There are many musical wunderkinds in the world, displaying impressive skills on their chosen instrument, and this teenager has blown everyone way using a single piano key.
Meet Keita Hattori, a 16-year-old from Japan who has just set the record for the most piano keys hit in 30 seconds. In this short space of time, Keita managed to hit the key 484 times!
However, this is not the first time Keita has broken a record.
@guinnessworldrecords Most piano key hits in 30 secs 🎹 484 by Keita Hattori 🇯🇵
♬ original sound - Guinness World Records
Keita was multi-talented from an early age. For example, he was skiing well before starting school. Musical instruments also came into his life early, with him starting to play drums at age five.
Once his school life began, Keita's musical hobbies took a back seat to focus on his studies (which he did well: winning a gold medal at the Japanese Maths competition in 2019, for instance).
Since then, his pastime became a short stop at a gaming arcade, where he played a drumbeat game called Taiko no Tatsujin.
"I heard that you become a more efficient learner if you move your body before studying. So I decided to play the drum game, as I already knew how to create beats," he said.
He's also entered a Taiko no Tatsujin competition where other participants held a record for the most single stroke roll drumbeats in a minute using drumsticks. Because Keita was able to compete favourably against a recordholder, his friends suggested he try and break the world record.
So on 9 November 2019, Keita broke it by hitting the drums 1,256 times. But he didn't stop there. He continued to break his own record three more times; now, the record stands at 1,309 as of 22 March.
On top of that, in May of this year, he also broke the record for the most single stroke roll drumbeats in 30 seconds using drumsticks (659).
In the process of breaking a series of drumbeat records, Keita found out about a record title involving another musical instrument he is well versed in. That is the most piano keys hit in 30 seconds.
Keita started learning the piano before drums. Although his progress had slowed a little because of school work, Keita still enjoys playing pieces he had already learned (fast pieces are his favourites; like the "Minute Waltz" by Chopin).
Because Keita already had record titles for hitting the drums quickly, he knew he could replicate his speed on the keyboard as well. Because over-practice can cause injuries, Keita only practised about 10 times at home. However, the difficulty was less about the skill of his fingers than finding a piano that could keep up with him.
"It was also difficult to make the piano sound clearly at such a speed. Towards the end, I got tired, and making a clear tone was hard."
Despite the challenge, Keita's attempt was successful. Keita is happy to see his skills were put to good use.
I was only casually playing piano and drums, but it's great to see that the skills I gained helped me get new records. Becoming a record holder made my life even more fun and interesting.
Despite becoming a triple record holder, Keita is eyeing up more titles.
"This year, the school asked me to set a goal for myself, so I decided to break a Guinness World Records title. If I can break even more titles, then it's a bonus. I have some records in mind, but I'll take my time working on it."
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