VEGANGELICA

I looked up the Thai Elephant Convervation Center ( Thai Elephant Conservation Center - Activities ) to learn about how free the elephants were while playing in the elephant orchestra, since some viewers complained that the elephants were being forced to make music and that it was abusive.

I learned that the Center created large instruments to suit elephants' bodies and did some initial training to teach elephants how to play, but then gave the elephants quite a bit of freedom to play or not:

"From the very beginning it was clear that elephants could, with endless repetition, be taught to play complex patterns. The creators decided, however, that making music should be fun for the elephants. Thus, the only commands given to elephants are to start, stop, and occasionally the number of times to strike an instrument."

^ What would be especially interesting to learn is whether elephants on their own would have discovered the sounds that they could make with the instruments, and whether they would have congregated together to play them.

I like how in one elephant orchestra video, the elephant sways back and forth while hitting the drums rhythmically. She or he has a good sense of tempo.

The zebra finch musical art installation is definitely cool!

While I don't know if the finches are aware of the cause-and-effect relationship between their hopping on electric guitar strings and the sounds created, hearing the sounds that result when a flock of zebra finches interact with instruments is interesting.

I raised zebra finches when I was a child and never once thought of using their flight and their penchant for pecking to make music. I did notice that one of the parakeets I raised seemed to like to ring a bell.

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