Any musician worth their salt could say with full confidence that practice is the cornerstone of success. Practice at home, in the dorms, in the practice rooms and even in between classes. While your roommates might think you’re strange, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t disturbing anyone. In my case, the one most affected by my practice would be my lovely lady, Daphne. She’s an Australian cattle dog mix and she both loves and hates when I play music.
As most of my readers probably do, I have music playing most of the time. Either while doing homework, cooking, reading, in the shower, driving etc. I’m sure that Daphne has her favorites and least favorites, but that is something she doesn’t usually voice. She can vibe with me sometimes but overall, she just exists.
The above is not the case when I’m the one playing the music. When practicing for a show, I tend to play at full volume. She, understandably, doesn’t like how loud it is and hides under my bed. She’ll protest first and bark and snarl at me before ultimately giving up and hiding. If she has the opportunity, she’ll leave the room.
When I’m playing for fun at a lower volume, she likes to sing. She has a little Siberian husky in her and so she howls and yowls along with my singing. She’s my little duet partner. I notice she tends to sing when I’m playing guitar or piano and singing simultaneously. If I’m just singing or just playing, she tends to just vibe with me.
I think about the various animals I see online who like to listen to specific songs or lay near the instrument player and just enjoy the music and wonder what goes on in their heads. I’ve also seen some animals who are able to play rudimentarily on the piano, with the help of their owners. On a more impressive level, I’ve seen someone train their dog to have perfect or near perfect pitch.
Sometimes I think about teaching Daphne to sing or play piano in some respect. I know she is very smart and she probably could learn to play the piano if I tried hard enough. Perhaps that will be a project for the summer.
When you listen to music out loud or play your instruments or sing, think about how your animals might be enjoying the art just as much as you are.
— dj dragonfly
