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Adam Ockelford: I promise there won't be too much

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of me talking, and a lot of Derek playing,

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but I thought it would just be nice to recap

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on how Derek got to where he is today.

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It's amazing now, because he's so much bigger than me,

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but when Derek was born,

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he could have fitted on the palm of your hand.

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He was born three and a half months premature,

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and really it was a fantastic fight for him to survive.

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He had to have a lot of oxygen,

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and that affected your eyes, Derek,

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and also the way you understand language

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and the way you understand the world.

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But that was the end of the bad news,

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because when Derek came home from the hospital,

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his family decided to employ the redoubtable nanny

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who was going to look after you, Derek,

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really for the rest of your childhood.

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And Nanny's great insight, really,

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was to think, here's a child who can't see.

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Music must be the thing for Derek.

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And sure enough, she sang, or as Derek called it, warbled,

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to him for his first few years of life.

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And I think it was that excitement with hearing her voice

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hour after hour every day that made him think

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maybe, you know, in his brain something was stirring,

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some sort of musical gift.

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Here's a little picture of Derek going up now,

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when you were with your nanny.

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Now Nanny's great other insight was to think,

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perhaps we should get Derek something to play,

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and sure enough, she dragged this little keyboard

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out of the loft, never thinking really

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that anything much would come of it.

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But Derek, your tiny hand must have gone out to that thing

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and actually bashed it,

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bashed it so hard they thought it was going to break.

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But out of all the bashing, after a few months,

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emerged the most fantastic music,

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and I think there was just a miracle moment, really, Derek,

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when you realized that all the sounds you hear in the world

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out there is something that you can copy on the keyboard.

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That was the great eureka moment.

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Now, not being able to see meant, of course,

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that you taught yourself.

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Derek Paravicini: I taught myself to play.

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AO: You did teach yourself to play,

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and as a consequence,

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playing the piano for you, Derek,

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was a lot of knuckles and karate chops,

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and even a bit of nose going on in there.

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And now, here's what Nanny did also do

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was to press the record button on one of those little

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early tape recorders that they had,

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and this is a wonderful tape, now, of Derek playing

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when you were four years old.

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DP: "Molly Malone (Cockles and Mussels)."

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AO: It wasn't actually "Cockles and Mussels."

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This one is "English Country Garden."

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DP: "English Country Garden."

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(Music: "English Country Garden")

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AO: There you are.

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(Applause)

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I think that's just fantastic.

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You know, there's this little child who can't see,

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can't really understand much about the world,

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has no one in the family who plays an instrument,

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and yet he taught himself to play that.

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And as you can see from the picture,

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there was quite a lot of body action going on

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while you were playing, Derek.

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Now, along -- Derek and I met when he was four and a half years old,

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and at first, Derek, I thought you were mad, to be honest,

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because when you played the piano,

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you seemed to want to play every single note on the keyboard,

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and also you had this little habit

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of hitting me out of the way.

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So as soon as I tried to get near the piano,

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I was firmly shoved off.

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And having said to your dad, Nic,

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that I would try to teach you, I was then slightly confused

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as to how I might go about that

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if I wasn't allowed near the piano.

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But after a while, I thought, well, the only way

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is to just pick you up, shove Derek over to the other side of the room,

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and in the 10 seconds that I got before Derek came back,

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I could just play something very quickly

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for him to learn.

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And in the end, Derek, I think you agreed

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that we could actually have some fun playing the piano together.

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As you can see, there's me in my early,

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pre-marriage days with a brown beard,

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and little Derek concentrating there.

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I just realized this is going to be recorded, isn't it? Right. Okay.

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(Laughter)

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Now then, by the age of 10, Derek really

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had taken the world by storm.

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This is a photo of you, Derek, playing at the Barbican

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with the Royal Philharmonic Pops.

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Basically it was just an exciting journey, really.

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And in those days, Derek, you didn't speak very much,

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and so there was always a moment of tension

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as to whether you'd actually understood what it was we were going to play

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and whether you'd play the right piece in the right key,

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and all that kind of thing.

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But the orchestra were wowed as well,

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and the press of the world were fascinated by your ability

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to play these fantastic pieces.

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Now the question is, how do you do it, Derek?

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And hopefully we can show the audience now

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how it is you do what you do.

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I think that one of the first things that happened

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when you were very little, Derek,

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was that by the time you were two,

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your musical ear had already outstripped that of most adults.

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And so whenever you heard any note at all --

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if I just play a random note --

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(Piano notes) --

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you knew instantly what it was,

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and you'd got the ability as well to find that note on the piano.

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Now that's called perfect pitch,

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and some people have perfect pitch for a few white notes

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in the middle of the piano.

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(Piano notes)

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You can see how -- you get a sense of playing with Derek.

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(Applause)

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But Derek, your ear is so much more than that.

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If I just put the microphone down for a bit,

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I'm going to play a cluster of notes.

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Those of you who can see will know how many notes,

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but Derek, of course, can't.

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Not only can you say how many notes,

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it's being able to play them all at the same time. Here we are.

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(Chords)

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Well, forget the terminology, Derek. Fantastic.

