James Pavel Shawcross (JPS) is back!

navindra

James used to post videos about his search for the perfect piano on ThePianoforever, but then suddenly stopped posting and seemingly disappeared from the public eye.

JPS appears to have returned with a new channel, and recently started covering low-end/older pianos, but seemingly as infectiously enthusiastic as ever.

Somehow I feel like I'm meeting a long lost friend again. 🙂

The YouTube algorithm knows me all too well!

HeartKeys

I used to enjoy all his PianoForever videos as well. Now, he no longer wears the old school leather jacket, which I miss! 🙂

twocats

I wouldn't call myself a fan but he seemed like he was everywhere for a while! I wonder what the story is. I'm guessing someone bought his channel and he had to wait several years before starting to publish his own content again.

brdwyguy

Welcome back James, glad to see you have returned!

Jane

I saw this notice on his old youtube channel sometime back and it just sounded as if grown-up life had descended 😉
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoforever

pianoloverus

Jane That bio is quite surprising(Well at least the part in the last sentence because the rest means very little) since I've never heard JPS play anything more difficult than about grade 8 from ABRSM.
edit: I just heard him play the Haydn Sonata In one of the posted videos which is a much, much more advanced Piece than I've ever heard him play before. Why he chose to play much easier music in many other videos I don't know, but he's far more advanced than I thought.

twocats

pianoloverus Why he chose to play much easier music in many other videos I don't know

I think he was playing crowd pleaser tunes for his YouTube audience! I'm also surprised that he is (or has become) a serious classical musician.

Also, he's much younger than I'd thought!

pianoloverus

twocats pianoloverus Why he chose to play much easier music in many other videos I don't know

I think he was playing crowd pleaser tunes for his YouTube audience! I'm also surprised that he is (or has become) a serious classical musician.

There's plenty of crowd pleasing pieces both classical and non classical that are more advanced that he could have played. He attempted the famous Pirates of the Caribbean piece in an earlier video but didn't play it well even though he only played the easier opening section. Since he's apparently studying classical piano performance in college he's probably more seriously interested in classical than one would gather from the huge majority of his videos. But from what I've seen so far he's nowhere near the level that would apply to a good conservatory although it's a bit hard to tell from just the Haydn Sonata snippet which is the only advanced piece I've heard him play. So it's possible I'm underestimating his ability.

I don't think he has much in depth knowledge about pianos or ability to discuss them in a meaningful way. Many of his videos could be described as basically saying" I really like this piano".