When I practice my flute, one of my pets, a parrot goes mad. He begs to come out of his cage, flies straight to my shoulder and sits there the whole time.

Fast passages, staccato and trills make him jump up and down on my shoulder, occasionally nibbling the end of the flute: he gets very excited and his eyes dilate and contract like mad!!

The highest register also get him going! The other parrot is unmoved by my practice and couldn't care less.

Thinking back to my teens, a long time ago! there was no action from our cats or dog when I played the violin, but when I practiced my clarinet, the dog howled until I stopped.

I was wondering whether any of you have similar tales about pets reacting to music, either in apparent pleasure or pain!

Our dog doens't react to the music but she does try to stick her nose up the bell of the Oboe. We once caught her running round with a Recoder in her mouth, luckily it was in it's case.

She really jumps out of her skin if the CD player is used as accompaniment. She doesn't like the guy who counts in on the Jazz cd's

My current dog seems unmoved by my efforts, as do the hamsters

I remember my last dog going crazy when a friend of my sister's started playing the bagpipes, understandable really, given the nature of the sound it makes.

Bagpipes + dog = not a good combination I fear...

Are there any bagpipe players on the forum?

I think that sticking her nose up the bell of the Oboe is getting dangerously kinky and its very interesting that she has a view on the guy on the Jazz CDs, I knew that dogs went very much on smell but did not realise that human voices were important too.

No pets here, but my oboe playing seems to charm the birds from the trees. Actually I think they are just coming down to help the poor, unfortunate creature that is in such obvious distress.

One of our dogs moans and then howls when he hears a baby or a lamb. Perhaps the bagpipes sound rather too much like someone in pain? Or a more tactful wording would be, perhaps bagpipes badly played sound rather like someone in pain to a dog. Clearly I don't know what I am talking about here, but there is surely a strong element of wind involved in playing the bagpipes and I wonder whether some acoustic sounds from the baby crying or the lamb bleating involve the same use of wind.

Well it depends what you mean by play. I have had a go on the Northumbrian Smallpipes (so much sweeter than those brash, "look at me" Highland jobs) and Mrs. P. does have a rather splendid set it the house. But play? Hmm.

I have to use a mute when I practice my violin as the neighbours dog starts howling if I dont. Apparantly it is 'right on his pitch'!!!

No pets but my granddaughter generally says 'put it away' whenever I get the clarinet out.
A couple of weeks ago she even ran crying to her granddad when I started to play.
Luckily my teacher hasn't done that.... yet....
Piano is tricky too as she wants to join in.

Clearly going to grow up to be an oboist.

I am a foster mum to my friend's parrot for eight weeks of the year. If I sing in my normal range (C below middle C to the C above) he couldn't care less. If I sing higher he also goes mad, eyes going and nodding his head, not sure if he thinks it's a mating call
I practice the trumpet well away from him, that beak is sharp!!

My dogs don't care about either but if one thinks I've been practising too long he'll continually push his nose under my arm, he doesn't like that getting more attention than him

My ginger tom used to meow and rub around my legs. Unsure if it was pain or pleasure.
I know LIzzy Violin's dog howls.

When my violin comes out my dog tends to smell my case as i put it down before running as far as possible in the house away from it. He doesn't seem to like the violin much

I'm sure it's the former reason pushpull

My friend's cat is hilarious, we both are beginner violinists and she thinks it's okay to jump up and attack the scroll's of our violins whenever we play above the E string

My cat used to run out of the room every time I started to play the viola, but stopped when I got to about Grade 4/5. Now he only runs if I go into the higher positions. I'm beginning to wonder whether he can sense out-of-tune notes.

