Pachelbel

by Aaron Brazell on January 9, 2008 · 48 comments

I found this via Facebook. One of my friends sent this to me and I laughed so hard I watched it 3 times in a row. See, if you’re a musician as I am, you know that music is just a bunch of patterns. It’s mathematical, really. So it’s not all that unusual for “progressions” to repeat or be duplicated between songs. It’s unintentional mostly, but thats the nature of patterns.

Apparently, everyone loves the Canon in D patterns. ;-)

{ 48 comments }

1 Darren January 9, 2008 at 6:13 pm

hehe – nice one.

2 danithew January 9, 2008 at 7:55 pm

After seeing this, I’ll never again hear Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going to Take It” the same way as before.

3 Brian Layman January 10, 2008 at 3:34 pm

I love paravovian’s stuff… he’s pretty good. This was hilarious…

4 MsInformation January 10, 2008 at 8:48 pm

I really enjoyed it. Aside from the PDQ Bachness of the musical jokes, Paravonian’s sense of his audience and rapport is definitely part of the coolness. Thanks, Aaron.

5 JhonD January 11, 2008 at 3:33 am

lol – very nice

6 greg g. January 14, 2008 at 8:43 am

That was awesome!

7 Cameron January 24, 2008 at 11:27 am

This guy came to our school, it is a lot better in person, he is pretty much amazing.

Cameron

8 Red Icculus January 27, 2008 at 6:14 pm

Pachelbells canon is following me thanks to a standup comedian, ahhh!

9 Ticklepiggy February 17, 2008 at 10:13 am

Now I’ll hear him everywhere…
He’s right, everybody uses Canon….Crap.

10 Xenu February 27, 2008 at 3:28 am

That was hilarious..
..and I’ve used Canon before too….damnit!!!

11 Beth April 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm

I saw this guy live! It was soooo awesome. I met him and everything!!

12 Jim April 9, 2008 at 12:41 am

his first name IS Johann

13 Larkyn April 9, 2008 at 10:14 pm

HAHA! I can relate, I play cello too, and I agree. It’s insane! The cello part is so boring for that song lol

14 Mike April 9, 2008 at 11:07 pm

Yeah a lot of people use it, but most of the songs he was singing only use two or three chords out of the EIGHT, so its funnier if you’re not a musician.. or if you just didn’t know that

15 Chase April 10, 2008 at 1:03 pm

I used to play cello. It was back in the 6th and 7th grade,(I’m a freshman in college now), I’d give my left foor to play it again. I loved it. Rob just makes it even more enjoyable. Every time I watch this I crack up.

16 Taylor April 12, 2008 at 11:54 pm

I play bass, this guy is just whiny, i mean at least he got to sit down while he played the notes over and over.

17 mw April 13, 2008 at 9:16 am

seen it

18 Darian Knight April 13, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Do you have the time to listen to me whine… la da da, da da, da da da, da da dada da… lol

He has a very good point..

19 Michelle April 13, 2008 at 5:42 pm

As a fellow child cellist I can say he speaks the truth. which is why now at 16 I can throw a right hook better than any guy I know, and over 27 different ways to prevent something, 2 twice the size and 100 times more delicate than you , from breaking. Don’t touch my cello or else. Hit someone just rigth with an endpin and they will never have chidren.

20 Amy April 14, 2008 at 2:55 pm

I’ve seen this guy live. He’s hilarious. he came to my school.

21 Katie April 14, 2008 at 9:36 pm

Oh god! That was hilarious! That so awesome!!!

22 cellist April 16, 2008 at 7:09 pm

this. is. SO UNBELIEVABLY TRUE. I have been thinking this exact thing my ENTIRE. LIFE. and thank god people now know how horrible the cello part is and how often we play it!

23 Coley D April 18, 2008 at 2:40 pm

FINALLY SOMEONE HAS SHARED OUR PAIN WITH THE WORLD
That cello part is soo boring. I invented 50 different fingerings (including using my chin, nose, (that one hurts though) Knuckles etc to play the notes)

and yes, hit someone with an endpin just right and you can maim somebody in pretty much anyway you can think of.

It comes up in weddings so often aswell

24 DAVE. YEAH, DAVE April 19, 2008 at 2:23 am

He took a couple of slight liberties there but still pretty damn funny.

25 Brandon April 22, 2008 at 3:56 pm

If you plan on seeing him, don\’t watch this too much. While it is awesome, he does it basically exactly that way, which makes it not as funny seeing it after watching it online. And to contribute to the musical complaints… At least Cello notes are on the beat, play a Sousa song on a French Horn and prepare to belt out off beats for 4 pages straight

26 _ed April 27, 2008 at 2:30 pm

I recognized Vitamin C’s Friends Forever but I never realized that same little melody was used so much. Brilliant piece.