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And it's that ability, that ability to hear simultaneous sounds,

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not only just single sounds, but when a whole orchestra is playing,

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Derek, you can hear every note,

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and instantly, through all those hours and hours of practice,

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reproduce those on the keyboard,

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that makes you, I think, is the basis of all your ability.

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Now then.

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It's no use having that kind of raw ability

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without the technique,

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and luckily, Derek, you decided that,

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once we did start learning, you'd let me help you

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learn all the scale fingerings.

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So for example using your thumb under with C major.

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(Piano notes)

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Etc.

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And in the end, you got so quick,

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that things like "Flight of the Bumblebee"

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were no problem, were they?

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DP: No.

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AO: Right. So here, by the age of 11,

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Derek was playing things like this.

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DP: This.

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(Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee")

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(Applause)

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AO: Derek, let's have a bow.

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Well done.

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Now the truly amazing thing was, with all those scales, Derek,

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you could not only play "Flight of the Bumblebee"

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in the usual key, but any note I play,

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Derek can play it on.

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So if I just choose a note at random, like that one.

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(Piano notes)

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Can you play "Flight of the Bumblebee" on that note?

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DP: "Flight of the Bumblebee" on that note.

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(Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee")

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AO: Or another one? How about in G minor?

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DP: G minor.

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(Music: "Flight of the Bumblebee")

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AO: Fantastic. Well done, Derek.

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So you see, in your brain, Derek, is this amazing musical computer

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that can instantly recalibrate, recalculate,

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all the pieces in the world that are out there.

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Most pianists would have a heart attack if you said,

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"Sorry, do you mind playing 'Flight of the Bumblebee'

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in B minor instead of A minor?" as we went on.

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In fact, the first time, Derek, you played that with an orchestra,

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you'd learned the version that you'd learned,

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and then the orchestra, in fact, did have a different version,

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so while we were waiting in the two hours

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before the rehearsal and the concert,

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Derek listened to the different version and learned it quickly

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and then was able to play it with the orchestra.

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Fantastic chap.

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The other wonderful thing about you is memory.

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DP: Memory.
AO: Your memory is truly amazing, and every concert we do,

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we ask the audience to participate, of course,

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by suggesting a piece Derek might like to play.

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And people say, "Well, that's terribly brave

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because what happens if Derek doesn't know it?"

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And I say, "No, it's not brave at all,

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because if you ask for something that Derek doesn't know,

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you're invited to come and sing it first,

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and then he'll pick it up." (Laughter)

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So just be thoughtful before you suggest something too outlandish.

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But seriously, would anyone like to choose a piece?

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DP: Choose a piece. Choose, choose, would you like to choose?
AO: Because it's quite dark. You'll just have to shout out.

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Would you like to hear me play?

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(Audience: "Theme of Paganini.")

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AO: Paganini.
DP: "The Theme of Paganini."

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(Laughter)

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(Music: "Theme of Paganini")

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(Applause)

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AO: Well done.

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Derek's going to L.A. soon,

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and it's a milestone, because it means that Derek and I

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will have spent over 100 hours on long-haul flights together,

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which is quite interesting, isn't it Derek?

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DP: Very interesting, Adam, yes. Long-haul flights. Yes.

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AO: You may think 13 hours is a long time to keep talking,

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but Derek does it effortlessly. Now then.

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(Laughter)

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But in America, they've coined this term,

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"the human iPod" for Derek,

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which I think is just missing the point, really,

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because Derek, you're so much more than an iPod.

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You're a fantastic, creative musician,

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and I think that was nowhere clearer to see, really,

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than when we went to Slovenia,

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and someone -- in a longer concert we tend to get people joining in,

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and this person, very, very nervously came onto the stage.

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DP: He played "Chopsticks."
AO: And played "Chopsticks."

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DP: "Chopsticks."

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00:14:00,489 --> 00:14:03,853
AO: A bit like this.
DP: Like this. Yes.

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(Piano notes)

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00:14:04,791 --> 00:14:06,471
AO: I should really get Derek's manager to come and play it.

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He's sitting there.

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DP: Somebody played "Chopsticks" like this.
AO: Just teasing, right? Here we go.

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(Music: "Chopsticks")

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DP: Let Derek play it.

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AO: What did you do with it, Derek?

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DP: I got to improvise with it, Adam.

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AO: This is Derek the musician.

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(Music: "Chopsticks" improvisation)

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(Applause)

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(Music) (Clapping)

241
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Keep up with Derek.

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(Music)

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00:16:20,017 --> 00:16:26,589
(Applause)

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The TED people will kill me,

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00:16:44,579 --> 00:16:46,635
but perhaps there's time for one encore.

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DP: For one encore.
AO: One encore, yes.

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So this is one of Derek's heroes.

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It's the great Art Tatum --
DP: Art Tatum.

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AO: -- who also was a pianist who couldn't see,

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and also, I think, like Derek,

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thought that all the world was a piano,

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00:16:59,379 --> 00:17:01,339
so whenever Art Tatum plays something,

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it sounds like there's three pianos in the room.

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And here is Derek's take on Art Tatum's take on "Tiger Rag."

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DP: "Tiger Rag."

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(Music: "Tiger Rag")

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(Applause)