We have all heard the old saying that "music sooths the heart of the savage beast". Well, I don't know if that is true in every case; but it does seem to be true in some cases.
When farmers used to milk their cows by hand; they often had a small radio out in the barn and played soothing music as they milked the cow, because it did relax the cow and she would release the milk faster and easier. I did that when I had a milk cow; and it really does work.
Here is a really interesting little video showing how cats behavior changes as they listen to music. This music was written just for cats, and it has sounds that mimic a cat's heartbeat when it is calm and happy.
It is amazing to watch the change in the demeanor of these cats when the music is turned on.
I wish this computer would play that music! Most of my cats ignore music, although the first social cat I knew, who'd bonded tightly with me, tried to understand every word and seemed distressed by not being able to make sense of human songs.
But I *swear* my cat Bisquit (Ivy's mother, Heather's and Irene's grandmother) sang a song of celebration when her daughter Candice caught and killed a mouse all by herself. It went on much longer, with much more variation, than ordinary "come out to play or fight" caterwauling. She didn't interfere with anything Candice was doing; she just parked herself under my window, and watched Candice, and sang until I came out to see what was going on, and sort of nodded to me, and resumed singing.
My grandmother had a cat that seemed to like music to some degree. I can't really remember what kind of music he liked specifically though. He was rather picky I guess. I used to play piano sometimes when I visited and he would sit down and listen. I got the idea that he must have liked it because when I stopped he would get up and leave right away. I thought it was really cute that he liked to listen to me. No one else in the family, including my grandma, believed he was actually listening to the music though, they all just thought that cats were not capable of enjoying human music at all and he just happened to want to sit down there, and then got bored and moved on.
I know cats to be shy animals and only approach someone once they are convinced that the coast is clear. I have witnessed cats recoil when a spurt of decibels is played and gradually come to tolerate it. Cats are generally shy and conservative animals. One animal that has been scientifically proven to have a proclivity for music is the humble cow.
My cat is very responsive to higher pitch sounds. If I sing falsetto to her, she often comes over and tries to snuggle with me or suckle my shirt. It's almost like she becomes a kitten again. She never really comes if I call her, but if I sing to her, half the time she will come to me. It is the sweetest thing, it really touches my heart. However, if I play flute she leaves the room. I'm guessing that's *too* high pitched for her to handle. I never tried PLAYING music for her though, like from youtube. I will try your link and see if she responds. She is very expressive!
I used to have a Siamese cat who would try to kill me when I sang to him, although I'm sure my wife would empathize with the cat. There is not a cat alive that wants to listen to me sing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," so I don't know about the falsetto theory. Each of my cats has her own song, and I do sing to them when it's time to cuddle. The young one, whose ears are probably more sensitive, doesn't much care for that, although she doesn't try to kill me. The two older ones seem to like it, though. They are sisters from the same litter. One of them, in particular, if I start singing her song, she will lift up her head and look at me, anticipating that I am going to come pick her up. Her sister sometimes goes in the opposite direction, as if to say, "Oh no! Not that!" I have not noticed that they particularly care for any commercial music one way or another, although they hate anything that's loud.
The cats we used to have would greatly be affected with soft music and they'll just doze off right away. It soothes them and makes them fall asleep really long and I like that because I can have a good cleaning time. I've seen a lot of relaxing music for cats and dogs on YouTube as well and I would play them. It's not just my pets here that are also affected but also me. I would get all drowsy because of the slow and long rhythm of the music.
Humans like music that falls in our vocal range and tone and tempo similar to our heartbeats. To most animals including cats, human music falls into an unrecognized category. Their vocal ranges and heart rates differ from ours. They have the ability to appraise songs suitable to our ears. The heart rate of cats is higher than ours and therefore cats prefer music in the frequency range of cat vocalization. Animals can learn to recognise a sequence of notes to a different key so that the sequence uses the same relative notes but the key is different, they can't recognize the relationship between the notes any more. To that extent, we understand music in a different way to animals. Latest research suggests that music is beneficial for cats in a surgical environment and cats have shown a proclivity for classical music and become more calm, confident and tolerant throughout the clinical evaluation. This presents in lower values in terms of respiratory rate and pupil dilation. Heavy metal music when presented is stressful to cats.
Some cats love music and some hate it, they also have a preference with genres. My first cat Midnight would tolerate listening to loud music in the house. He liked to sleep on my old speakers because there would be soft vibrations. His favorite music was classic rock, especially ballads. He never really liked the country music but he would tolerate some pop music like NSYNC.
Midnight's sister, Honey, and the kittens my mom adopted later, Tigger and Piglet, only liked the music when it was quiet. I could play any genre as long as it was soft and slow. If it became a fast song or to loud they would simply leave the room.
The last cats I had were brothers, Tony and Drew. Drew was usually the more social brother and my mom's favorite. He was a cuddle monster until you played music. Country and pop music only and it had to be quiet, like might as well be off it's so quiet. So he stayed out of my room the majority of the time. His more elusive and shy brother Tony had not issue with my play list. I could even get away with playing it pretty loud before he would want to leave. I could play classic rock, metal, punk, country, pop, k-pop, instrumental, dubstep, and every other genre. He would simply chill out by my feet or on my bed with is tummy out and purring. So I can see cats being mellowed out by music but each cat has a different tolerance for it.
08-23-2016, 12:51 AM, (This post was last modified: 08-23-2016, 12:53 AM by Tom1.)
Well, to be completely honest I am not sure that I have ever thought about something like this. I can say that I am very intrigued now, though, so I am curious to see if anyone has some interesting experiences to share. I do like that saying, and I can see where it would be true, to a certain extent. It really makes me wonder if there are any studies our there that might be able to shed some light on the issue, but I am not sure if people are out there doing experiments on cats and their reactions to music, although I cannot say that I would really be surprised to see it, at this point. Very interesting stuff, and thank you for sharing.
