Wtf! Elephant Plays The Piano In Thailand

After years of playing piano to elephants Paul Barton has found a duet partner.

Barton, originally from Great Britain, moved to Thailand in 1996 to work with elephants and posted a video of himself recently playing a duet with an elephant named "Peter."

Barton wrote in the Youtube posting Peter decided "entirely on his own accord" to join in on a "12 Bar Blues" performance.

"I've noticed elephants, such as Peter have moods at different times of day," he said. "Usually in the cooler early evening before nightfall (In Thailand) they are in a more relaxed and potentially playful mood."
The 52 year-old works with elephants at Elephantstay - a habitat for the animals in Ayutthaya Thailand.

The musician said he had been playing music for the animals for the past three years but only recently did he have a partner.

"In truth, I had only a brief opening in the day with him and what you see in the video is completely fresh and unrehearsed," he said. "Elephants feel love and grief just as we do. Music that expresses human feelings is often also appreciated by elephants."

The elephant definitely felt the rhythm of the music. Peter wags his ears before joining in and while playing he is enthusiastically bopping his head up and down.

Peter takes his time tickling the ivories as during the performance he pauses between key strokes as if he's thoughtfully trying to decide which keys to hit. When he hits one key he likes he keeps his tusk steady and bops his head up and down again for a few seconds. Another elephant nearby is also seen literally shaking his money maker a few times to the music.

Barton finishes with playing Imagine by John Lennon as an elephant straddles the piano that is much smaller than the animal gently as best as he can.

Barton has gone to great lengths to serenade pianos with his music.

In 2011 he hauled his piano to the mountains of Kanchanaburi to play for some "very old, injured and handicapped elephants," according to his Youtube post.

The ivory from elephant tusks used to be made for the keys on pianos but Barton said that is no longer the case and the keys to his piano are plastic. In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora banned the international ivory trade.

That elephant was groovin' tho

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