Cateen sat down at his beautiful grand piano to play one of the most familiar pieces known to man: ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. He began to play a simple version of the nursery rhyme, but when he began to sprinkle in a few flourishes, he gave a hint of what was to come. Cateen was about to take the nursery rhyme and increase its complexity in seven different levels. Music Man readers who hear the flourishes in level zero are sure to wonder what level seven will sound like.
As one online viewer commented, “Level 0: wait, he’s calling that 0?”, and when our Music Man readers watch the video, they will absolutely understand. Cateen’s version of the song is impressive from the start, and when it reaches level seven, it becomes utterly mindblowing. Hearing the piece develop step by step shines a light on Cateen’s talent as each level takes it to a new, astonishing level of complexity. His video has now reached over 13M viewers and been performed in his live concerts.
When I first saw Cateen’s video, I was astonished by his excellent playing as well as the imagination of the composition. It felt like a truly creative concept to take such a simple tune and see how far it can be pushed. While most of the commenters on the video seem to be focused on his undeniably impressive playing, I felt his compositional skills deserved equal recognition. I certainly never expected ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ to sound like this; so different but so recognizable.
Cateen has many videos of his piano playing on his channel; the transformation and complexity of his interpretation of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ is unique. Many of his videos show him playing impressive covers of classical pieces or game soundtracks. For Music Man readers who want to check out a different side to Cateen’s transformational abilities, his cover of ‘Happy Birthday’ is certainly one to watch, as it showcases him playing the tune in all 12 different major keys.
Talent like Cateen’s doesn’t come along every other day. It’s a pleasure to see that he has not only dedicated his talent to impressive covers of well-known classical pieces, but he clearly approaches his music with a sense of play and imagination, too. His videos just go to show that, just because you are in possession of immense skill and talent, it doesn’t mean you have to take yourself too seriously.