A Blast from the Past: from 1926, a Piano Playing 12th Street Rag

[@Lincolntowncoupe]

That's just about the most 1920's thing I've ever seen.

[@fourlightsorchestra]

My friend told me about an early player contraption he saw. It was a device meant to make a player piano out of a regular one. You wheeled this thing up to any piano, put the piano roll in it, and then it played your piano for you. He said the thing was super ancient, and he’s only ever seen one of them. Doesn’t even know what it was called! He said he thinks it might have been an early prototype for a player piano, or was sold as a cheaper alternative to a player piano. Wild.

[@japanfanatic1415]

@@fourlightsorchestra I am intrigued. I want to know what that is.

[@DeathValleyLumberCompany]

This

[@uncreativeusername7188]

@@japanfanatic1415 I believe it could be this thing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmWZZ5yYadahbNE

[@chrishill6276]

In the 1920’s they had pedals to power it. Not an electric motor.

[@mysock351C]

Even almost 100 years later its still an amazing contraption with all of its pneumatics and valves whirring away. Would have been fascinating to watch when it first came out.

[@tsant6591]

I'm 62, and grew up listening to my grandfather, mom, and uncle play this on the piano on Saturday nights with family over. Great times. It was a lifetime ago!

[@FukiMakai]

The score is actually very well written, it doesn't sound automated and it does very lively flourishes. Love it!

[@rexjolles]

thats because these rolls are made by having someone play it on a piano modified to cut the rolls. so what you're hearing is literally someone playing it, just "recorded" onto paper. there's a couple rolls out there played by scott joplin himself

[@FukiMakai]

@@rexjolles Wow. That is literally the analog origin of MIDI recording

[@tokiWren]

@@rexjolles one of my favorite rolls is debussy playing claire de lune. beautiful recording

[@rexjolles]

@@tokiWren always finish on de bach, never finish on debussy

[@patrickshaw8595]

@@rexjolles I first heard that sixty years ago!

[@notpsicoh2107]

I have to wonder how popular these were compared to phonographs of the time. To my ears, this sounds a lot more enjoyable than over enunciated singing and whatever "mixing" they had back then. plus, you get a piano too! Just seems like the better deal to me

[@johnkuzma7066]

They were very popular, before 78rpm records took the market it was hard to find a piano without a player mechanism, sadly the pnumatic rubber tubes were prone to dry rot especially in smoggy city's like Los Angeles so many were thrown out by the 40s.

[@herbienbrian2]

​@@johnkuzma7066 Oh that's why all the ones my family had when I was little in LA never worked.

[@menimadar5104]

W

[@beeenn649]

@@johnkuzma7066 Incorrect. Victrola's have a wind up mechanism that makes the record play, player pianos have an electric motor. Considering that 2/3rds of the country did not have electric at the time, doesn't it make sense that the Victrola came before the player piano?

[@johnkuzma7066]

@Bee Enn most players were foot pumped mechanisms it wasn't until the 20s (30 years after they started to become popular) that they got electric vacuum pumps and even then they had auxiliary foot pumps for people that didn't have electricity. In fact, pianolists prefer foot pumps as you can make a more hand played sound by varying the vacuum going to the keys (to make hard and soft notes).

[@johng.lidstone2236]

My, now nicely that plays! My maternal Grandmother had a player piano (UK) and it was the No.1 most favourite thing of my childhood, and was instrumental in getting me to play piano. So, lovely to see this. Thanks for sharing (more please!!!).

[@peterjackson2625]

I enjoyed that. Play it again, Sam.

[@brucejenner4800]

He'll, the piano is an amazing instrument and invention, the guy who invented this machine was a genius.

[@glenpitts6813]

I'm 74 and I have a working player with lots of rolls. It's a thing of the past, but I love it.

[@patrickshaw8595]

So am I but my girlfriend loves me anyway!

[@Davisshrth]

Your dad's killing it 🔥🔥

[@SamsungUser69]

i didn't know League of Legends Players' fathers could play the piano!

[@Frisco1355]

John Cena can really play, cain’t he?

[@maxxy_millionn]

Yoooo i didn’t know my dad could play piano much less play it all the way from las vegas!

[@steelman86]

The the piano may be a 1926 but the bellows and motor are much newer and easier on the legs without having to pump the darned thing! Bravo!!!!

[@PiotrBarcz]

This piano is a stripped out Welte Mignon, it never had pedals and the motor and everything else is original as there's no way to practically replicate them.

