he got exactly to the point were every intermediate students stumbles when trying to play it the first time, which is bar 7 (so not at all as impressive). Also the singer does not simply _have a great voice._ It takes a great voice and good technique, training and practice to be able to do that. But the problem here is that it is hard to say what ”talent“ is. For some people this seemed to mean the ability to consequently practice until you get good, and for others this means the ability to quickly take up new things, or to come up with your own stuff (afaik the female pianist played her own composition by the way). I think blue hair guy was quite proud of playing his own song and doing this only with one week of practice. But the others just did not share his concept of talent, and rather evaluated his skill at the piano.

That was one of the best transitions to a sponsor I've seen! Great video

It's interesting seeing egos being destroyed haha I would definitely rank just as Ray did, except first and second places: the classical piano girl would be in first place and mary in second for me. Not that I think singing is easier than playing piano, but actually I got more into the technical stuff - the dynamics she created on that piano are way too hard, also the way she sang to me sounded very flat on dynamics besides the melismas. taking the melismas out what would last? but both of them are amazing!

Hi!! Loved your performance last Monday in Antwerp, Belgium ❤️❤️ so happy to have welcomed you back

I ALWAYS skip ads but this has the best ad by a KZfaqr for their product I've seen to date. Prolly going to actually get it now. Smart and talented :)

This felt different to your usual style of videos. I liked it very much.

But… who signs up for a competition as a musician after playing an instrument for a week?? I mean… what result would you expect??

that has got to be the smoothest ad segway I've ever seen

I absolutely love watching you, I absolutely love the way you play violin you are amazing!

hey I saw you in Eindhoven at the show, you really are amazing, you're incredible ❤

As a musician this gave me so much anxiety. I would cry if I had to be there lmao

I agree this Jubilee video has no value. I had seen it quite a while ago and I thought back then it's rather cruel. These people clearly have very different levels of proficiency, so it was obvious from the start who would rank last... I'm not sure...but it feels like someone's "brilliant" idea for how to get rid of that guy's overconfidence - and I wouldn't be against that, if it was done privately, among friends. But this kind of public humiliation is just too much from my point of view. 😐 (BTW, even if I were the best musician in such a group, I would not rank myself 1st, just because I wouldn't want to appear like I'm exalting myself 😅). And what is talent? For me, talent is one's natural strengths, like stable hands, sense of rhythm (and not being tone deaf), physical strength, good memory, mental resilience, empathy, quick instincts, creativity, and so on... But talent alone is NOTHING, unless you build upon it by putting in effort, time & dedication to truly excel. A person may be given all the talents in the world yet utterly fail at making any good use of them (though why that could happen is too big of a topic to write about it here 🙂). Go PRACTICE!!! 😊

Message to all drummers. Playing loud does not mean you are good

how in the world the purple girl didn't get first is beyond me. that was exceptional playing...

Blue hair guy EPITOMIZED dunning kruger effect

I like they used that clip of Greyson Nekrutman when mentioning versitility.

ray's tonic is like coach greg's cookbook lmao

This shows the difference between talent and musicianship. To me, talent is basically your flooring/ceiling, what can you do and what could you do + creativity. Musicianship is your ability to recognize all the intricacies of music (for example, that lady said the drummer played different time signatures, pretty sure he was 4/4 the entire time in the clip we see), and utilize the instrument. Saying that, I'd actually give the guy who can play the most instruments competently a high musicianship rating than someone who was an expert at one thing. Granted, string instruments are easy. But say he jumps on the drums, piano, guitar, and pulls out a trumpet... that'd be crazy.

Tysm new amazing video and tips!

Smoothest advert I’ve ever seen 😂

Ray you’re so shady I love it 😂

I was waiting for this. “I play the phone now.” Haha! 😂

three people that play instrument(s), one singer with a guitar, one musician, and a guy with blue hair

很喜歡看你拉琴，很融入感覺非常好，很自然。希望，台灣的年輕小朋友能跟你一樣的學習正確的學習。

Ray asking why guitar cello guy ranked so high: Meanwhile the piece he played on guitar: Casually does travis picking and polyrhythms while singing P.S. For those who don't know "Never going back again" is a song that guitarists love and hate, the techniques used are really hard to perform and usually people say something like "it broke my fingers" I recommend watching paul davids video to see why it's so difficult.

i low key love saying rage ray

ray's editor is top notch lol

"I also play the microphone, that's what i do" part that Ray Chen did proves that he's been in the dark side of twitch more than once :))

The way how I rate and know someone is a good musician is through 5 categories: 1. Timing 2. How clean can they play, no sloppiness 3. Can they improvise and how good. 4. Can they play more than one instrument and how good. 5. Sound on instrument I give 1 out of 10 in each category then give the average for example 1. 8 2. 8 3. 5 4. 0 5. 5 = decent or good musician musician

Pls we are still waiting for the trombone on tonic. Hope we'll get it soon😊 Also love your videos❤

"this is interesting, this is something I disagree with" love Ray

While I will never rank myself, this video was very funny. :)

Hey, why didn't you link the video anywhere?

