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Awesome Talents

System of a Down on Hurdy-Gurdy

System of a Down on Hurdy-Gurdy

Combining bowed, keyed, and mechanical elements, the hurdy-gurdy is definitely one of the stranger musical instruments. Enjoy as musician Michalina Malisz shows off her hurdy-gurdy skills with a little medley of System of a Down riffs. If you haven’t heard it before, her guitar riffs compilation is worth a listen too.

Misirlou Fingerstyle

Misirlou Fingerstyle

Playing Dick Dale’s track Misirlou already requires some fast fingers. But guitarist Alexandr Misko amped things up to 11 as he performed the track using a fingerstyle technique. He somehow managed to retain the vibrato surf rock sound, despite his dramatically different playing style.

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Native American English Singing

Native American English Singing

If you’re unfamiliar with the richly-layered sounds of traditional Native American pow wow singing, you’ll want to check out this footage of Antoine Edwards and a trio of talented vocalists as they perform a song in the traditional chanted style, but with lyrics in English.

I’m Still Standing: A Capella

I’m Still Standing: A Capella

Vocalist Jared Halley always does an amazing job with his multi-track a capella performances. We can totally picture the colorful personalities frolicking on a sunny Parisian beach as he takes on Elton John’s triumphant 1983 track I’m Still Standing.

250 BPM Bumblebee

250 BPM Bumblebee

When you want to show off how fast you can play, the go-to choice for many musicians is Flight of the Bumblebee. We’ve heard the tune played on all kinds of instruments, but never on a toy piano. Listen as Hayato “Cateen” Sumino lets his fingers fly across the tiny ivories, gradually increasing his speed to an insane 250 BPM.

Backward Rollerblade Slalom

Backward Rollerblade Slalom

Freestyle inline skate world champ Vasilisa Maslova struts her stuff as she works her way through a short slalom course. Not only does she perform the feat in reverse, but balanced on the front wheel of just one of her rollerblades.

Card Flick Boomerang

Card Flick Boomerang

While showing off his moves, cardistry expert notseano decided to flick a card behind his back, nailing the trajectory just right so it boomerangs perfectly back to the deck in his left hand. He says he was surprised, but the confident look on his face says otherwise.

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One Man Rush

One Man Rush

While his singing certainly isn’t on Geddy Lee’s level, musician Dominic Fragman more than makes up for it with his ability to perform Tom Sawyer’s drums, lead guitar, and vocals all at the same time. Be sure to check out his Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin too.

Bumblebee on a Watering Can

Bumblebee on a Watering Can

Musician Martyn Stroud can usually be found playing the trombone or teaching students how to play one. He recently performed the notoriously tricky Flight of the Bumblebee using nothing but a plastic watering can and the mouthpiece from one of his brass instruments, for no other reason than a little backyard fun.

Tallest Bowling Ball Stack

Tallest Bowling Ball Stack

We didn’t know it was physically possible to stack even a single bowling ball on top of another, so our minds were blown when we saw that Shen Xiaoshi managed to balance TEN of the heavy spheres in a column, setting a Guinness World Record along the way. We love his zen-like calm as he assesses the situation.

Zeroelectrodrum and the Chickens

Zeroelectrodrum and the Chickens

Musician and street performer Zeroelectrodrum introduces two honorary members of his one-man band, Mr. Green and Mr. Pink, a pair of rubber chickens that he uses to add an extra layer of sound when playing his Blue Man Group-esque PVC pipe xylophone.

Rainbow Connection Live

Rainbow Connection Live

Every time we hear the song Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie, it gives us the feels. While Jim Henson set the bar high with his original performance, 13-year-old puppeteer Kai and his dad Kelbe Schrank did the song and its creators proud during an event at Aubrey, Texas’ Fortunata Winery.

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Reverse Slow-mo Compilation

Reverse Slow-mo Compilation

Kuma Films is known for photographing people as they show off their various talents. Often, the footage is captured in slow-motion, so for fun, they decided to run some of the footage in reverse, resulting in a surreal and captivating compilation of backwards scenes.

World’s Fastest Flute Player

World’s Fastest Flute Player

We have no way of knowing if he missed any notes, but to our untrained ears, flutist Armin Gheitasi’s 300 bpm, sub-45 second performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee is the fastest we’ve ever heard anyone play any wind instrument.

Minor-to-Major Metal

Minor-to-Major Metal

What happens when you transpose a bunch of fierce heavy metal songs from a minor key to a major key? The Paranormal Guitar Channel changed up a bunch of hard rock tracks, making them far more lighthearted than their original counterparts.

Somebody to Love A Cappella

Somebody to Love A Cappella

Musician Jared Halley demonstrates his impressive vocal range and skill by performing all of the parts of Queen’s 1976 classic Somebody to Love, from Freddie Mercury’s lead vocals, to the layered choral parts, to the instrumentation. Be sure to check out his many other a cappella tracks on his YouTube channel.

Finger String Art

Finger String Art

Among their various talents, Japanese dance crew XTRAP are experts at synchronized finger tutting. In this clip, the trio moves their hands and digits in sync to create geometric patterns using a loop of string. Enjoyed that? Check out their pencil and CD performances.

Ambidextrous Drawing

Ambidextrous Drawing

Detroit lawyer and artist Colin Darke not only can draw well, but has the rare ability to do it with both his left and right hands. But he doesn’t just use them one at a time, he draws with both hands at the same time. Check out his Instagram for more time-lapse videos of his work.

13 Levels of Beatboxing

13 Levels of Beatboxing

For their series Easy to Complex, WIRED invited 2005 Female World Beatbox Champion Butterscotch to explain how a beatbox performance comes together. She starts out with the basic bass drum, then builds up thicker beats, eventually mixing in singing and vocal instrumentation. And don’t forget your Boots and Cats.

Pamela Adlon Improvs Voices

Pamela Adlon Improvs Voices

You might not know Pamela Adlon’s face, but she’s the talented actor behind Bobby on King of the Hill and Spinelli on Recess, among others. In the latest of Vanity Fair’s voice improv videos, they asked her to come up with eight new character voices on the spot. The scenarios she comes up with are just as imaginative as the voices.

Fly Me to the Moon, Kid

Fly Me to the Moon, Kid

Little Miumiu may only be six years old, but she’s got more talent in her tiny little fingers than most of us have in our big adult hands. Here, she works her magic to charm the Internet with an adorable and endearing cover of the Kaye Ballard/Bart Howard classic “Fly Me to the Moon” (aka “In Other Words“)

Phil LaMarr Improvises Voices

Phil LaMarr Improvises Voices

Cartoon fans will recognize Phil LaMarr as the man behind the voices of Samurai Jack, Hermes Conrad on Futurama, and hundreds of other characters. Vanity Fair asked Phil to improvise 12 new character voices entirely based on their illustrations. If there’s one thing the clip proves is just how impressive his range is.

Jenga Dog

Jenga Dog

We can barely get our dog to sit or lie down, but my_aussie_gal’s Australian shepherd is smart and patient enough to play Jenga. Watch in awe as her talented pup Secret manages to remove the wood blocks without toppling the tower.

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