V.com weekend vote: Does your pet (or pets) like your music-making/practicing?
If you make music in your home, it affects everyone, including any pets. So first, do you have a pet or pets? And if so, how does your pet(s) seem to like your music-making?
Sometimes it's easy to tell that a pet is enjoying the music - the pet wants to come a little closer, or howl along with the music. Conversely, if the pet runs away and hides, or growls like it's an intruder - this could be an indication the pet doesn't like the music, or at least it doesn't like all the attention the instrument is getting!
One of my students, who takes Zoom lessons, has a dog who will wail and bark along with her violin-playing, if she is playing within earshot. The student's family interprets this as showing enthusiasm for the music - not barking to make it stop. I guess you have to know the pet, to interpret the reaction properly!
Personally, I do have a pet - a tree frog named Alice. As a female frog, she actually makes no noise at all! Would she croak merrily while I played my fiddle, if she could? I like to think so. But as it is, she doesn't not seem either like or dislike all the music.
How does your pet like your music-making? Please choose the closest reaction from the selections below, then tell us all about it. If you have more than one pet, pick the most interesting reaction. What kind of pet(s) do you have? What is the strangest reaction you've had from a pet? Is your pet content to listen to you practice, or do you have to practice in another room or out of earshot.
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My cat critiques it. The reaction definitely depends on my intonation. I voted "tolerates."
My cat not only enjoys my practice but also frequently comes into my music room and makes himself at home when I am teaching . My students are always flattered when he stays !
Well, I don't have a pet, but there's a friendly neighbourhood cat I call Catty Puss because its claws are rather sharp and she?/he? was in the habit of using them on me when we first met. This cat frequently wanders off if I start playing music. Neither the instrument nor the music are edible ... :)
The dog ignores all of it, either goes to sleep or goes off to do something else, and so does the cat, with the exception of the piano.
He seems to think that someone sitting at the piano is the perfect opportunity to climb on their lap, their head, swat at the music, jump onto the keyboard, and so on. It's a bit like cats with laptops, only worse=). Sometimes he eventually settles on top of the piano, but if not, he gets kicked out (not literally).
I don't know if this counts, but although Christmas cacti usually bloom once a year, I have a Christmas cactus in my music room that constantly blooms. My wife swears it's enjoying the music. Also, on occasion, a squirrel likes to climb a tree limb outside my window, plop down on its belly with its legs dangling over the sides, and stares at me while listening to the music. Beyond that, I don't own any pets. I had some narcissistic goldfish, but they displayed complete indifference to anything I did beyond feeding them those disgusting little flaky things once a day.
Great discussion. It gives one a new leash on life.
Your pet will probably listen if you play an adogio.
My dog loves to sing along, mostly when I'm playing double stops or chords. He's very cute and funny about it.
I have no pets. During my growing-up years, we had a dog and two cats. They were just like members of the family to us, but they pretty much ignored the music-making. They all lived into their mid-teens, so there was plenty of time to gauge what their reactions might be. After they had all died - which they did within 11 months of each other - my parents and I agreed that they would be a hard act to follow. We had no more pets.
Now, out on my own, I don’t plan to have any more animals. But I do have the happy memories - and photos - of the ones I grew up with.
I have no pets but this is a good opportunity for an episode with the cat of a friend of mine. We were having a quartet session and were in the middle of Tchaikovsky's first quartet. The cat was lying lazily in a corner of the room. We had just arrived at the scherzo when the cat decided to make a contribution and began to sing--as loudly as he could. We were amused as the cat kept singing and never slackened. After a while we had to laugh so hard that the bows threatened to fall out of our hands. We managed to make it all the way through the scherzo in this unconventional "arrangement" for solo cat and string quartet, da capo and all, the cat contributing as much as the rest of us. Then we had to wait until we were able to stop laughing and the cellist had carried his cat to another room before moving on to the finale in the good old original string quartet version. BTW what a magnificent quartet this is, even with no cat involved!
I have no pet, and voted accordingly. But my late father had a dachsund, and he would bay along with the music. What he didn't like, when she came along, was the lovely lady who became my late mother - I gather jealousy is typical of the breed.
I had two 2 cat who always slept in the violin case. 1 of them showed clearly whether he liked what he heard or not. He "Micio" would block his ears with his arms when I practiced scales. The other cat "BB", always gentle went to hide deep in the closet when a student came for her lesson on the Paganini Concerto No. 1. She was on the 3rd movement harmonics. She came down from the closet, this most peaceful and angelic cat bit her heel so hard it broke her skin then simply walked out of the room. She never bit, scratched nor was anything but loving her whole like. Both I and the student who knew the cat very well, were shocked. Then my ex girlfriend's cat "kittya" hated violin, but didn't mind her piano playing. I used to purposely lock her in the same room with me and practice while she was desperately scratching the door to get out for her dear life... I could not get her to like nor even to tolerate my playing. Maybe a sign why my ex is ex?
Growing up we always had dogs and parrots that all seemed to enjoy listening to music. The dogs would come into the music room and lie down while we practiced. One of our parrots was so responsive to music that we could tell which pieces he most enjoyed—when he got excited he would chirp or bang toys or dishes against his cage to “play” along. My father once took him along to participate in a pre-concert lecture where excerpts from the program were played to see which he most enjoyed.
Not exactly pets, but the family of deer that lived in the woods behind my childhood house used to come to the door to investigate when we had the windows open while practicing, and just yesterday when I was practicing for a wedding I noticed several birds outside my patio, so I started doing lots of harmonics and bird noises on my violin and struck up a bit of a conversation.
My dog likes to be with me. She doesn't mind me playing piano. But violin is a different story. When I play high passages, she gets upset and makes complaining sounds. But she stays with me. Only if I only plays high she will go away.
Sander, what if you play it Kat-chat-urian (acknowledgement to Siné), Depussy (Get her near a ball of knitting, and it's sure to unRavel?), Bark, Pug-nani, Symphonie eSpaniel, Corgi and Bess, Dido and Any Ass, etc. But one thing's certain: If she really likes it, she'll be Wagner tail.
John: OK, you've done it. Compared to your input, I've accomplished only two-thirds of a pun..... P U
P.S. Verdi good job. Take a bow. When I rosin the morning, I made a liszt of puns, but I do have to get bach to work.
Apologies, Sander, you're right - It's not Dido and Any Ass, it's Fido and Any Ass.
Your chopin lizst of puns didn't include a wok because you already HAVE one to get back to?
You're way ahead of me. I'm going to have to paws if I can still keepup or catchup with this category. Otherwise, I'll have to hightail it.
I keep waiting for this to happen with Alice the Frog:
OK, Laurie. One of us will hop to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1zzmezRcQg
When I was a kid, our cat, Blue, loved violin music. One day, my parents' friend, mathematician Heinrich Heesch, came to dinner with his violin. A friend's son brought a cello that he was considering for purchase. After dinner, these two played duets. Blue rubbed ecstatically against their legs, then asked to go out. When the guests departed, they discovered a dead mouse left in tribute on the front stoop. This anecdote made it into a biography of Heinrich Heesch that was published by Springer Verlag in the 1970's.
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April 28, 2024 at 03:58 AM · My three cats all fall asleep whenever I practice. It seems to be the majority votes. I guess our practice is such a daily routine even our pets know that nothing fun will happen when we practice.