You Know This Song (but the Orchestra Doesn’t) | Jacob Collier & VSO School of Music Orchestra | TED

00:04What I'm about to do with the musicians on stage is to create a piece of music for which we have had no rehearsal. There was no sheet music, we have no plan or prior discussion of any kind. So none of you know what's about to happen. None of you have any idea what's about to happen.

00:18And without further ado, let's begin. Are you ready? Audience: Yes! Jacob Collier: Are you ready? Audience: Yes! (Cheers) JC: It’s the correct answer. Let's start, hi, everybody. Let's start with the violins. I'd like for you to play a D. That one up there.

00:37Perfect, keep playing that. Can you play an A next door? Could you play a G? That's the one. And a D. Perfecto. Gorgeous. Can you try Tremolando? It's fun, isn't it? (Laughter) Back to Arco. No, Tremolando is better. Cool. Harp. Actually, before I get to you, violas.

01:03Violas. Could you play a G, and you play a D? OK, stop playing for a second. This is the tempo -- I want you guys to keep playing. Here's the tempo. And we're going to go -- You're just going to play every beat. So it's going to go (Vocalizing).

01:22(Musicians playing) Perfect, beautiful. OK, harp. G major into a glissando from the bottom to the top of the harp. And one, two. That's lovely. And again. Isn't that nice? One, two -- Yeah. Vibraphone. Could you put a note at the top of that?

01:54Try a G. What's the highest G on the vibraphone? That's a good one. Can you play that and the G above it? Even louder. One, two. I love that. You two stop for a second, everyone else keep going. So, cello and flute. Let's see. Could you play three notes and you play three notes?

02:23So your three notes are arco. It's going to be G, F-sharp, E, like that. Can you do that? That's so lovely. And again. Flute, can you play -- You're going to go B, A, G. Three, go. Try octave lower. Go. That's lovely. And again. Go. OK, you two, stop.

03:00Everyone else, keep going. You're going to be going for a while, I'm sorry. So that happens two times. Two times. And the second half -- this is the verse, by the way. Second half of the verse is bass, cello, clarinet. And the bass, you're going to play down the G major scale starting on A on the G string.

03:20Yeah, exactly. So you're going to go (Vocalizing). Keep going. D, C, B A and G. OK, stop, that's wonderful, that's superb. So all the way down -- Yeah? OK. Clarinet, can you do the same thing but starting on C, constant C there? That makes sense?

03:53And I'd like you to play just D then just goes through the whole thing. Can I hear the note? Exactly, yeah, OK. So you know what to do. One, two, three, go. That's lovely, now stop that. Beautiful work. I mean, it's really good. (Applause) Keep playing.

04:26So when you land on that G, when they land on the G, then you two start again. So it kind of loops around. Does that make sense? And that whole thing happens twice. So let's try the whole thing. Let's try the verse all the way through. We're going to add some harp at the beginning.

04:41So play on my signal and let's see if we can get all the way through this. So one, two, three. And stop. OK. Give these musicians a round of applause, everybody. (Applause and cheers) Fantastic, fantastic. (Applause) So that will be our verse.

05:19But every good song needs a chorus. So this will be our chorus. Brass, are you with me? OK, sweet. We've got tuba, trumpets, trombone, horn. Have you got a snare drum? You've got snare drum and a kick drum and a cymbal. You're on double duty today.

05:35OK, fantastic. So for the chorus, I want to start with trombone one, trumpet one and horn. And you have three notes each. And you play those three notes twice each. So trombone, you go G, A, D, or in trombone, that's -- (Vocalizing trombone) Is that right?

06:01Exactly right. Trumpet, your part is ... G, G, F-sharp. And horn, your part is B, C-sharp, D, right? (Vocalizing horn) That's in horn. Yeah (Vocalizing) Can you hear it? Two, three. Go! And again. Two, three. Go! That sounds lovely. That sounds really great.

06:37So I have two changes I want to make to that. The first change is I want you to do it five times louder. And the second change, I want to add some percussion. So could you play a snare drum roll? So it's like (Vocalizing) And then hit the kick drum and the cymbal at the same time.

06:53Can you just do that by yourself? So do the snare drum roll on beat three landing on beat one. So it goes one, two, three. And there you go. It's pretty good, eh? It's just like I told a joke but I couldn't think of one. So you're going to do that and land on this brass thing and you're going to do that thing twice.

07:11So let's just try that with drums and like, really loud, like, louder than is responsible for the TED theater. OK, ready? So one, two, three, and. Two, three, go! Was that loud enough for you? Just about? So the second half of the chorus is -- Who's left?

07:36Tuba, trombone, trumpet. Tuba, can you play seven notes? But don't worry, they're like in a sequence. You're going to go G, F-sharp, E, D, C, which is all the G major scale and then D, G. So it's like (Vocalizing). You got it? Two, three, go!

08:06Yeah! (Applause) Tubas are so great. I love tubas to death. It's good vibes. Trombone, could you go -- B, A, G, G, C, C, B, right? He's good, he's good. And then trumpet, could you play chromatic so it starts on D and it goes -- it's a sneaky little part -- It goes (Vocalizing) like that.

08:43Does that make sense? Starting on D up to F and back to D. Can you do an octave lower, though? And let's get everyone together, three of you together. One, two, three, go. Now stop for one sec. That's totally my bad, half speed trumpet. Yeah?

09:03OK. One, two, three. That's gorgeous. That's lovely. (Applause) You're doing so well. So that whole thing happens twice as well. So the verse happens twice and then the chorus happens twice. And the drums are only that first time. And on the repeat of the chorus, don't do the drum roll, but do do the hit and the -- Does that make sense?

09:35She's amazing. So OK, that makes sense. And after that, we're going to go straight back to the violins, so be ready. Does everyone have something to do? (Laughter) Well, you don’t have something to do. You should have said "No." So I'm going to give you a part.

09:52Your part is really simple. It goes (Vocalizing). Can I hear that? (Audience vocalizing) Much louder than that, go! (Audience vocalizing louder) You do it like, more drunkenly, ready? (Audience vocalizing loudly) That's exactly the vibe, that's the vibe I'm talking about.

10:09So, on my signal, you go. (Audience vocalizing loudly) Sublime. Now I have a part too, but you don’t know that part yet. Jethro the crocodile, by the way, does not have a part. He's just listening today. But we're going to go from the top of the song, and then you're going to do your part, and we'll get to the end of the song, and then [that’ll] be the end.

10:29That'll be sad. So we’ll do violins and violas and harp, vibes and then cello, flute, clarinet, cello, bass, chorus, audience. OK, great. I think we're ready. Is everybody ready? It's the correct answer. OK, violins, you ready? One, two, three, go.

10:51Violas. One, two, three, go. Harp, one, two. (Singing) There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. There's nothing you can see, but you can learn how to play the game. It's easy. There's nothing you can make that can't be made.

11:32Nothing you can save that can't be saved. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing you can do. But you can learn how to be you in time. It's easy. All you need is love. All you need is love. And -- all you need is love. Love. Love is all you need. And again, one, two, three, go.

12:04All you need is love. (Audience vocalizing) All you need is love. (Audience vocalizing) All you need is love. Love. Love is all you need. One, two, three. Love, love, love. Ready? Audience: Love, love, love. Keep saying that. Love, love, love.

12:52Audience: Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Audience: Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. (Music crescendos)

13:57(Music ends) (Cheers and applause) (Cheers and applause continue) Thank you, everybody.