YouTuber builds giant working piano for his cats

Popular YouTuber Half-Asleep Chris built a giant working piano for his cats, sharing the hilarious process with his many subscribers.

In a video about the process, Chris expresses his belief that his cat Ralph is the world’s greatest jazz pianist as the cat displays his musical talents by rubbing his head on a standard keyboard. In the video, Ralph is shown to have innovatively mastered the piano by stretching out along its keys and dragging his paws across it.

Think bigger

Chris decided that his keyboard, constructed for use by human hands, was not big enough for Ralph to create his cat symphonies. It was time to think bigger.

So, Chris looked to the movies for inspiration and came up with his first concept for a piano that could help Ralph express his creative talents. He explains his inspiration within the video, saying:

“I thought I’d first start with a piano mat, like the one Tom Hanks plays in the movie Big.”

The first attempt

Chris purchased the interactive musical toy and tentatively waited to see if Ralph would use it.

The YouTuber quickly discovered that Ralph may not be a natural performer of the piano mat as the very act of the instrument coming to life frightened him. Chris shared that Ralph had been easily spooked by the piano, saying:

“Ralph was curious but cautious, he eventually stepped a paw onto the mat but was startled by the wake-up noise.”

The musically minded black cat ended his dealings with the piano mat there, which is when his sister, a short-haired Tabby named Bella, stepped in. 

A new maestro 

Bella, who appears in the video sporting an adorable donut ring around her neck, was coaxed onto the musical mat by the promise of treats.

Unfortunately, Chris explained that Bella is extremely fussy about the texture of the surfaces on which she sits and was immediately turned off by the mat’s crinkly plastic.

Plan B

Chris left the piano mat in place for two days in hopes of hearing a cat-composed tune, but both Ralph and Bella avoided it, seemingly insulted by its noisy, plastic presence in their lives.

Determined to provide his kitties with a piano they could call their own, Chris moved on to his plan B… which was literally bananas.

Musical fruit

With the help of a very basic circuit board that is used as an educational tool, Chris decided to turn the bananas in his fruit bowl into the keys of a piano.

He hooked up the circuit board to five bananas and armed with a piano app, made an instrument out of the playable fruit. Quickly realizing that his fruit-centric plan wasn’t accessible to cats, he decided to keep the technology but apply it to a giant homemade piano that could help his cats truly harness their musical aspirations.

The final design

Using simple plywood, tinfoil, and carefully placed sponges combined with his circuit board technology, Chris created a giant cat-friendly piano for Ralph and Bella to compose upon.

So, did Ralph the cat with the passionate soul of a jazz pianist play his new piano? No, he did not.

Chris shared his dismay that his musical protege wanted nothing to do with the instrument that he had spent many hours building, exclaiming:

“He rolled around on the floor right next to it, as if taunting me with his fluffy frolics.”

The understudy returns

Realizing that Ralph was not interested in his creation, Chris turned to Bella to see if she would take to the instrument. As soon as the Tabby was shown the piano she loved it and promptly began to use it… as a seat.

Once Bella found a comfortable spot on the piano she refused to move and no original cat symphonies could be created. Chris expressed his disappointment, saying:

“To Bella, I hadn’t built a piano but instead an incredibly comfortable sitting spot.”

An original song

Unwilling to accept defeat, Chris realized that if he could just get Bella to sit upon every key of the piano then with some creative editing he could bring a song to life.

And so with a little bit of bribery, he convinced the adorable Tabby to play every key of the piano and used his impressive editing skills to create an original cat composition which he titled ‘The Donut Dance.’

Composers at rest

As the video ends, Chris shares that the specially made piano is still one of Bella’s favorite places to sit. As for Ralph, the cat who began the whole wild venture? He has returned to rubbing his head against Chris’s keyboard happy to create music of his own making without the use of a giant cat piano.

The entire video can be viewed below:

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