[@m889k]

mp3-player. First version :)

[@anchovyhmmm5681]

Early MIDI

[@LegacyCat386M]

Want a portable version? step one:find a surprisingly huge metal plane, make sure it is thick and large enough to fit and get to withstand the weight of an piano. step 2: add wheels and a seat (make sure the seat cannot move and looks like 🪑 or 💺to avoid calling off. (armchair is recommended) ) Step 3: enjoy! just paddle or push to move

[@AmandaDragmire]

i am more impressed that the video was recorded and uploaded to youtube from a potato.

[@Randomfurcorn]

10/10 sounds better than spongebobs twelfth street rag

[@Peskyhooligan]

TAKE THAT BACK!

[@turolretar]

I’d say Roy Clark’s version is equally amazing

[@tymz-r-achangin]

I love these types of automated instruments and also antique coin-op! Sure wish you would have showed us the other mechanisms that bring it all together

[@frazzledude]

It is sort of fascinating watching that big pulley cranking away on the vacuum pump that powers the whole system.

[@noyza2132]

a wonder of mechanical engineering and music

[@general5104]

A favorite 3rd grade teacher friend of mine had a son that collected and repaired Player Pianos. He let me inspect one with him and I watched him take the reel out and put another one in, for a different tune. That was about 60 years ago! Wow. Its amazing I can remember that long ago! THANK YOU FOR POSTING

[@michaelfleming40]

Ragtime music was the Rock and Roll of the 1920s. 😊 ❤

[@tsuwaque]

Yeah, because it was already pretty outdated at the time

[@HuggyBob62]

There is a quirky little museum in Northleach, Gloucestershire (UK) that is full of mechanical instruments a bit like this one (although I don't remember seeing a "spinning wheel" piano there).

[@frazzledude]

There used to by a really good one in San Fracisco in the USA. It was called "The Cliff House", but it burned down many years ago.

[@DanielGlover]

I was about to try and get my video linked as a comment and say about this piano. Nice item. Then found your comment. It has gone. The old boy died. Found local paper pieces on it linked. My video in days without the current camcorder 2017. This video earlier. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJyYioVppKpsgqs

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

@@frazzledude As in 'Ferries and Cliff House'?

[@frazzledude]

@@tooleyheadbang4239 That sounds about right. My mom and dad took me there in 1962 for my 6th birthday. Many years ago I saw on the local news that it had burnt down.

[@KasperskyFan2111]

There is something similar to the cliff house called Musée Mécanique

[@hotsickle]

hope we will hear more of it !

[@dizzythegreat]

The ghost of whoever played it first

[@johncarcher]

My goodness! Have I been blessed? I love this thing and I want it!

[@chiefslief1886]

Beautiful sound ❤👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@TheRVCouple]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@13thcentury]

My favourite rag

[@TheRVCouple]

thanks for listening

[@АлександрРузанов-п5я]

Гениальный век механического развития ❤

[@dougsather2939]

Thank You for sharing this with us 😇🙏

[@itsoktobehappy9102]

Hey Siri, tell my piano to play 12th street rag on my Apple Music playlist

[@dougsather2939]

I like that. 😇🙏

[@josswindsor8288]

Fantastic progression top emotion 😆2:09-2:12 Iove this passage enough

[@ASLunar]

This is definition of "things used to be built to last."

[@markt1387]

1926 Ipod. Terrific 😊

[@chaserivera6440]

Thanks, Walter.

[@drewbieber1399]

Почему сейчас таких не делают?

[@richv7089]

A few years ago, possibly the 1980s, I saw a description of a digital version of a player piano mechanism. Interesting reading.

[@stacia6678]

MIDI

[@dennisspinkshappyforbusker2523]

An amazing fascinating piece of kit, awwwwesome 🎶❤️🤗

[@peterells1720]

Wonderful! Now all we need is an @JaredOwen video that explains how this works.

[@mabelalberti909]

Si no me falla la memoria estos instrumentos han Sido construido de una manera que melodía se escuchaba constantemente por varias horas sin parar . Su nombre era Pianola. De sonido muy brillante..Americano. Especial para música de jazz que se uso muchísimo en Norteamérica. Desde Argentina , agradezco la nota.

[@BlackSeranna]

Yes, so beautiful!

[@SouthernMaineFoamer]

Most people: NOOOO SPONGEBOB MUSIC SHOULD NOT COME FROM THE 20S THIS DOES NOT SOUND GOOD NOOO. Me: this fits perfectly 🗿

[@DoYouSeeBananaManTH]

I wondered why it sounded similar.

