Top 10 music related TED performances

TED runs lectures on all sorts of cultural and scientific issues and is seen as one of the most easily accessible intellectual hubs out there. From looking into how sampling has affected the music industry to eleven year old violinists, here are our Top 10 music related TED talks that are really worth watching.

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Mark Ronson – How sampling transformed music

Mark Ronson, the Brit Award winning musician, DJ, singer and song producer talks about how sampling transformed music. He demonstrates examples of how sampling works during this TED talk using the latest equipment. The English superstar speaks candidly about his obsessions with fiddling about with other people’s music, picking out the bits he likes and using them for his own benefit. The intent of this highly original talk is to explain how much variation and opportunity there is in making music, now that sampling has become commonplace. Take a look and see him in action sampling fifteen different TED talks to make one “audio-visual omelette”.

Sting – How I Started Writing Songs Again

You may assume that lyrical geniuses have it easy when it comes to churning out lyrics but, in this popular TED talk, Sting explains how he suffered from writers block for many years. To overcome this songwriting drought he utilized his memories of the misery that was his monotonous occupation as a young man working in a shipyard for material. He performs a song from his upcoming musical and also a rendition of Message in A Bottle.

Beardyman – The Polyphonic Me

This is an incredible performance of mimicry and technology alongside an astonishing musical talent. Beardyman struggled with the idea that as a human he could only produce one note at a time and so, being a musical inventor decided to create a machine that could loop and layer sounds he makes with his voice. His ability to copy a whole host of worldly sounds and perfectly imitate almost any musical instrument is remarkable; this piece is one of the most watched musical TED talks going.

Jennifer Lin – Improvising on piano aged 14

This is a truly incredible young lady, at such a young age her improvisation skills and piano dexterity is something to behold. She is a very talented young girl; she displays here as she comments on the process of creativity and then selects a sequence of random notes which she uses to create an amazing improvised piece of music. And did I mention she is only FOURTEEN?

Eric Whitacre – A Virtual Choir 2000 Voices Strong

This is an innovative and astounding visual and audio performance. Eric Whitacre, the Grammy-winning American composer and conductor, known for his choral, orchestral and wind ensemble music, has been involved in many “virtual choir” assemblies, however, this is the first time he has done it live and simultaneously. His usual method is to cut and splice different singers from different countries to create his pieces. This time he is working in real time as he utilizes the technology of Skype to bring together 32 singers from around the globe to join an onstage choir performing his Cloudburst based on a poem by Octavio Paz. The conductor and composer excels himself with this performance which has inspired millions.

Clayton Cameron – A-rhythm-etic

Jazz, funk, hip hop, pop, latin, R&B, Clayton Cameron can drum the beats to all these musical genres. In this TED talk he speaks about how all beats have one thing in common, mathematics. This is what the drummer calls a-ryhtm-etic. He breaks down and explains the equations behind the beat whilst playing them out on the drum using his famous brushes. He gets the audience involved while he delivers this interesting talk which has over a million views.

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys – Bluegrass Virtuosity from New Jersey

These boys are just incredible. They are all under the age of sixteen but can play a Bluegrass tune like the best of them. Having grown up in New Jersey, not famous at all for its Bluegrass music, these kids have been covering and writing songs since a very young age. They are amazingly talented and will have your toes a-twitching while you watch them perform three marvelous songs on the banjo and guitar; truly awe-inspiring stuff that has almost two million views!

Sirena Huang – An 11 year old’s magical violin

This is another incredible performance. This 11 year old girl is a fiercely talented musician as she displays here in this TED piece. She gives a charming introduction where she praises the design of her instrument as timeless. Sirena is a beautiful violinist; this is one not to be missed, nearly achieving two million TED views.

Preston Reed & Usman Riaz – A Young Guitarist Meets His Hero

Usman Riaz is a self taught percussive guitarist and is pretty amazing. He spent many years watching YouTube videos of famous musicians playing the instrument in order to learn how to play. He performs an incredible piece in this TED clip. If that wasn’t inspiring enough along comes one of the best in the field, Preston Reed who will blow you away with his performance. This is followed up by an incredible improvised piece by both artists combined.

David Pogue – The Music Wars

David Pogue is an American technology writer and TV science presenter. Pogue has written, or co-written, seven books in the For Dummies series (including Mac computers, magic, opera, and classical music). The Yahoo tech columnist discusses downloading issues during this “satirical mini-medley”. This is a very clever piece which features Sonny & Cher and The Village People.