SV: perfect pitch in animals

[Kjell Sverre Fardal]

Dear list,
cats and dogs!

(seriously spoken): Some of these stories gets me to think of the famous
Russian physiologist (not psychologist..)Ivan P. Pavlov. One hundred years
ago he did some experiments with dogs, and "accidentally" he discovered some
of the phenomena you have told aboat. In 1904 he got the Nobel price for his
studies.

You can ev. read aboat Paplov and his dogs in books on basic psychological
principles and history.  (Not a relevant list-thread, I suppose...)

Kjell


Kjell Sverre Fardal, NPTF / Europiano
Kristiansand / Norway
ksfardal@online.no


-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]På vegne av
Mike and Jane Spalding
Sendt: 11. mai 2001 15:00
Til: pianotech@ptg.org
Emne: Re: perfect pitch in animals


Tom,

I haven't (yet) had a client dog react to any specific notes.   My dog,
however, (black lab), will bark at the door chimes, but completely ignores
the sound of me tuning our piano.  My guess is that the tone quality has to
be very similar in order to trick the dog into thinking he's hearing the
chimes?

Mike


----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 10:41 PM
Subject: perfect pitch in animals


> Today something interesting happened at my first tuning of the day...
>
> I was in the process of doing a pitch raise on a spinet.  When I got to
D#6
> the client's dog started barking wildly.  Non-stop
BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK.
> This continued while I raised the pitch on E6 and then stopped abruptly
when
> I got to F6.  I didn't really think anything of it, till I went back for
the
> second pass.  Sure enough, the first strike of D#6 and the dog goes wild.
So
> I asked the client if she had a doorbell, which she did.  I asked her if I
> could hear it, and she told me she'd be happy to , but it would make the
dog
> bark.  Incredibly, the doorbell was a harmonic major 6th, Eb (or D#) and G
> below.
>
> Anyone ever run across this phenomenon of an animal seemingly having the
> ability to recognize pitch?  (Or do you think this was this just a
> coincidence?)
>
> Tom S.
> Chicago PTG Associate
>
> P.S.
> I wish there was a convenient abbreviation for "Associate", you know, like
> there is for the other guild category, RPT?  The only abbreviation that
comes
> to mind is...well, one that I wouldn't care to use after my name.
(Opening
> the door...) Any suggestions?
>
>