I'm overly confident when I hear beginners play, and overly humbled when I hear pros play.

Thank you for allowing me to call myself a musician 🙃

I’ve met a lot of pretty decent musicians, but every person I’ve met that’s insanely talented seems to be so self critical and wouldn’t rate themselves high

Dude, you have got to react to this piece by Xavier Foley - Soul Bass Concerto [Full].

Wow you play The PHONE.. and! The MICROPHONE

Not a pro, but I’m somewhat a jack of all trades when it comes to instruments (piano, guitar, sax, violin) so I could somewhat gauge the difficulty and skill of musicians. I still remember the cringe I got when I watched that Jubilee video. It was pretty clear that Piano girl had a good musical background, piano guy seems to be self taught, drummer was normal for me - could’ve been better if he played jazz but it was obvious that he still lacked experience, cello guy was okay with guitar too but I think the slide guitar was too much for him, singer girl was okay - but her type would’ve been pretty common in the “aspiring musician” community, and blue haired guy was meh. It’s quite obvious that some of them may not have been too exposed to a music community that much - maybe more exposed to a non-musical friends and family environment who told them that they were great. The video would’ve been more interesting if professional musicians ranked them according to talent(?)/skill in the end.

i'm literally mad after watching this 😭😭😭

People rate "talent" by sympathy. It often seems like nobody understands that talent is a potential, that cannot be ranked by just listening to one song or piece.

Hahaha ya the ranking thing is messed. Talent / skill level left up to vote for non musicians or general public tends to become "which pop songs do I recognize?" And then, if the musician plays something fast, people also become impressed. The Jubilee vid is so cringe for me. For the musicians, the way they ranked each other was also messy and the reasons they gave, LOL

My ranking would be 1 piano girl, 2 guitar guy, 3 Mary, 4 drums, 5 lala land guy and 6 blue hair guy

In all fairness to the guy who plays the guitar and (sort of) cello, the guitar sing he was playing is WAY harder than it looks; if it were the only instrument he played, people (who are in the know) would've given him a higher ranking.

Dude celo guy played never going back again which is an incredibly difficult song on guitar if he played it correctly.

As a cellist…oh lord

As a drummer i thought the drummer was ... weird. He is not bad obviously but he is playing like loud and a lot of notes = better and i think it sounded too much for the people on the show and even for my taste

Omg could you do a video like the jubilee one and rank yourself among your peers? I have no idea if that's possible because there are certainly hundreds of factors and maybe reviewing performances makes more sense... But still!

The audience rating shows you exactly why the most popular music is that popular. Nothing wrong but difference between skill, and popularity, and even how enjoyable it is.

Is tonic also for producers?

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Bună ! Sunt din România și aș dori să vă întreb dacă ați auzit de o piesă foarte frumoasă , cântată la vioară : " Balada " de Ciprian Porumbescu 🤔😘👌.

As a drummer, the drummer was pretty good, but I'd have put him as fourth or fifth. To be fair to all of them, though, it's pretty hard to judge someone's musical talent based on a clip of them playing their instruments for only 30 seconds or so. And in a way, it is all pretty subjective.

I think the multi instrumentalist guys touch on guitar was definitely overlooked and the drummer’s talent was WAY overblown (no hate, honest well-informed opinion incoming). If you really play drums or any rhythm section instrument professionally you would understand the drummer did the equivalent of playing the intro to Für Elise with poor technique 🥹 In terms of talent I’d say; 1) Summer (or Mary) 2) Mary (or Summer) 3) Multinstrumentalist guy 4) La La Land guy 5) Drummer 6) Blue Hair Homie Sincerely, A professional musician

I personally think that there is a third way to perceive talent: expressivity.

Ray is talent not generally hard work behind closed doors? people have natural aptitudes but in your career have you seen "talented" people fall well short of their potential without diligence and hard work? and is the opposite true? i would love to get youre insight as from a young age you were clearly seen as a prodigy and very "talented" in the classical sense of the word

11:20 yeah WHAT

Oh Godddddddddddd, let’s see how these musicians are, I rate Ray Chen an amazing 5 star.

I bet if TwoSet making reaction to this video, it would be not too much different.

