Peter the Elephant plays a Green Piano

Musical hijinks with Peter the Elephant on a green piano. Peter discovers the piano http://youtu.be/XC7z8JU5jZU

Video in context on my blog:
http://paulbartonstudio.blogspot.com/...

I was actually playing for Soi, a 5 year elephant, when Peter came by with his mahout on his regular evening trip to the river for a bath. Peter heard the music and made deviation from the mud road (behind the tree) to the piano. I suddenly felt something strange sucking the back of my head and had an unexpected duet partner. In another video he plays piano and my back as a drum. The mahout you can hear occasionally isn't giving commands in any way to Peter, rather voicing a tiny bit concern for the piano's survival.

*Elephant-lovers please rest-assured - all keys on modern pianos (such as this one) are made from synthetic plastic material and have been manufactured this way for some considerable time.

A short Night Vision video with elephant Soi (Debussy and Bach)
http://youtu.be/Gm2ZCafumyI

You can meet Peter and elephant friends at http://www.elephantstay.com in Ayutthaya, Thailand.

Khwan makes a sculpture of Peter and his friend Omm Chakawan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84PUI...

And a nice moment between 2 elephant friends Peter and Omm 8:14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDI8Qb...

• Category

  Music

[szezone]

Quick question: how many of you didn't see the dog in the video

[PaulBartonPiano]

yes, 'Buddy' was under the piano. Did you notice when I played DE - DEDE - DE - DE -- DEE ... ( 2 times in the video) the elephants replied with a trunk squeak on the beat? once Soi, the young elephant (who was further away eating) and Peter, by the piano.

[thegh0ST505]

Is this the same elephant 'Peter' who plays on the galaxy note? What a beautiful boy:)))

[PaulBartonPiano]

yes!

[Peter Elfman]

What is the name of the song being played?

[PaulBartonPiano]

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. I think Peter got it confused with Joplin's "Stoptime Rag".

[PaulBartonPiano]

It was. It's actually a kind of elephant kiss. An Asian elephant puts his/her trunk on someone, makes a seal by pressing the trunk tip flat, then sucks. You have the impression of being kissed by a giant rubbery vacuum cleaner. The elephant sucks a moment he pulls the trunk away and often gets amused by both the 'pop' and, sometimes, the surprised human reaction associated with the experience.

[Killarchr0ckman]

This is the greatest dub step Of All time.

[lollie87]

hehe couldn't stop giggling

[umbdude]

sounded like the elephant was trying to play and actually had a beat going.

[nosojdjos]

0:57 " Get off the piano it's my turn now "

[Attayakorn Wongluecha]

Just watch your clip in Thai PBS ... cheers

[0MindSwept0]

poor Pauly, getting beat up by the elephant, (the piano too :/) he keeps playing rather well despite it though. That alone should make you famous Paul, being able to play despite distractions...verry...LARGE, distractions. XD

P.S. is that a real piano, or is it a keyboard? Electrical of sorts

[fishteer]

Awesome! I think many animals are more musical than we know. At Smart Small Fry, we train fish to play musical instruments, then we let them compose their own accompaniment to human-performed music, much as you are doing with the lovely Peter. Check out fishteer's channel here on YouTube for vids of our fish performers.

[Ben Erban]

Yes I noticed that... elephants are amazing!



[blinkieville]

i think i said 'The Entertainer' on a different video - of course, it's the Maple leaf rag - i was so taken away by this my brain went for a while!

[blinkieville]

I love it - and the elephants love you, Paul - this much is obvious...my depression suddenly lifted watching this.......