One of my cats sits on my son's lap when he plays the piano. It's quite a useful habit - make sure he sits up properly (I've got it as my profile photo)

i have six pet rats, all adorable little angels. and when i play clarinet they tend to go to sleep ...on their heads curled up in balls like a hedghog would.. i guess to drown out the sound...rats vocal and hearing range is mostly ultrasonic so if they do join in with the squeeking i am makeing, with their own brand of squeeks i cant hear them..

saying that though, at first i thought it was a co-inky-dink, but i have noticed on the occasions when i randomly SQuuuuEEEEEe its often followed by disgruntled Rattie squeeking...The rats admonishing me for my bad embouchure and fingering maybe or just for piercing their eardrums


years back before i took up the clarinet again...i had 3 love birds..oh my days..they would have to sing (well screach) along to every sound i made...tv, radio, hoover, hairdryer, cough sneeze....sweet to be included as part of their flock they wanted to sing with me but omg love birds make an awful screaching racket

Just looked up the photo - aaah!



My son had a pet rat and he was gorgeous, rat, not son. Is there any way you could listen in to your rats, like borrowing a bat detector, then you could work out their musical response.

I know what you mean about being an honorary member of a birdie flock: my two parrots get very cross if I talk on the phone for any length of time without including them. The bigger one makes the sound of the land line phone and the smaller makes the sound of my mobile, to get my attention again.

For those interested the following links show parrots beating time and dancing to music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Hy5HW1y6Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOZp2ZftCw...feature=channel

but I have to admit that my playing cannot send my parrots to quite these extremes!!

Thank goodness you keep that trumpet away from him! Did you see Stephen Fry on Last Chance to See when he was down in New Zealand and a cackapo got too friendly? It looked very painful.

[quote name='sweffling' date='Feb 10 2010, 10:37 PM' post='921969']

[quote name='Clari-Netty' post='921965' date='Feb 10 2010, 10:20 PM']
i have six pet rats, all adorable little angels. and when i play clarinet they tend to go to sleep ...on their heads curled up in balls like a hedghog would.. i guess to drown out the sound...rats vocal and hearing range is mostly ultrasonic so if they do join in with the squeeking i am makeing, with their own brand of squeeks i cant hear them..

saying that though, at first i thought it was a co-inky-dink, but i have noticed on the occasions when i randomly SQuuuuEEEEEe its often followed by disgruntled Rattie squeeking...The rats admonishing me for my bad embouchure and fingering maybe or just for piercing their eardrums

My son had a pet rat and he was gorgeous, rat, not son. Is there any way you could listen in to your rats, like borrowing a bat detector, then you could work out their musical response.

[/quote]

totally agree rats are fantastic pets, totally gorgeouse and adorable in everyway

you know a while ago i looked into getting a ultrasonic.....thingy...hahah cant remember what its called as i was sooooo intrigued as to what goes on with them out of my sound range, so much goes on that i just dont hear what i can hear is possibly about 10% of a rats vocal range. but they were too pricey for me at £100+ just so i can spy on my rats but i watched some great you tube vids of rats playing and Laughing listeing on the ultrasound it was so amazing

Ouch. No I didn't, but having seen him crack a walnut I wouldn't take any chances :-P

Good idea, I've just put a photo of flute loving parrot on my profile!

Now that's one lovely flute lover :-) Amazon I presume? :-)

Yup, a Red Lored Amazon. You obviously know your parrots
I always think of him as a Pirate's parrot, except that his tail is only average. Actually I always wanted a Macaw but the occasional bites I get from this one are bad enough, cannot bear to think what a Macaw's would be like. Have heard that they can crack a brazil nut or broom handle right through.




I'd love to see those vids! Any links going?

That looks so like my violin teacher's cat who likes to come in for my lessons.

My dog rolls around on the floor if anyone practices- so that's flute, piano, violin or piano.

Unfortunately my dog barks at my pupils as they arrive at the door. He really doesn't like one of my 14 year old boys (which is odd as I have a 13 yr old son) and really barks at him.
My cat only dares come in if the dog is firmly locked out.

I was reading with interest abount parrot!

We have a 8 months old kitten.
He came to our house when he was 7 weeks old, so for him to listen to the music (we have always radion on) seems like very natural.

