A 4-Track Mind
In this short, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible.
- Duration
- 19m
- Broadcast on
- 26 Jul 2011
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
In this short, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Oh, wait, you're listening to radio lab from WNYC and NPR. Yeah, I don't think so bad. No, this is fun. What are we doing about the podcast, by the way? Oh, do you should do that now? Hey, I'm Jad Abumrod. This is Radio Lab. Yes, we, yes it is. No, we're doing the introduction. Ready? Here we go. Let's do it for real. Hey, I'm Jad Abumrod. I'm Robert Kroller. This is Radio Lab. The podcast. And today on the podcast, I want to tell you about a guy who hears music in a way that is just extraordinary and painful. Just thinking about this story makes my head hurt. That's Jessica Benko. She is a reporter. Yep. And she's the one who initially told me the story. So a little while ago, I went up to visit this guy. Hi. Hi. Bob Mill. Bob, it's nice to see you. Nice to see you. Oh, excuse my snowy feet here. And he lives in a tiny town in Michigan, with his wife Linda. It's nice to see you again. And who is he? He's an amazing piano player. The Library of Congress actually called him a national treasure. Really? He's had this special relationship with music ever since he was a boy. Did you grow up with any other instruments inside the house other than the piano or was that what you started out on? Well, my mother made me take piano lessons and I hated it. I didn't like the sound of minor keys and the piano teachers had me playing a recital in which there was a Schubert minor key piece in it. And so on the recital, they played it in major. And everyone thought that was a travesty. These days, though, his mean music isn't so much Schubert. It's actually ragtime. Ragtime is one, two, three, four, one, two, three, find the rhythms. So the thing about ragtime is that oftentimes the player is actually playing two different rhythms at the same time, one with the left hand, one with the right hand. And then he puts the rhythms of three in the right hand. The thing about Bob is he could do this, like, times a thousand. What does that even mean? Well, let me back up.
Transcription truncated.
In this short, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible.