Marble Pedestal: The World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest

There are untold wonders in the depths of YouTube, troves of interesting content to be discovered among the slew of unwatchable videos. Just a few weeks ago, I came across what might be one of the best channels I’ve found so far. 

Every year, the bustling metropolis of Oxford, Mississippi holds a great competition: the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. It’s a contest for players of “ragtime, traditional jazz, blues, honky-tonk, boogie-woogie and novelty songs from the early 20th century,” and it’s beautiful. And yes, they have a YouTube channel.

This has been my favourite thing for the past few weeks, and I just want more people to know it exists. 

Not only is watching these people play super impressive, but all the songs are upbeat and fun, which is something I don’t come across all that often. Sure, I’ll go listen to something more classical now and then, but it’s just so much more fun to watch someone show off with ragtime, whether it’s one of the first ever written, or a piece they composed themselves.

You also can get in your daily dose of watching children having way more talent than they have any right to. You have to respect their enthusiasm, in the way they play and their outfits. Speaking of, the musicians all have a really fun style. It’s pretty casual, but they try to all look a bit old-timey, usually with a nifty suit and hat like this guy. Sometimes they’re in a wizard robe, because why not. The point is, it’s all really earnest, and I love that. 

Right now the channel is sitting at a whopping 818 subscribers, which means more people need to find out about this. If you want something different to binge instead of doing schoolwork, consider browsing through this channel, because it’s just a lot of fun.