As soon as we started to practice (my daughter: violin, Me : piano and oboe, both: recorder) he came into the room and sits down the piano chair or in the violin case, then no move at all!
most of the time, he falls asleep, so we feel guilty to move him from there. - or maybe it could be better excuse for my daughter, so she should practice longer....
Maybe it is comfortable because of velvet?

The problem is he wasts to stay when my teacher arrives, but we have to force him to go out the room.

Rats are downstairs, whereas I play upstairs, so I don't get to see their reactions. Several years back, I did have a rat who was extremely responsive to me singing (I'm not a singer - just wandering round the house singing type singing). She'd always come right up to me when I was singing (it was great taking her to the vet, as she'd be in the carrier in the car and I'd just sing all the way there and she'd be happy!)

Cat seems to have gone off the recorder. She doesn't mind sleeping on the roll-bag And she used to hang around in the room while I was playing treble or lower. But now she doesn't - I think it's because clearly she gets no attention from me while I am tootling, so she's not going to be in the same room as me and dignify it with her presence. Sopranino (or higher) will make her leave the house though.

When I was at school I lived for a while with my grandmother who had a green budgie. He sat on my hands while I practised and seemed particularly to enjoy scales.

My two dogs have always ignored the piano. Until recently they both showed signs of discomfort when I play recorder or flute - as do the cats. But the older dog is now very deaf so doesn't react.

The cats don't much mind the piano as long as there is a nearby source of warmth so that they can show their feline disdain by sleeping through my playing. However the youngest kitten has taken to walking all over the keyboard when I try to play. As she is rather large for her age the result is a series of interesting clusters!

Not a pet, but my baby son used to howl inconsolably if he heard my barbershop chorus. I thought he'd like it, having had it for nine months before he was born, but I seemed to have innoculted him against it! He's dead keen now, though. Sensible boy.

I just took a look at your photo, I love it.
When I restarted to play the flute about two years ago, our cats always went to our sleepingroom when I started practicing, the sleepingroom is the one with good dosses for a cat and far enough from the noise. Now they normaly stay in the room close to the one I use for practicing. And sometimes our female cat comes closer and seem to listen to the music. It might sound funny, but she seems to love Mozart an Bach, because whenever she comes into the room I play Mozart or Bach.

Our cat appears to like piano and will usually happily sleep through our piano lessons (taken at home), but flees as soon as she sees me get my sax out of the case - even before I've blown a note. She also takes exception to Son No.1's trumpet. I'll be interested to see what she does once Son No.2 starts on clarinet (due to happen around Easter).

What lovely anecdotes from everyone! I reckon there are lots of research papers here.

I never imagined that the forumnites were such pet loving musicians, but I should have known really, given that you are all such nice people

If only our animals could talk!

My cat [on my profile pic] likes the piano and always sits with me while I play - but as soon as I open my clarinet case or flute case she runs out of the room and sits halfway up the stairs. As soon as I put the instrument away she comes back into the room. I'm trying not to take it personally

You made my day!!!

Once the family dog of my fluteteacher joined us during my lesson. Occasionally whe played somthing together and the dog started singing with us. I also tried to not take it personally.

My mum's cat, who had gone completely deaf with old age, used to tolerate both me playing the viola and anybody else playing the piano. Until, that is, I started playing the dreaded Eb major in 3rds scale which made him yowl really loudly (and he wasn't even a talkative cat). Given how much practice I'd put into that one scale, I found it very, very difficult not to take this put-down personally! Bless him, I never did work out whether the vibrations in the air caused him some kind of discomfort.

i found these for you as i had them favourited but if you type rats laughing or playing am sure you'll find some fantastic videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0kxmfSGCaE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieP3lpyOHtU


and these are my rats for anyone who's interested....they're not doing anything musical lol just being ratty...please excuse my voice i sound like an eeeejjjjiT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSbxzB3hiPk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rbjAKnC0aM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu-FRc_kT6c

and this is my favourite site for amazing rattie videos....tips and training as well as just rats being amaxzing rats

Sorry for the link overload i hope you like them

Well we haven't moved the hamster out when daughter has played violin, but when the trumpet teacher comes, we move the hamster out of the room otherwise she shoots up into her tube - a sure indication that she's not keen on brass.

