At the end of the day …. The Piano Guys Series, second CD #2!!

~~April 27, 2014~~

The Piano Guys are an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek.

They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Schmidt and Nelson’s music is accompanied by professional-quality videos shot and edited by Paul Anderson. 

Paul Anderson owned a piano shop in St. George, Utah. He met musician Jon Schmidt as the latter walked in to ask if he could practice there for an upcoming concert. Months later, Paul Anderson and Tel Stewart (then just for fun) started making videos together with Jon Schmidt. It was not too long after that they did their first collaboration with Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Al Van Der Beek as the studio and music technician. After the five of them started collaborating the group really started to take off, producing a music video each week and posting it to YouTube.

~~Success~~

Several of the group’s YouTube videos have over 20 million views, while all of them have over 750,000. As of February 2014, The Piano Guys’ YouTube channel has over 345 million total video views and about 2,500,000 subscribers.

“OUR VISION IS TO CREATE MUSIC AND VIDEOS THAT INSPIRE & UPLIFT.
WHATEVER WE DO, WE PUT OUR HEART AND SOULS INTO EVERY NOTE AND FRAME.”

The Piano Guys 2 is the third studio album by American musical group The Piano Guys. It was released on May 7, 2013, by Portrait (a division of Sony Masterworks). The album made its chart début at number 38 on the US Billboard 200.

The deluxe version of The Piano Guys 2 comes with a DVD featuring 11 music videos.

Today we are featuring “Rockelbel Canon – Pachelbel Canon in D” from their second CD with a major record label.

~~SOURCES~~

http://thepianoguys.com/

http://www.sacredcello.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piano_Guys

https://www.facebook.com/PianoGuys

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/the-piano-guys

http://floridatheatre.com/event/piano-guys/

~~Rockelbel’s Canon (Pachelbel’s Canon in D) – 4 Cellos~~

ThePianoGuys

(Doesn’t he look like Mr. Bean?)

~Story behind the song~

Ask any cellist. They’ll tell you about what’s it’s like to play the cello part of Pachebel’s Canon in D. It’s the same 8 notes over and over and over again. The good news is, it’s easy to memorize. The bad news is you don’t know when to stop. There’s a rumor floating around that says Pachelbel either died while writing it, never finishing the cello part, or that he dated a cellist and it did NOT go well.

This arrangement is dedicated to all the cellists that have fallen asleep while playing this song … or at least wanted to fall asleep. Steven Sharp Nelson actually began writing this arrangement while bored at a wedding.

Ahem … all the bitter cello-malice aside, Pachelbel’s Canon in D (written in the 1600’s) has stood the test of time — celebrated as the most recognizable piece of classical music. We like to call it the “one-hit wonder of the 1600’s.” It really is an amazingly-catchy piece of music. It demonstrates the musical form of the “canon,” when a melody is played and then repeated in a round by other voices. (watch how the melodies are passed from one cello to the next – right to left)

~ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY THE CELLO~

bowing, plucking, strumming, and beating the cello any way possible

This arrangement was written before ThePianoGuys posted our first video, “Michael Meets Mozart” – but we hesitated filming it because of how involved the idea was. We’ve never used “extras” before! And the thought of staging a wedding, directing extras, and cloning Steve 4 times all in one video-shoot made us justifiably anxious.

So we put it off. And put it off. And then put if off some more. One day Al van der Beek was skimming through our thousands of messages on Facebook and happened to see one with the title “wedding” in the subject line.

A woman emailed us about an opportunity to film at a big magazine-spread wedding photo shoot. It was perfect — they would have the location, flowers, actors, and even a cake. Everything we’d need.

To make a long story short, we excitedly scheduled our video shoot for the same day as their photo shoot, but a few days prior to the day it fell apart. After much discussion we determined to move forward on faith that we could still work it out.

Paul Anderson marshaled all sorts of connections and called on whomever he could and by nothing short of a miracle in a matter of days the wedding was all planned — complete with a beautiful location, stunning decor, sharp tuxedos, fancy flowers, a photogenic bride and groom, 60 energetic guests, and an iced cake!

The piece at the beginning that is just ending is Steven Sharp Nelson’s 4-cello arrangement of “Thanks Be To Thee” (att. to Handel). 

We ALL are ONE!!