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Guinness is a joke. They don't really have standards for lots of their records. For example, Guinness called Ben Lee's the "fastest violinist" for his "performa
by autarch 2y ago
Guinness is a joke. They don't really have standards for lots of their records. For example, Guinness called Ben Lee's the "fastest violinist" for his "performance" of Flight of the Bumblebee. I put "performance" in quotes because he absolutely butchered the piece. But he butchered it very quickly!
It's obvious when you think about it that these sorts of categories are meaningless. What is the fastest violinist? Surely this has to include both speed and _accuracy_. How do you measure accuracy over speed?
- devnullbrain 2y agoGWR's website's about us: >We are the global authority on all things record-breaking GWR website when you search "first person to": >1 to 20 of 1691 results found Now how do they propose I break those?
- thih9 2y agoBecome the first person to X+1, or the first person to X in record time, or the oldest person to X, or the first person to X while Y, etc.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ASalazarMX 2y agoHad to lookup a video of his performance. The fastest speakers somehow enunciate all phonemes when played back slowly, but Lee just at 25% is running notes into another. It doesn't help that he keeps winking at the camera instead of fully concentrating like high-performers do. It's as if Steve Woodmore started slurring words and claimed an even faster Guiness record. The difference is most of us have great hearing for words, but not so great for music.
- autarch 2y agoI have Ben Lee beat. I've done the fastest violin performance of John Cage's 4:33, and I didn't even need a violin. I'll be calling up Guinness next Monday to have it confirmed.
- ZoomZoomZoom 2y agoWere you in orbit, on a high mountain, or something like that? Otherwise I doubt you have actually succeeded.
- autarch 2y agoWell, I played it _super_ fast. It took 0s.
- ZoomZoomZoom 2y agoNope, it just means you didn't perform it correctly and your attempt can't be registered. In contrast to the majority of composed pieces of music we know exactly the tempo it has to be performed in.
- autarch 2y agoWell, I agree, but it's clear that Guinness did not when they registered Ben Lee's Flight of the Bumblebee.
- xdavidliu 2y agoI'm pretty sure Ruggiero Ricci's 1947 recording (first ever) of Paganini's 5th caprice is faster https://youtu.be/9ugLoMvfUiQ?feature=shared&t=815 https://youtu.be/9ugLoMvfUiQ?feature=shared&t=815
- danem 2y agoFive years ago, Guinness left the following note on their video of Ben Lee's performance: " It's worth noting that this is no longer a category that our records team monitor - the record has been rested. Our records managers are no longer able to monitor fastest musician records as it has become impossible to judge the quality of the renditions, even when slowed down. In terms of monitoring the number of musical notes, it is not clear if all notes have been played fully. "
- autarch 2y agoYeah, I think this is in large part due to TwoSetViolin, a classical music YouTuber duo who did a hilarious roast of this performance, as well as the whole concept of "fastest performance". See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsvaCU6i1M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsvaCU6i1M for the original video.
- philistine 2y agoPublicly disowned cheater Billy Mitchell is disgraced with all record-keeping authorities. Except Guinness. They have reinstated his records years after all his cheating allegations had been thoroughly proven. Guinness is 100% pay for play and should not even be trusted with beer-making, even less record-keeping.
- wileydragonfly 2y ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 2y agoHe likes to sue people with nonsense lawsuits, not exactly rent free.
- beeflet 2y agoNever, billy mitchell is a great lolcow
- philistine 2y agoI'm fascinated by Soviet Politburo members and Nazi leaders, do these vilains live rent-free in my head? Should I let go of my interest in the Soviet bloc? We're talking here about a vilainous cheating bastard who's a public figure, has sued Guinness to get his records reinstated, and has never stopped fighting to have everyone magically repair his reputation. I'm fascinated by the guy, just like I have been fascinated by the banality of evil my whole life.