# Does music effect animals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087 "2001-02-12T00:13:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skwerl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Skwerl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skwerl)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/1 "2001-02-12T00:13:32Z")
Does music effect animals? Like, do their brainwaves change, or do they become smarter, or do they relax? If so, do they have certain “tastes”? That is, do dogs respond more to piano adagios, while birds are fans of violin scherzos? Or is music a uniquely human perception, and to animals it’s all just the same old noise? Can they discern rhythms and such? Or has any study even been done on all this? I found little on Google. And I have noticed that when I play the piano, my dog likes to come in and lie in the room. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/2 "2001-02-12T00:24:41Z")
I know from personal experience that music affects other animals the same way they affect the animal known as homo sapien. In a local park, music is played free for the public on summer Sunday afternoons by a pond which is habitated by Pekin ducks. During some of the performances, I’ve noticed that the ducks would actually dance with a partner during some of the songs. A little dosey-do, if you please. I’m not making this up. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/3 "2001-02-12T02:02:17Z")
When I played “Blood Roses” by Tori Amos my cat would come into the room to listen. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ndorward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@ndorward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ndorward)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/4 "2001-02-12T04:14:01Z")
Our late cat Britomart had a noticeable fondness for blues & rock music. If you put classical music or jazz on the stereo she didn’t seem to notice, but put Jimi Hendrix or Albert Collins on & she would suddenly start doing excited laps about the house. My parents’ cat Zachary also liked sleeping on top of a big booming speaker when I was playing something really loud & horrible–e.g. Naked City’s _Grand Guignol_, played loud. I’m not sure if it was the music or the vibrations from the speakers that attracted him. --N ---
**Author:** ![Mirage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Mirage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirage)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/5 "2001-02-12T04:58:09Z")
Sometimes my family would take care of our neighbor’s Cockateil. When I would place it next to the piano and start playing, it would bob it’s head like crazy. It wasn’t exactly in time with the music, but it was funny because the only time it would do that was when it heard music. ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-music-effect-animals/54087/6 "2001-02-12T06:18:41Z")
Whenever I play my trombone by my cat, he leaps and flees the room. I don’t think my playing is that bad that the listener has to leave the room :mad: