Residents of Sarasota, Florida, have been impressed with the piano skills of Donald Gould, a homeless man who is living on the streets.

"I was thinking I could just put my hat on the piano and make a couple dollars and get tips,” Gould told local ABC affiliate My Suncoast. "I didn't expect it to jump out to this."

Gould, a 51-year-old Marine veteran, learned to play the piano as a kid and studied music education at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. After his wife passed away in 1998, he developed a substance abuse problem.

"They sat me down, and they told me what had happened, that my wife had passed away... and I just lost it man," Gould told My Suncoast.

Gould keeps his spirits up through music, though. People in the Sarasota area can find him performing impromptu performances on Main Street.

The pianos are a part of a community arts program called the Sarasota Keys Piano Project, through which six pianos were placed around the city.

Update: Thursday, July 2, 2015,11:22 a.m. ET, The same people who filmed the video above caught up with Gould on the street to chat about some of his experiences.