Are Humans the Only Musical Species?
Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music. Are we alone?
more…
Tau.Neutrino said:
Are Humans the Only Musical Species?Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music. Are we alone?
more…
Are we? Interesting question.
A way to test the answer would be to find a species that, like humans, suffers from earworms.
ie. given an animal species play a possible earworm to it, and measure how long that impairs logical reasoning after the melody is switched off.
mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Are Humans the Only Musical Species?Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music. Are we alone?
more…
Are we? Interesting question.
A way to test the answer would be to find a species that, like humans, suffers from earworms.
ie. given an animal species play a possible earworm to it, and measure how long that impairs logical reasoning after the melody is switched off.
Heh and you are a bird watcher, indeed.
Surprised there is nothing in here about cetaceans
dv said:
Surprised there is nothing in here about cetaceans
Would have got around to it but it is always good to leave more room for more discussion.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music.
can those of us really, though
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music.
can those of us really, though
A person upon hearing a musician play, said “I’d give half my life to be able to play like that”.
The musician replied, “I did”.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music.
can those of us really, though
A person upon hearing a musician play, said “I’d give half my life to be able to play like that”.
The musician replied, “I did”.
Here’s another story about vocal intonation and exceptionalism.
… during the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a very skilled archer named Chen Yaozi. He never missed a bull’s eye and his students gave him the nickname “magic archer.” Chen was very proud of his skill and believed he was the best archer in the world.
One day, while shooting arrows, Chen attracted a large crowd of onlookers that began to cheer him on. Among the crowd, there was an old, oil peddler who just shook his head and did not seem at all impressed.
Surprised, Chen asked the oil peddler: “Can you do this?”
The peddler replied: “No, I can’t.”
Chen then asked: “What do you think of my archery?”
The oil peddler answered: “It is okay, but nothing special; all it takes is practice.”
This made Chen quite unhappy. One of his students said to the peddler: “No one can compare with my master’s skill in archery. How dare you underestimate my master’s skill?”
Without saying a word, the oil peddler took a bottle, placed it on the ground, and put a copper coin with a square hole in the center over the top of the bottle. He then poured oil from a wooden ladle into the bottle, without spilling a single drop on the coin.
The onlookers watched in amazement. The old oil peddler turned to Chen and said: “That was also nothing. I can do this because I have practiced it a lot. Skill comes from practice.”
With these words, the oil peddler left and the crowd became quiet.
The old peddler’s words made Chen feel very ashamed of his previous arrogant behavior. From that point on, he became more modest and practiced archery even more diligently. Soon after, he became known not only for his excellent archery skills, but also for his kind personality.
dv said:
Surprised there is nothing in here about cetaceans
Yeah, and whales, I reckon they should have got a mention as well.
sibeen said:
dv said:
Surprised there is nothing in here about cetaceans
Yeah, and whales, I reckon they should have got a mention as well.
And talking of ear-worms:
Whales, Whales, bloody great fishes are Whales.
They swim in the sea
We eat them for tea
Bloody great fishes are Whales.
of written music, music that did or might get written down, humans are the only known species that would qualify, no question
birds of course are musical (to humans, some are to my ear), it could be easily argued, some species tunes, perhaps many, probably more than one species were introduced to Australia for that reason, the pleasant sounds
transition said:
of written music, music that did or might get written down, humans are the only known species that would qualify, no questionbirds of course are musical (to humans, some are to my ear), it could be easily argued, some species tunes, perhaps many, probably more than one species were introduced to Australia for that reason, the pleasant sounds
And what of frogs?
Not very tuneful, perhaps, but they sure got rhythm.
The Rev Dodgson said:
transition said:
of written music, music that did or might get written down, humans are the only known species that would qualify, no questionbirds of course are musical (to humans, some are to my ear), it could be easily argued, some species tunes, perhaps many, probably more than one species were introduced to Australia for that reason, the pleasant sounds
And what of frogs?
Not very tuneful, perhaps, but they sure got rhythm.
probably sounds like music to a potential mate, call it mood music for frog courtship
yes.
might’ve got it from comedy, but someone was poking fun at someone and said something like they think a wind chime is a musical instrument, funny as it was there’s perhaps an interesting question in that
transition said:
might’ve got it from comedy, but someone was poking fun at someone and said something like they think a wind chime is a musical instrument, funny as it was there’s perhaps an interesting question in that
for jazz maybe…
Arts said:
transition said:
might’ve got it from comedy, but someone was poking fun at someone and said something like they think a wind chime is a musical instrument, funny as it was there’s perhaps an interesting question in that
for jazz maybe…
chuckle
What about the palm cockatoo? The male of the species uses acoustic sounds he makes by striking log hollows to attract a mate.
https://youtu.be/G1VlezTRVnI
monkey skipper said:
What about the palm cockatoo? The male of the species uses acoustic sounds he makes by striking log hollows to attract a mate.https://youtu.be/G1VlezTRVnI
but what are sounds that are not acoustic
SCIENCE said:
monkey skipper said:
What about the palm cockatoo? The male of the species uses acoustic sounds he makes by striking log hollows to attract a mate.https://youtu.be/G1VlezTRVnI
but what are sounds that are not acoustic
That’s pay per view.
SCIENCE said:
monkey skipper said:
What about the palm cockatoo? The male of the species uses acoustic sounds he makes by striking log hollows to attract a mate.https://youtu.be/G1VlezTRVnI
but what are sounds that are not acoustic
What about them ? My guess is both are considered in this OP?
sorry we were just confused as one meaning of acoustic essentially means “relating to sound”
but yes we agree many other animals seem to have some appreciation for music so the article is a bit exceptionalist
transition said:
of written music, music that did or might get written down, humans are the only known species that would qualify, no questionbirds of course are musical (to humans, some are to my ear), it could be easily argued, some species tunes, perhaps many, probably more than one species were introduced to Australia for that reason, the pleasant sounds
Can’t think of an introduced bird that has pleasnt sounds offhand.
roughbarked said:
transition said:
of written music, music that did or might get written down, humans are the only known species that would qualify, no questionbirds of course are musical (to humans, some are to my ear), it could be easily argued, some species tunes, perhaps many, probably more than one species were introduced to Australia for that reason, the pleasant sounds
Can’t think of an introduced bird that has pleasnt sounds offhand.
Found it amusing that it finished with Ka dook a doom pa.