Mission Impossible (Piano/Cello/Violin) ft. Lindsey Stirling - ThePianoGuys

Get the single on iTunes:
Get the single on Amazon:
Get our new album on Amazon.com:
Download Song off our website here:

Lindsey's on Tour! Check out the dates here:
Subscribe to Lindsey Stirling's channel:
Follow Lindsey Stirling on Facebook:

Subscribe to ThePianoGuys channel:
Follow ThePianoGuys on Facebook:


ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY THE INSTRUMENTS SHOWN

The Story:

It was May of 2011... a few days after Lindsey Stirling and ThePianoGuys had each filmed their first official YouTube videos ("Spontaneous Me" and "Michael Meets Mozart"). Lindsey and Steven Sharp Nelson (cello guy) shared the stage at a concert. After the show they talked enthusiastically about a YouTube collaboration down the road. A year and a half and a million fan requests later and it's finally here! We love Lindsey Stirling! It feels like we're family -- we started on YouTube around the same time, we "grew up" in the same place, we all LOVE what we do and we're all REALLY good dancers...except for ThePianoGuys. =)

We chose the theme from "Mission: Impossible" because we thought it would be a great music video to "be ourselves" in -- to play off each other, throw in some special effects, a couple "stunts," and some slapstick! The concept for the song and video began with spy gadgets -- we wanted all of them to be string instrument parts! Then how would we pair up graceful, pro-dancer Lindsey and not-so-graceful Steve? =) It was simple. Steve had to carry around his own chair! Then the graceful/not-so-graceful thing contrasted beautifully! When Jon Schmidt (Piano Guy) was cast as the "villain" and donned an eye patch we knew we were on to something...

We composed this arrangement with the story of the video in mind -- a tense beginning building up the intrigue, a back-and-forth theme traded between violin and cello implying the partner-agent roles, lasers, the "reveal" moment of Jon, rappelling, and the hectic, scrambled ending. We wanted a little more thematic material to work with, so in addition to some original material, we merged Mission: Impossible with the first movement of Mozart's "Piano Sonata in C" (here's a recording of the original: ). But, of course, we sped it up, transposed it into A minor and changed the time signature to 5/4! It became Jon's "villain theme." And yes, Jon is really playing THAT fast. At the end in order to create a musical feeling of "pandemonium" we wrote the piano part, reversed it and randomized the notes, tweaking them until they clicked. And for you rhythm enthusiasts, at times you'll hear a 4/4 time signature in the percussion imposed on the 5/4 timing to add to the intrigue and mayhem!

This video was in over its head before we even started filming. We planned a base-jumping scene for the beginning that didn't end up working out. The restaurant was a last-minute idea that we threw together as an intro. We were concerned that the laser and rapelling scenes would also die from over-complicatedness, but thanks to the genius and hard work of Paul Anderson and Tel Stewart we pulled them off!

Filming locations:

THANK YOU to Stephen Wade Auto for serving as our last minute filming location when all others fell through! They were so nice to us and let us film in their place all through the night and they saved us on the reppelling scene!
Check out their website here:
Facbook here:

Thanks also to the Tonaquint Data Center for allowing us to use their facility in getting the cool "Mission: Impossible" feel.
Check their website here:
Facebook here:

Thank you also to Benja's Thai food restaurant for staying open late so we could get the beginning shots for the video! (Best Thai Food in Southern Utah!)

Last but not least, thank you to Stan Plew at Dixie College for letting us film late at The Jeffrey R. Holland building.

If you've read this far this description will self-destruct in 5...4...3...2...

Credits:
Mission Impossible written by Lalo Schifrin
Piano Sonato in C by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart K. 545 first movement
ThePianoGuys Arrangment produced by Al van der Beek and Steven Sharp Nelson
Arrangement and original material written by Steven Sharp Nelson, Al van der Beek, Jon Schmidt, and Lindsey Stirling
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studio
Video produced by Paul Anderson and Tel Stewart 123 Test