Have you ever actually heard the world's smallest violin? No, it's not just a metaphor for misplaced complainers, it's an actual thing. From the world's largest tuba to the fastest violinist, the world record holders in classical music are quite astounding.
Recently a list was compiled of some of the most obscure world records for classical musicians and players. There's nothing more entertaining to see the world's idiosyncrasies when it comes to making history.
Check out five nearly incredible inventions and techniques that have been immortalized in the world record books (comments and compilation thanks to the good people at Classic FM):
World's smallest violin
"Yeah, so it's impressive and we admire the 'no-vibrato' stance on Baroque performance practice, but that intonation. It's all over the place."
World's largest tuba
"A man in lederhosen plays Flight of the Bumblebee on the world's largest tuba. Because Germany."
World's fastest violinist
"There are loads of YouTube videos purporting to show the fastest performance of Flight Of The Bumblebee, and it's very tricky to know for sure who the current record-holder is. But we've got a soft spot for the electric-haired, omni-smiling, spangly-jacketed violin munchkin Ben Lee. Here he is smashing his own record in Hong Kong in front of a scarily silent audience"
World's fastest drummer
"If pianos aren't doing it for you, then take a look at this surprisingly calm video of Tom Grosset tap-tapping away at an electric drum, rattling up an astonishing 1,208 hits in one minute, beating the previous world record by just 5"
World's biggest orchestra
"In 2013, a whopping gaggle of 7,224 musicians gathered in Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium to beat the world record for the largest ever orchestra. Unfortunately, they picked 'Waltzing Matilda' as one of their pieces, but still, impressive stuff."