[@Mr-wd2wn]

I could see the writers doing a black & white silent film type episode. all of the music would sound like this

[@specialaccount7631]

i dont even remember this song in spongebob lol

[@SouthernMaineFoamer]

@@specialaccount7631I think they changed it up a bit but they kept a lot so I can see why. It was common for SpongeBob to use really old songs even from the very beginning. When the narrator says “Ah the sea” in the first episode the song playing while he says it is actually way over 100 years old. It was written by the Queen of Hawaii who was leaving her country at that time so the song was a goodbye song, but in SpongeBob it’s more of a “waking up” song. It’s called Hola Oe and when you look it up on KZbin you get Leo and Stitch for some reason lol. Anyway that concludes my long ass essay on SpongeBob Music that isn’t even related to the comment I’m replying to.

[@specialaccount7631]

@bridgtonandsacoriver7 I mean I knew Spongebob had a lot of sailor songs and some inspiration from 60's cartoons but I didnt know the music went that far back. I think it was interesting to learn ty for comment

[@isolationgeneration3962]

The camera is so smooth

[@echodelta9]

This instrument was made for public use. No foot pumps but a 4 point suction pump and motor, if it's all original. Some pubs let the patrons handle the rolls and provide entertainment. We had a player or two in our midwest town in the last few decades.

[@PiotrBarcz]

It wasn't made for public use, it's a stripped out Welte Mignon that had the expression system removed by the looks of things as the pump is normal far off center. It could be an old Ampico as well with the expression system and the bottom half of the piano removed and built so that there's only a suction reservoir way up inside.

[@prabharavisundar4252]

Thanks for showing. I never knew how it played tunes.

[@NSSignalGuy]

The moving parts behind the wheel just feel like they are going along with the song.

[@dennisspinkshappyforbusker2523]

Fantastic!

[@timf2279]

Amazing mechanics for the time.

[@Fretless1]

Amazing👏 Never let that treasure go🎹

[@zapa1pnt]

Beautiful rendition. Great left hand. If you should lose anything at all, make sure it isn't that roll. 😁✌🖖

[@dr_numnut7848]

The bad quality just makes this all the better

[@mrsheppard449]

Plot twist: actually there's a gost playing the piano

[@GroupNebula563]

how joyous

[@a320214]

Excellent !!!! Thanks for uploading !!!

[@Valess90]

Inimitabile fantastico meraviglioso

[@gaius_enceladus]

Great video! I *love* ragtime music!

[@luizfelipeleone8501]

Oh nostalgia 😢

[@gojifanpat]

If Spongebob Was Made In The 1920's: (Also, is anyone else getting this on your recommended page just now?)

[@KasperskyFan2111]

I remember that this yt channel used to be called walter gerber

[@JohnnyX50]

The original MIDI file player :D

[@bruce1947]

Why don't we have these anymore?

[@johndean958]

Thankyou... I am loving it.. cheers.

[@SocialxAwareness]

Top-of-the-line engineering in the 1920s

[@evanever]

Recorded on a 1926 camera

[@SniperOnSunday]

Automation takes someone's job for the first time

[@ZETTABYTE._.1]

HIT IT JOHN

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

(EDIT for future readers: Oh, I'm corrected; see below, but not deleting the thread just yet:) Nice electric retrofit! The pros and cons of this style as I see them are: Con: You can't pump it with your feet anymore, or at least without someone having to go into a fairly big reversion. Pro: It doesn't sound like you have to turn on an annoying vacuum cleaner every time you want it to play electrically!

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

The trick is to mount the vacuum cleaner on the other side of the wall from the piano!

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@tooleyheadbang4239: Nah, it's still gonna sound annoyingly like someone stuffed an obnoxious vacuum cleaner in the coat closet on the other side of the wall, to just happen to be sititng there running stationarily without cleaning anything... while we play the piano.

[@TheRVCouple]

This player is a rebuild, not a retrofit. The original electric motor could not be rebuilt and at the time a replacement was not available.. A washing machine motor was selected with an RPM that matched closely to the original motor and the pully was sized to operated the pump at the proper RPM.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@TheRVCouple: Oh, with that pullEy and flywheel there -- at least with the flywheel right in the way of where the pump pedals would go -- it looked like a retrofit to me, because I didn't think they would be made originally for the motor unit to take up the space where the pedals go. Thanks for your reply.

