I’m not going to say…walk into a bar. Instead, I have this story to tell about Swedish YouTuber Mattias Krantz who worked six months on what he half-jokingly called “probably the worst thing I’ve ever done and maybe the coolest.”

Krantz taught an octopus to play the piano. Not metaphorically. Not some cute internet video where an octopus happens to crawl across a keyboard and everyone declares it a musician. Krantz actually built an underwater keyboard designed for tentacles, because apparently this is what happens when you have too much time, an octopus, and an alarming amount of ingenuity.

The octopus was rescued from a fishery in Portugal. Krantz named him Takoyaki, or Tako for short, which seems appropriate since takoyaki is a Japanese octopus snack. Although I suspect Tako would have preferred something less culinary. The plan was simple: teach Tako to play six notes. The keyboard had levers instead of conventional keys, and when Tako pulled one, it triggered a sound above the water. To encourage him, Krantz constructed something called a “crab elevator,” which lowered Tako’s favorite treat a little closer every time he hit the correct note. This is basically how I learned piano, except my reward was usually being told to practice scales.

Training an octopus, however, is not like training a dog. Dogs are generally eager to please. Octopuses have their own agenda. They are famously intelligent, curious and independent. They don't necessarily obey. They negotiate. They may participate if they happen to be in the mood. And sometimes they just look at you as if to say, “I have eight arms and you have none. Who exactly is training whom?” Most of Krantz's sessions consisted of trial and error, resetting expectations and presumably wondering what possessed him to begin this project in the first place.

Then, something clicked. Over time, Tako learned to pull the correct levers in a six-note progression. He could reliably play the sequence. Eventually, Krantz began accompanying him on guitar. An octopus and a guitar player. This is either the beginning of a revolutionary new musical genre or the strangest bar gig in history. Krantz told The Washington Post, “I can’t believe I sit here and play with an octopus.” I can. Musicians will play with anybody who listens.

Scientists already know that octopuses are remarkable creatures. They can solve problems, remember things, explore their surroundings and even play. They have an entirely different nervous system from ours, with much of their nervous tissue distributed throughout their arms. Imagine having eight hands and still not being able to find your keys. What Tako's piano lessons demonstrate isn't that he understands music the way humans do. He probably wasn't sitting there thinking, “I really feel that C sharp tonight.” Rather, he learned that certain actions produced certain results and was able to engage with a completely unfamiliar tool.

Still, I find something wonderful about the whole experiment. We tend to recognize intelligence only when it looks familiar. We test animals to see how closely they can imitate us, then congratulate them when they succeed. But what if intelligence doesn't have to look like ours? What if it has eight arms, blue blood and a complete disregard for your carefully planned lesson?

Maybe the most interesting part isn't that Tako learned to play six notes. Maybe it's that someone was curious enough to ask what might happen if he was given the chance. Curiosity met patience. Patience met intelligence. And intelligence answered back with a tentacle.

Now if only Tako could learn “Chopsticks,” I think we’d have a duet.