Dear Members...Do you have an animal story as related to your piano playing? I have one to share with you. I had a rabbit, French Long Earred ... She was Susie and adorable... She was a pet shop purchase as a baby and grow up to think she was a dog as she was raised with our house beagle dog. She would sit under my baby grand piano, by the soft pedal when I played the piano. When I went to the bathroom she would hop with me and sit patiently by the bathroom door and wait for me until I came out... then Susie would follow me back to the piano ,sit under the grand by the soft pedal while I continued to play. Never failed she did this over and over. Sandy B

Sandy again on animal stories as related to the piano... Because there is no input I wonder. I had dogs and cats through the years and no unusal connections with the piano...This makes me really wonder about rabbits and the piano. I had another rabbit, when I studied classical piano, before Susie, 20 years before... This was a field rabbit, his mother was run over by a tractor on our farm he was a new born, almost. I hand raised him . He was precious and he thought we were his family, even the beagle loved him too. Well,one day I was playing Chopin and I often brought the rabbit in and put him on top of the piano, as usual... an upright. The rabbit was about a year old by now. I noticed a movement on top of the piano. It was the rabbit, he was swaying back and forth to the selection and would stop and grind his teeth at the very romantic parts of the selection and use his feet up and down too, one at a time in tempo, as though marching but in place...Then he would begin to sway again. He kept perfect timing always no matter what with the metronome and always the same direction as the metronome too. It was so shocking to me and I wondered how long he had been doing this? I often brought him in the last year to keep him company and me too... and.. always put him on top of the piano with the metronome. I played boogie woogie and he would run back and forth. He would only calm down when I changed the music to romantic, etc. This is hard to believe but it is true... Are rabbits special pets for a pianist? House raised rabbits as mine both were? Sandy B.

not for the piano but my dog is scared of the violin!
the only animal/piano related story I have is the mice that built their nests under the keys of the old piano at school because nobody used the poor thing.

Thank for sharing...Sandy

As a child, I had a tortoise who loved to hear me play. Whenever I played, the tortoise would come out of whatever hiding place it had, come over to the piano, and wedge itself under the pedal. It would even abandon food in order to come to the piano.

I miss her; we had to leave her behind when we emigrated, due to health regulations. She's now living with friends of my relatives. I wonder if they play the piano.

Amazing,what a lovely tortoise.

My big gray cat will occasionally jump on the bench and attempt to add bass lines to whatever I'm playing.