Musician Teaches a Rescued Octopus to Play Piano

Swedish musicianMattias Krantz, who enjoysexperimenting with instruments, went to a live fish market where he rescued a young octopus whom he named Takoyaki and tried to teach him to play piano.

I've always wanted to teach an animal piano. And in theory, octopuses have incredible potential. They are as smart as a three-year-old. They are amazing problem solvers. But what really sets them apart is that each of their eight arms has his own little brain, letting them think and move independently. It's like eight pianists in one body. And that's way too much potential to be thrown in a fryer.

Franz tried many different methods to get the Tako to play more than one note at a time. These attempts included levered keys, lighted keys, moving levers, and embedded fake crabs. Nothing seemed to land with Tako.

So, I started building Tako his own custom octopus piano, and he really supervised every second of the process. This is an historical moment. ...This day I realized I have absolutely no idea how to teach an octopus piano.

Finally, Krantz consulted with a number of experts, one of whom had the great idea of putting food into a tube that would lower each time a note was played.

We call it the crab elevator. Here's how it works. Every key press lowers the crab a little closer to Taco, and it's impossible for him to take it before it reaches the bottom. And to get it there, he needs to complete an entire melody. It's a progress bar octopus edition.

After about six months, the pair started playing duets together.

And at that point, I knew that Tako was finally ready. After four months of failures and breakthroughs, it was time for Tako to attempt his first ever.

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Tako's Progress Playing Piano

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