The fastest piano player, Domingos-Antonio Gomes, struck a single piano key 824 times in one minute, averaging 13 hits per second.

On March 4, 2017, a pianist named Domingos-Antonio Gomes set this world record in Lisbon, Portugal. He averaged about 13 hits every single second. This speed is faster than the blink of an eye. He beat the old record of 765 hits held by Bence Péter.This amazing feat works because of an invention from 1821 called double escapement. Created by Sébastien Érard, this system of tiny levers lets the piano hammer reset halfway. On a normal upright piano, you have to let the key go all the way up before you can play it again. On a grand piano with this mechanism, you can tap the key while it is still halfway down.To move that fast, the brain uses a trick called motor chunking. Instead of thinking about every single tap, the brain sends one big burst of signals to the finger muscles. This is much faster than the normal human reaction time. It is like the brain is firing a tiny machine gun of movement commands.Scientists have found that a part of the brain called the basal ganglia helps control this perfect timing. The pianist's finger has to push down with enough force to move a key that weighs about 50 grams. At 13 hits per second, the finger moves so fast that it actually creates heat in the joints. It takes incredible strength in the forearm muscles to keep that speed up for a full minute.