How gorgeous! Is she still young or now a mature cat? Just wondered whether age has any effect on our pets, either the wavelengths they can or cannot hear, or experience of our playing. I'm quite sure it is not personal!!



Doesn't Evelyn Glennie play by 'feeling' vibrations? I must try out the Eb major on my parrot

no problem hope you enjoy them when you get time and have a good evening with your friend

i just noticed though under where i wrote "heres my favourite rat vid site" i forgot to put the link so here it is

http://www.youtube.com/user/oPuPo

She is four years old now and a lot bigger ie nearly 7kg. I've only been playing the clarinet for two years so she wasn't exposed to it as a kitten. But her tolerance is improving - now she sits on the stairs whereas a year ago she would hide in my bedroom. Maybe my playing is better?

My teacher acquired a puppy a year or so ago. He is sometimes in the room adjoining the teaching-room while I have my lesson. If I play a major scale he is silent. If I play a minor scale he begins to howl. Then I start laughing and my embouchure disintegrates...

That's fascinating about the difference in reaction to major or minor scales. I sympathise about the embouchure going, sometimes when my teacher starts pulling faces as I play I disintegrate too. She says she does not know she is doing it! She is especially bad if I go wrong, and grins, and since I usually realise it anyway and therefore know why she is doing it, I'm finished.

As to cat, I wouldn't like to comment

Hi Clari-Netty, I've now had time to look up all those video links and more, and what fun!! I really had no idea quite how intelligent rats were or of their swimming abilities. Yours are cuties and I looooove their Furet Tower. What lucky boys and girls.

Thanks so much

The spaniel of a friend of mine used to walk round in circles howling in the room where her two daughters had piano lessons. She tried keeping him out, but he continually rammed the door until he was let back in. It wasn't pain, he loved it! The piano teacher got used to it.

My daughter's violin teacher sometimes has a visiting dog, who will howl along to the violin, again in a companionable manner!

Violinma

thanks and glad you enjoyed the vids there are some really amazing fun ratty vids out there i love watching rat agility and trick vids the more people i can convert to rattie lovers the better wink wink

Just came across this...

When our choir gets together, our big, old fluffy cat very calmly gets to her feet and takes herself over to the door with a look of: 'thank you but no thank you'.

I also used to teach recorder and would always ask a couple of kids in the class 'did you practice this week ?'.

One week the girl replied : 'no, it was raining'.

I obviosuly looked blank because she went on to explain that as her recorder made the dog go wild she was only allowed to play at the bottom of the field at the back of the house (which was not going to happen when it was raining all week).

That's really interesting, I never thought of it at accompaniment or pleasure before because it sounds to mournful and distressed to human ears!!



Nice one, only I do so hope its not true in most cases !


My oh my, I bet you did look blank. Poor kid, poor dog!!

My Gran had a dog who howled along to the Coronation Street signiture tune. It was a big Dalmation

I noticed our Budgie bouncing up and down on his pearch to the Flute the other day. He was bobbing his head really quiickly. Just hope he was enjoying it.

Yellow dog used to lie under the piano as a pup, which was fine until he grew and stretched out and covered the pedals, and then he was banned from the room. When I got the grand piano however, he returned as there was plenty of space for him to lie underneath! Black dog used to always sleep elsewhere until she went deaf and then she slept by the piano - I think it was because she felt secure; she knew that once I sat down at the piano I would be there for a long while and she could relax and sleep. If she woke up after I'd left the room she would wander from room to room looking for me because she couldn't hear where I was, so I always woke her up once I'd finished my practice as it was heartbreaking watching/hearing her searching patiently.......

The real cd just isn't interested - she'll sometimes stay in lessons (if the pupil has a treat for her at the end of the lesson - bribery works wonders!) but more often than not she'll take herself off to her corner of the sofa in the sitting room.........