The YouTube recommendation algorithm is slowly starting to get better for me. For example, it showed me this video: <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mylvwhy63bk" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/Mylvwhy63bk" source="YouTube" width="560px" author="" caption="Yngwie Malmsteen - Live with Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra"> Japan: where speed-metal virtuosity goes to <del>die</del>live forever. I love watching an earnest and serious Japanese orchestra playing along with the music I grew up with. It's 2017, Yngwie's gotten chubby, he looks maybe a bit ridiculous in all of his stretched leather, gold rings, and gold watch---but he sounds amazing. You can really hear how appropriate most of his compositions were for an orchestra. He's flying the whole time, but at <b>55:30</b>, he just goes extra nuts. After that, he finally takes his first break (!). He plays two encores, ending with one of my absolute favorites, <i>Far Beyond The Sun</i>, which is technically ridiculous, after 65 minutes of solid soloing. The orchestral arrangement is fantastic. He's like a machine. You can absolutely see the effort, but the hands. Do. Not. Stop. I've listened to this song hundreds of times from the album. I can't hear a single false note in this live performance. It's not a carbon copy, but the keys are perfect. Yeah, I'd have been standing and cheering too. <hr> My partner knows me pretty well, too, better even than the YouTube algorithm. They sent me this video soon after (probably because they heard me playing the first video at an inappropriate volume). <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vznSu-BHyVA" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/vznSu-BHyVA" source="YouTube" caption="The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview" width="560px" author="Rick Beato"> This was an excellent interview, filled with technical music information that I can barely follow, but that I love to listen to. Yngwie shared a lot about his early career. <hr> Next up is the YouTube algorithm, introducing me to Doug Helvering, whom I'm going to assume by the accent is from Tennessee. I have to say, he was pretty great and I've subscribed to his channel now. <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVTNnFAHvHw" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/xVTNnFAHvHw" source="YouTube" width="560px" author="Doug Helvering" caption="Classical Composer Reacts to Icarus' Dream Suite, Op. 4 (Yngwie Malmsteen) | The Daily Doug Ep. 122"> <bq>This is in E^♭-minor, not G-minor, which is <i>inherently</i> more difficult to play. G-minor is not that bad. But E^♭-minor just ups the level of difficulty, mainly because the strings don't have any open tunings, open strings in that key, that they can anchor off of, so every position has to be covered and hooded with their hands.</bq> On the one hand, I'm delighted to discover things like this but, on the other, I'm also in no position to determine whether he's full of shit. I feel like it opens up a whole world of complexity that non-musicians just don't have access to. We just listen to music and like it---and musicians <i>see the matrix</i>. This is why I love listening to Rick Beato and people like Doug Helvering, <iq>it's one of these full-diatonic progressions [...] it's a way to take a stroll through an entire chord collection of the key that you're in.</iq> Awesome, Doug. Thanks for letting me know that you're enjoying this on about six more levels than I am. 😉