Have you ever stumbled upon a street musical instrument?
Have you ever passed by a piano on the street?
Or a violin, or a guitar for that matter? If so, did you have the desire to take it in your hands and play music?
Henri Herbert found himself at a shopping mall, where there was a public piano.
It was only natural that he would go sit at it and play.
In fact, this is the whole point of the video, which is part of a documentary called “Street Pianos- Instrument of Change”, directed by Maureen Ni Fiann.
Herbert starts playing and one can immediately understand that he’s a pro.
After two seconds, the piano is on fire.
He plays Gettin On Down from his album “Boogie Woogie Piano”, which is a crazy fast-paced song.
His fingers are not really touching the keys, they’re just flying through them, releasing one of the most beautiful melodies that we’ve heard.
The pianist’s movements on the keyboard are very carefully studied but also look so random at the same time that confuse the untrained eye.
Little by little, people start gathering around him.
The first couple of minutes, passers-by probably didn’t realize that this amazing music was live. Maybe they thought that someone was pretending to play the piano, while there was some CD playing in the background. However, at some point, they stop and look at him more carefully, realizing that he’s actually playing the piano.
Once the first person stops and stares at him, nobody can ignore him anymore. More and more people gather around him, astonished by his talent, while many of them are taking photos and videos of his performance.
At the end, they all give him a spontaneous round of applause, as if they were attending one of his concerts.
But, who is Henri Herbert?
Herbert was born in France and raised in the UK. He expressed his interest in music, and especially the piano, at an early age, and by 2011 he had already joined Jim Jones Revue, with whom he went on several world tours, until 2014, when they disbanded and he decided to follow a solo career.
The Street Piano movement was meant to encourage people to communicate through music, words were not necessary.
Based on this idea, a documentary was filmed about street piano players, in order to prove that there is not one type that are attracted to street pianos, and that maybe the modern lifestyle and city living doesn’t allow people to communicate the way they were supposed to.
The video has gone viral, with almost 36M views and thousands of comments, many of which are making jokes about how the piano must be feeling after this performance.
“That piano is about to go file a restraining order on him,” someone wrote.
This video definitely made our day- the guy is amazing! He’s currently performing at C-Boy’s Heart & Soul in Austin, Texas.
Watch below at his incredible talent on the piano!
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