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

@@TheRVCouple That's the motor and pump arrangement I would expect to see on an electric player, from new. Vacuum cleaner conversions are definitely 'after-market'. Does it have a reproducing mechanism? These are almost always electrically-pumped, to avoid the pressure fluctuations of pedal operation. They usually have an end-of-roll stop too.

[@joelb4534]

Magnifique ❤️

[@M_m.aang.uxz.1902]

Nice

[@DAN9I]

Song it's bellissimo

[@markmalasics3413]

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@MACTEP-il1eu]

Modern kids: "bruh my phone is heavy to damn heavy but i cant let it disconect from my airpods" Grandfather: Listen here you little

[@cloudysaturnn]

What??

[@captaincheeky3956]

@@toptengamermoments probably a bot

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@cloudysaturnn He's referring to player pianos at one point being the only way to listen to music for a lot of people and they wiehg a good 700 pounds so they can't be carried around

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@captaincheeky3956 A bot can't write comments that actually make sense.

[@esmereldatabitski8335]

I love it!

[@Momesp1s]

As a piano i can confirm this is very piano

[@sniper233]

soon enough. This piano is going to be 100 years old

[@alexdoyle7734]

amazing

[@patrickshaw8595]

12th Street Rag is a KANSAS CITY SONG ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Street_Rag

[@patrickshaw8595]

THE O.G. Kansas City song!!!

[@emirhan2646]

The bass sounds very good at 1:55

[@john3775]

Very enjoyable

[@jennyfox2612]

Never even realized this was a ragtime tune until recently.

[@patrickshaw8595]

I seem to recall it being used as background for a silent movie I watched once.

[@grimmthrashr1035]

meanwhile in a pub... *the sounds of an all out brawl*

[@pondererofpointlessdreams5029]

Wondering if I should remove the other one in my playlist and use this one.

[@chanyphilly8266]

That is so nice!

[@gregoryclemen1870]

its a shame that the original repulsion- start motor( century- delco) could not be saved!!!!

[@BudderB0y2222]

twill be quite the spectacle at the saloon indeed 🧐

[@MonkPetite]

Now we have it in very small bit of a chip

[@solet579]

Amazing!

[@yatomiiin1929]

This is amazing and beautiful until it's 3am

[@Daniel28021991]

My grandpa have one and maybe he will give it to me someday. ;)

[@shmailsheikh1515]

Got it now?

[@mr.mcnuggies]

Do you have it yet

[@TeeeFeee]

Got it now?

[@PiotrBarcz]

@zaijian4377 Your grandfather clearly knew his money xD

[@Someone45356]

Ok but seriously you wouldnt wanna find this in a haunted house randomly playing

[@FennixGamingYT]

I need one of these right now XD

[@blackrhino3442]

Lovin it

[@BD43304]

In my ears it sounds like a young Fats Waller has "done" the roll. Anyone who knows more about the background?

[@AlexJames-mj1bz]

I believe this roll is QRS #1188, by J. Lawrence Cook.

[@BD43304]

AJ Hornig Of course, I read once he had made rolls who where marketed as been played by Fats Waller. Thanks!

[@AlexJames-mj1bz]

If you're interested, I found this site: www.pianola.com/fatsw.htm According to that, "1. QRS 1188 September 1920 12th STREET RAG [35] The 1920 version was played by Max Kortlander, a rearrangement credited to Cook was issued later under the same catalog number."

[@BD43304]

Thank you very much! interesting reading

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@AlexJames-mj1bz And then there was a THIRD rearrangement xD

[@sondrayork6317]

Wow, ragtime makes a comeback lol.

[@koop-xcie7715]

Hit it joe !

[@Jacob-jq2ot]

👍

[@luisgamercoolgaming]

sheeesh plankton got the new piano machine?!?

[@PastSpirits]

Anyone else thinking of spongebob when hearing this?

[@sa3270]

My great aunt had a player piano from 1926 but you had to pump it with your feet.

[@LeonardoMaster2006]

Fun.

[@loiscandler814]

When you know the tune by the title before it starts playing, you grew up with music 🎶

[@georgieippolito9924]

so the holes on the paper turn on and off air pistons for each key?

[@PiotrBarcz]

Bellows, the holes in the paper open bleed tubes that allow air to inflate a pouch which pushes a valve open admitting suction to striker pneumatic bellows that collapse and actuate the piano action.

[@ramgladore]

I wanna hear this thing play Meglovania

[@mabybee]

Makes me feel like I’m drunk off moonshine

[@MythicalxToast]

i'd buy

[@theweirdofengland]

It’s actually a great performance. It’s got swing