Play
the piano with your cats
Written by Dr. Laxmi Iyer
This
can be lots of fun for you, for your cat and for your
whole family too.
You can start with very simple melodies and slow tunes.
In the beginning you may just assemble all your cats
and your family too around the piano. May be you can
start by moving your piano close to the dining table.
The sessions can be started pre lunch or pre breakfast.
Play the piano slowly and observe your cats carefully.
The
next time, get your cats closer and get a small chair
or bench close to the piano. Let them watch you playing.
You may continue such sessions for at least 3-4 weeks
before your cats begin to learn to use their paws to
tap on the piano keys.
Alternatively, before they start playing on the real
piano keys, you can buy them a child's toy piano set.
If they don't move their paws on the piano keys spontaneously,
you may use strings to get them to play on the piano
keys.
Although it sounds like it may too difficult to teach
them how to play in tune to rhythms, they may be able
to after some time be comfortable with playing some
very simple tunes.
Even if they don't advance that far, just playing notes
on the piano keys will keep you, your cats and your
entire family entertained for at least an hour if not
longer.
Take care to make sure that your pets don't strain themselves.
Therefore, try to restrict sessions to about 15 minutes
to half an hour and not longer.
As they play with the strings, their paws will automatically
tap on the keys.
They will slowly get used to the different notes that
are created.
Remember, that the piano is another name for a great
musical instrument. At a later stage after you and your
cats have attained a certain degree of skill, you can
also try using a digital music composer.
This would be a really great exercise to follow for
both yourself and your cats simply because of the very
wide number of different tones created by the sounds
of different instruments.
