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Japanese violinist perfectly mimics patrol car siren, blows our minds

Preston Phro Oct 10, 2013
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There’s no shortage of brilliant musicians on the Internet putting their unique spins on popular songs or performing in unusual locations. From shamisen duos playing on moving vehicles to symphonic video game music, it seems like there couldn’t possibly be anything new for us to discover.

Emphasis on the “seems like,” because you are not going to believe what this Japanese violinist manages to pull off!

Meet Teppei-sensei, a masterful violinist and violin teacher who’s been playing since he was four years old. If I remember correctly, at four I was mostly falling on my face and trying really hard not to pee my pants. So, he’s already thoroughly impressed me!

But not one to rest on his laurels, this virtuoso went on to play with tons of Japanese artists and win numerous awards, in addition to teaching violin in his home prefecture, Fukuoka. The handsome musician now also posts videos on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube, in which he plays everything from popular video games songs, like the themes from Super Mario Brothers and Dragon Quest, to covers of Hatsune Miku. He’s gotten quite popular, with a number of his videos reaching well into the hundreds of thousands of views or more and CDs available for sale on his website (Japanese only).

▼ He’s also awfully proud of his Lexus.

But today’s video is a bit…different. I don’t know if he simply got bored with playing regular music or if he lost a bet at the izakaya the other night, but our esteemed violist has taken it upon himself to really make the instrument wail.

While there’s nothing unimpressive about the typical violin piece–even just playing the scales looks amazing to me–there’s something truly remarkable about what Teppei-sensei does in the newest video. With nothing more than his deft fingers and a violin, the violinists plays the sound of multiple police sirens. Not only does he manage to get through nearly three minutes of the wailing “siren,” he also makes it actually sound…good! Now, I’m not saying I’d like to play this while studying or at my next house party, but it doesn’t make you want to stuff your ears full of cotton balls either.

Teppei-sensei was even kind enough to explain how he “played” the siren.

The G string was used for the “crank siren.” The A string was used for the 2-second automatic siren. The A and D strings together were used for the sirens of two patrol cars.

When it’s all laid out like that it seems so easy, doesn’t it? Well, maybe if you were a violin-playing, hyper-intelligent octopus, but not so much for the rest of us!

At the time of this writing, the video has receive over 21,000 views, and we expect that number to keep going up and up! You can check out the video below, or head over to Nico Nico Dougu for more details (Japanese only).

If you have trouble with the Nico Nico Dougu video player, try the YouTube version.

Also, be sure to give some of his video game song covers a listen, too! They’re available on both YouTube and Nico Nico Dougu, so you can use whichever site you feel comfortable with.

However, the titles are mostly in Japanese, so you might be in for a bit of a guessing game on some of them. But consider it a fun test to see how well you know your video game music!

Next time, we hope he does a full chase scene…maybe with Mr. Sato miming along?

Sources: ITMedia, Teppei Okada
Images: Teppei Okada, Nico Nico Dougu