Nora enjoys playing the piano. She's no Van Cliburn, but for a cat, she's pretty good. She'll even play a duet! Push play or go to YouTube. Link to Nora’s webpage. -via Arbroath
What a clever cat! My cat's only talents are mooching food off the neighbours and sleeping 20 hours a day. Some of the pieces Nora played sounded almost exactly like free-form jazz music.
Bravo! I think the feline's juxaposition of those grand gestures (ie. the modal sweeps), coupled with an almost atonal sensibility, makes for a radically iconclastic and, I daresay, refreshingly earnest approach to the impressionist idiom.
I don't know about the catnip - I think anyone owning a quality piano would be a bit concerned about dumping catnip between the keys. Plus - the site says she started doing it on her own. My thought is Nora here sees people paying strict attention to those keys a good amount of the time, and thought she'd try it herself. Once she did, she got attention for it, so she kept going. My cats frequently express great interest in my laptop when they see me spend a lot of time with it, similarly, trying to rub their heads against it, and putting their paws on the keys. It's like saying "look, if you won't step AWAY from this thing, I'll join you. Look, see, I like it, too. Just pay attention to me, already."
She also seems to favor notes in a certain frequency range, on the high end of those she can reach. She may just really like the sound - my cats go nuts for some high-pitched noises, getting equally head-rubby. I assume it has something to do with bird-seeking instincts.
My late cat, Snoopy used to like listening to classical piano music on the radio - I think that they find it soothing. I never had a piano for him to play on though!
also.. it's cute. :)
He's not very normal.