Can you put a translation in Arabic because I really like watching your videos but I cannot understand them and I like listening to your violin❤ playing?❤

i love being aware that im trash at the violin cause otherwise it would be so embarassing to have the truth be shed like that especially from other violinists since they dont hold back

I think my ranking would be similar to your ranking it's just I'd have the singing guitar Lady 4th and La la land guy 5th with cello guy 3rd. I just purely think, from a singing perspective, she doesn't quite strike me the same way it would for others. Also, it really feels like she's pushing the note from her throat not her core which I hate to hear. The drummer guy was way too underrated and I think there's a lot more talent to drumming than meets the eye so when I heard him playing, I knew it wasn't easy to do. This is all my opinion and I am merely putting it out there.

Such an awesome performance bro just astounding all I can say is damn bro I’m just blown away by the performance I need to practice!!

😄

Blue hair guy is about to hunt down ray

Instrumentalists are clueless about singing. Mary has lovely ability that she was born with, but that has nothing to do with the level of vocal skill displayed. If she put a quarter of the time and effort into singing and ear training that Summer has put into the piano, she'd be a completely different artist.

im a drummer and im not saying im a great drummer but that drummer deserves 5 imo he just didnt do anything crazy moving quickly doesnt mean good

Love from india 🫶

I wouldn’t discount the male pianist’s technique so much, while he wasn’t very confident, the technique isn’t too different from how Horowitz might’ve played his own piano (which had very light action and shallow keys). When playing any keyboard instrument there’s no one prescriptive technique, the goal is simply to use as little motion as possible (i.e Heavier action, slightly more forearm rotation and curved hand shape).

where can i take lessons to be a microphonist?

I agree with you Ray but just cause someone has a nice voice doesn't equal talent. I feel like it takes way more talent and hard work to play piano like the girl did than for someone to have a nice voice.

alright, my turn, number 6 Joshua Bell.

Im not a musician at all and i knew the piano girl was the best by farrrr

I am a musician. I don't know what "dynamics" are in terms of music.

The self depreciation thing is a lie. The reason they ranked themselves so lowly is because that is the only option you have. Rank yourself high and people will mistake your perception of reality for arrogance

Ray is destroying them🤣🤣

This video is interesting because these are pretty much untrained musicians. They’ve never had an audition or a teacher to humble them. On another note, I think it would be cool to do a video series where you go to the other best music school in the world, Berklee, to learn basic improvisation, sit in a couple of their 350+ ensembles, and maybe work with fiddle/violin students or professors trading knowledge/techniques you have in the classical realm with what they do in more contemporary contexts. (As an aside, I hate when conservatory/classical people-not you personally, just in general-use the term “commercial music”, always with in a derogatory tone, when describing a school like Berklee, as if it’s not as important, worthy, challenging, or meaningful music as playing classical music.) I think it would be really cool to see the two worlds collide as wells as how you, as a seasoned pro, handle and approach learning new skills like improvising with a lead sheet and chord progressions. I think it would be cool to see a pro sweat a little 😉. Also, don’t say you “can’t” improvise. You can; you just don’t know how yet.

Bro said versatility and expertise was same thing 💀. He used the = isn’t is a part of talent? Like what?

i kinda want to share my votes on this being someone who has mixed in different genres and worked with diverse musicians: 1 - Summer 2 - Mary 3 - Daniel 4 - Julius 5 - Michael 6 - Sedo summary, honestly Summer and Mary i would be equal Summer is amazingly talented at piano BUT Mary is an amazing singer/guitarist they would be people i would listen to on a weekend evening. For Julius, i gave him that ranking cause not everyone can songwrite. despite fact his piano skills isn't great and that i didn't find his voice super amazing. However, he was still better from my pov than Michael and Sedo. Michael is just super average on the instruments. I know that being a professional and multi-instrumentalist myself. I had to give Sedo last cause it made me cringe a lot how he played the piano. It doesn't matter whether if it was a keyboard instead of a piano because of how Sedo played and tying in the sound quality. it was just super blended and i couldn't hear the details. @Paolo you deleted your comment but i still got notification. Everyone's taste and preference is just different and no it doesn't mean the others weren't worth my time. I enjoy music and it was a pleasure to hear all of them and their experience and where they are with their music.

Talent is one thing but practiceakes a serious musician Just my little opinion!

I always see the drums ranked lower just because of the instrument...😢

Im ngl he wrote and picked up piano in a week and composed a song that’s pretty talented. Talent is a very tuff thing to pinpoint cuz what exactly does it mean. U could say summer is more talented than 3 instrument guy but she worked on that for 10 years are talent and hardworking the same??

Unfortunate nobody played Flight of the Bumblebee, or else they would have been ranked instantly first

Did Twoset react to this video as well?

A black-haired guy was using a capo