27 Pangaean May 6, 2008 at 12:52 am

Oh boy, Pachebel was just following you before this, now he is following many more. Do you think he will go easy on you if you share the burden? :)

That was just great.

28 SadPanda May 11, 2008 at 6:34 pm

“He took a couple of slight liberties there”?

Dave (yeah you Dave), you are incredibly boring!

29 Monty May 17, 2008 at 10:59 pm

That is amazing, I knew a couple of those but, i had no clue there were that many.

30 Biff May 19, 2008 at 11:07 pm

I agree with dave. Not all the chord progressions he plays are exact, such as his Aerosmith song, and No Woman No Cry, that he uses. Also, You have to be realistic about the simple fact of music: You have 12 basic chords you can use, 48 if you want to differentiate major, minor, augmented and diminished. from those chords only so many progressions can be reached that will , arguably, sound good to the human ear. As a result, considering that huge amount of musical material that has been generated since we started with gregorian chant after the fall of the Roman empire, there is alot of overlap, especially in chord progressions that are the most pleasing to the human ear, the progression of pachabel’s Canon being one. This is also hindered by the fact that the key of D is a very, very popular key.

all that being said, This is a very funny skit, and I enjoyed it a lot when i heard it.

Biff

31 BenB May 20, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Awesome, awesome, just brilliant, good effort Aaron!!

32 Chipper May 24, 2008 at 12:06 am

its so true! i’ve played this song on my cello. it sucks!!! and THIS IS HILARIOUS!!!!

33 Celeste May 27, 2008 at 10:16 pm

OMG I can relate xD I play the Bass Clarinet [don't get me wrong, best frickin instrument ever] but we played a piece called “A Christmas Canon” and it was a mix between the First Noel and Canon… all I played was the opening cello riff twice every eight measures or so. It made me so maaaad.

34 Scarlett_156 May 29, 2008 at 3:53 am

What a blast from the past. It made me remember my highschool orchestra days. And yeah–he has an excellent point, people are WAY too hung up on that damned piece. With a lot of people it’s like the only classical piece they can name. When I played with a quartet for awhile we would do garden parties and other mild-mannered social events and without fail there would be these starry-eyed bourgeoise ladies coming up when they saw us getting set up to ask us if we knew the Canon in D. (Slowly I turned… step by step…) You can almost play a drinking game with it when you watch TV because so many advertisements use it.

It’s kinda like people wanting to hear “Free Bird” when your band is gigging at a biker bar. (yours in Chaos, Scarlett)

35 lucy May 29, 2008 at 9:50 am

that was not funny in any way.

36 Leighann May 29, 2008 at 12:54 pm

This is amazing. =D

37 JD June 11, 2008 at 9:46 am

He threw in the theme to Laverne & Shirley. That’s freakin brilliant!

38 CP June 17, 2008 at 5:12 pm

BRILLIANT!

39 Mark June 18, 2008 at 11:40 pm

Haha funny. Great watch.


You are NOT a Sheep:
http://youarenotasheep.blogspot.com/

40 violinist June 20, 2008 at 6:33 am

I remember practicing this song for graduation in high school…I was a 1st violin and every time we messed up, I thought the cellists were going to kill us!!! haha…this was great

41 paresh July 3, 2008 at 8:40 am

its different.

42 Eric July 4, 2008 at 2:36 pm

Pretty damn funny…

43 Adrienne July 9, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Celeste, I totally agree! Bass Clarinet is superior, but most of the music is terribly repetitive. Try playing ‘Mars.’ For the first 49 measures, I had ‘triple it 2, 3, 4 and 5′ at a rather fast tempo. Then, I had a nice little part, and it was back to the triplets for another 15 measures. Eeesh. But on the bright side, I’m the only one in the band cool enough to play the Bass Clarinet. XD

44 Rose July 10, 2008 at 8:36 am

This guy is amazing!!!!

I play viola, and I often feel haunted by Pachelbel’s Cannon in D (The viola only gets to play the melody for about… 16 measures). Not only did my high school teacher make us practice the song for months, we had to perform it at each grade’s graduation. It was painful. I’m pretty sure that I can, 8 years later, still play it perfectly from memory.

45 ashley July 14, 2008 at 9:45 pm

wow…. just wow…. you’re truly my new hero this is fantastic.

46 MissYuki July 24, 2008 at 5:46 am

Talking about Pachelbel, here you have 4 ‘unconventional’ Canon in D versions : the solo/multi-screen brazilian funny version, and the rock, the manga-style, the breakdance and the prisoners’ choreographic ones!
It’s real! His piece is everywhere!

47 Rob July 27, 2008 at 12:44 pm

dude i found this very boring and annoying…………………maybe if he went through puberty it wood b sumwhat decent

48 Rick September 8, 2008 at 11:39 am

Yeah PENN STATE.

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