The Piano Guys

The Piano Guys are not taking themselves too seriously; and it’s working for them.

Breathing fresh air into the songs they interpret and racking up around 130 million views across their Youtube channel, it is the infectious passion and alternative blend of classical and contemporary music that drives their success.

The five man production team features Jon Schmidt on piano and Steven Sharp Nelson’s dynamic cello, with the other three developing the channels high production standard. The arrangements mostly centre around the two instruments but feature guest collaborators and track layering to complete their sound. ‘Michael Meets Mozart’ uses over 100 cello tracks uniquely crafted by Nelson.

The piano and cello arrangements of pop songs like ‘Love Story’ and ‘Just the Way You Are’ are a credit to the songs themselves, replacing pop lyrics and production methods with the texture and dynamics of an always pleasing piano-cello combination. The production on the videos is professional and unashamedly embraces clichés; silhouetted saxophonists, desert cliff tops and misty woodlands. The videos match the epic arrangements of the music.

Similar to the many-handed guitar version of Gotye’s, ‘Somebody I Used To Know’, The Piano Guys over-crowded-piano arrangement of ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ is astonishingly rich and now close to 20 million views.

The channel was originally devised as advertisement for a piano shop owned by one of the team, Paul Anderson, but with the unexpected success of the concept Anderson has since sold the shop.

The team are making the most of the attention with merchandise, tours and an album release of their most successful arrangements.