A cat that was captured making her own tune on a keyboard has gained viral attention and sparked a series of responses from musicians.
Brown tabby and white cat Elly was captured on video as she stood on her owner’s keyboard and noise emanated from the instrument.
TikToker Daniel, under the handle @musiclovertiktook, shared the moment he walked in on the feline virtuoso on the video sharing site, where it has been viewed over 1 million times.
Daniel, who lives in Austria, is a member of a band and so has many instruments in his home—but it appears that music isn’t just a human pastime as Elly gets involved too.
While you may not immediately associate cats and music, cats have an acute sense of hearing and can perceive a wide range of sounds.
Dr. Crista Coppola, Board Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist for SeniorTailWaggers.com, told Newsweek: “Cats can hear better than both dogs and humans, they can also hear a greater range of sound and pitches at both high frequencies and lower frequencies.
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“Their superior hearing sense is facilitated by the erect ears that help funnel sound and ear tufts that help capture sound. Cats can also rotate their ears independently to help locate a sound’s origin.”
Of course, just because cats have a great sense of hearing doesn’t mean that they can understand tunes in the same way humans do. But that hasn’t stopped some people from attempting to create music specifically for cats. For example, David Teie, a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, began his Music for Cats project alongside scientists in 2015, incorporating sounds and frequencies believed to be appealing to and calming for cats.
Including purring, bird chirping and sucking sounds similar to kittens nursing, Teie’s albums were said to be designed to both engage and soothe feline listeners.
In the viral TikTok video, Elly didn’t seem to follow any of Teie’s ideas, but did manage to create a sort of tune that has proved inspiring.
Musicians have used Elly’s tune to build their own music, combining it with TikTok’s Duet feature that allows users to create split-screen videos alongside an existing video.
TikTok Duet involves users recording their own video, that appears on one side of the screen, while the original video plays on the other side. It is often used to collaborate with, react to, or parody content.
Once one video of Elly was posted things snowballed, with talented TikTokers bringing in guitar, drums and even a saxophone to add to the cat’s musical creation.
The video of Elly was also reposted on Reddit, where it has received over 115,000 upvotes and prompted plenty of reaction.
One Reddit user said: “That was so intense. I’d love a movie director to actually use that and name or show the cat in the credits.”
Others dubbed the feline a “mewsician,” while one called Elly “Meowzart.”
Newsweek has reached out to @musiclovertiktook via Instagram and email for comment.
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