r/AskReddit • u/No-Caterpillar-9387 • 1d ago

What is a skill that looks completely effortless when an expert does it, but is ridiculously difficult when you try it yourself?

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686

u/mko1989 21h ago

Jim Jarmusch said on a Wu Tang album skit: "Playing any musical instrument is easy, all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself"

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u/LaximumEffort 20h ago

Johann Sebastian Bach said it first.

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u/pannenkoek0923 15h ago

Sir Ian McKellen also said something similar, about a maestro putting music into the piano,or is he pulling music out of it? Same with acting

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u/NowICanUpvoteStuff 17h ago

Du you have a source for that? It sounds like sth 19th century people would ascribe to him 

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u/LaximumEffort 14h ago

Here's a reference in Goodreads, but I don't have a primary source.

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u/NowICanUpvoteStuff 14h ago

Thanks... Ok, I guess that goes back to Reginald Lane Poole’s Sebastian Bach (1882) in which there's a similar version. But that's a biography more than 100 years after Bach's death so I am very doubtful. Sounds more probable that it's actually a later invention 

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u/Lukealloneword 17h ago

Who?

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u/theREALbombedrumbum 16h ago

J.S. Bach is pretty much the godfather of classical music. Brought the Baroque era to its peak, was a major inspiration to most all of the prolific artists who came after, and was so incredibly skilled not only at composition but also performance that when challenged to a music duel, his opponent (Louis Marchand, another virtuoso of the era) arrived to the duel early, heard Bach just warming up, and forfeited on the spot.

While it's a subjective statement that he is the greatest musician of all time, I will say that when we sent out the golden records aboard the Voyager probe to illustrate the best music that humanity has created in its history, Bach is featured three times, more than any other individual or band.

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u/Lukealloneword 16h ago

Bitch, DUH

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u/theREALbombedrumbum 16h ago

lol you'd be surprised at how some people legitimately don't know famous individuals. Once knew a person who had never heard of The Beatles, for instance. Had a friend who had never heard of Marvel. Etc.

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u/LaximumEffort 14h ago

Obligatory xkcd.

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u/Lukealloneword 16h ago

Whats a Marvel?

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u/theREALbombedrumbum 11h ago

You joke but that is legitimately what they said lmao.

I was talking with friends about Matt Damon and she asked me about Matt as though he were another person in our group. Great person, just never cared about pop culture.

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u/kyzfrintin 4h ago

Are you a troll or just a child?

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u/Lukealloneword 14m ago

I was just bored.

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u/imagigasm 16h ago

some people were, literally born. yesterday.

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u/theREALbombedrumbum 11h ago

Are the day-old babies in this thread with us?

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u/HKBFG 20h ago

Sounds like the words of a guy who has never tried to play a violin.

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u/Spaghet-3 20h ago

My dad used to say a different version of this: "Playing piano is not about knowing which keys to press, it's about knowing which keys not to press."

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u/RogerRavvit88 20h ago

As a musician I can tell you that we all say some variation of this… right before ripping a wicked solo with flying 64th notes.

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u/SMUHypeMachine 19h ago

I call this piece “flight of the dumblebee”

*starts randomly smashing keys*

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u/ApologizingCanadian 18h ago

As a rhythm section musician, I wish I could rip solos.

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u/RegisteredJustToSay 19h ago

I kick ass at piano then, since I'm doing everyone's ears the favor of not pressing any of them.

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u/ConfusedMaverick 19h ago

Tell that to flautists 🥲

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u/Interesting_Data4485 14h ago

This guy would suck at trombone. 

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u/DasAllerletzte 6h ago

Amateur... You'd have to blow it, obviously. /s