Song of the Day 12/20: The Piano Guys, “I Saw Three Ships”

The era of audio-only music might have ended with MTV, but we’re now into an age in which viral video is the best way to break into the music business. The Piano Guys — four middle-aged dudes who stumbled into YouTube stardom by making videos to advertise a music store — are a perfect example.

Only one of them is really a piano guy, but the Piano Guy name was already taken by somebody else, a different guy who has nothing to do with this video or this group, forget I even brought him up. Another of this quartet plays cello, another is a videographer and the fourth is listed as “musical director.” Their joint endeavor started in 2010 because pianist Jon Schmidt used to visit Paul Anderson’s music store (named The Piano Guys) in St. George, Utah, to play the pianos. Anderson, the videographer, noticed that Schmidt, sometimes in duets with cellist friend Steven Sharp Nelson, used social media to promote his music, which blended classical, pop and New Age in an easy-listening melange. Anderson proposed Schmidt and Nelson play in videos to promote the store, and the videos gradually built up a following — not just for the music but because they would take pianos places (the beach, the top of a moving train) they didn’t belong for the visuals.

This video only features Schmidt, but it also features a piano wired to the Christmas lights on a pair of McMansions, with each key triggering a different set of lights. It even has an amusing twist at the end.