Most of the time, our trips to the local department store are pretty uneventful.
If we even go to the store to get something (rarer and rarer these days because of Amazon), we typically walk around for a little bit, get to the store, grab the thing we need and get out. On the way there, you might see a mall fountain, parents pushing their children in strollers or teenagers hanging out because they have nowhere else to go. Every once in a while, a public place like this might have a piano available.
On even more special occasions, someone actually steps up to play it.
That was the case in one clip that’s making its rounds around the internet.
It all begins with a teenage girl playing piano in a public place. Though she’s not too bad, it’s clear that she’s working on her technique and just getting some playing time in. After a few moments, a strange, shaggy haired man approaches her and starts talking with her. He asks if he can get some time in on the piano as well but she rebuffs him. “Listen, I’m practicing,” she says. “Find another piano.” Still, the man won’t give up.
Instead of going away, he proposes a solution: he’ll play the top keys, she can play the bottom and join in.
Although the young woman is skeptical, she scoots over and asks the man to demonstrate what he can play.
Needless to say, the man happily obliges her! Before long, it’s clear this guy has some incredible piano chops: it all begins as he plays a few introductory licks and slides and gets warmed up. The entire time, the teenage girl watches intently. After the introduction, the man sets into a nice, bluesy rhythm and the girl starts clapping along—even some of the onlookers are clapping along at this point.
Still, the surprise performance is not over—another man who is seemingly a construction worker wanders into the fray as well.
A moment or two later, the builder has his hands on the piano along with the teenage girl!
With three sets of hands now on the piano, a crowd starts to gather around the piano to see and hear the incredible performance. The more they play, the more in sync they get! Eventually, the man and the girl break off again and start clapping before jumping back into the performance. By this point, people are filming what is sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
When it’s all finally over, the strange man slides up and down the keys—and the crowd bursts into applause.
Anyone who watches the video can tell that the three players are all clearly in on the gag.
That’s because the shaggy-haired player is Terry Miles, a blues piano player based out of the United Kingdom who has all sorts of these videos to his name on his YouTube channel! As it turns out, this isn’t the only time Miles has been up to these kind of public antics. In another video, he and a friend approach a young girl playing piano—except this time they’re dressed up as airline pilots!
After a familiar exchange, they move the girl off the piano and start playing incredible blues licks!
By the end of the performance, the girl has joined in and a crowd is forming once again.
Although it goes without saying, Miles isn’t really an airline pilot… or a shaggy haired stranger. Just to hit this point home even more, there’s yet another video where this time Miles is dressed up as a police officer! Now to be clear, we’re not entirely sure how legal it is to dress up as a police officer in public… so we don’t necessarily advise anyone else doing this.
Still, the strategy seems to have worked perfectly well for Miles!
Just like the other videos, the two “police officers” immediately prove that they’re incredible pianists.
In just a few moments, the two are jamming down on some blues and a huge crowd is forming once again. After a few minutes of licks, stomps and grooves, the two wrap up the performance and get another huge round of applause. Maybe the crowd knew they weren’t real officers the whole time—after all, they were being followed around by a professional camera crew!
At any rate, Miles’s spontaneous piano performances sure are spreading a lot of joy around the world.
The next time you head to the department store, maybe consider spending some time by the piano if they have one out!
Although most trips out into the world to do errands are relatively mundane, videos like these show that spontaneous and hilarious things can happen if you keep your eyes open for them. Though we’ve only chosen a few highlights for you here, Miles has plenty more videos on his channel that we encourage you to check out for yourself.
Keep up the good work, Terry!
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