Nora the piano-playing kitteh is up to her usual tricks, interrupting piano lessons with her own compositions and wreaking general ebony and ivory havoc.
I found this one!
Let’s check in on Nora, the piano playing kitteh
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Play faster, Nora, or someone else will be bleen before I get there…
Nora has to be the coolest cat!!
I wish someone would buy me her CD for Yule…
I love how, at the end, Nora just rests her head against the keys, as if to say, “Oh, I give up”! Such a cute, musical cat!
OK this is absolutely the best. I love how at the end Betsy is treating her like an actual student. I thought Nora might really bust out with the same notes!
Standing ovation for Nora and film editor.
green room -teehee
Listen to that purr! Nora obviously loves performing.
Cute cat, but jeez lady, at least blink.
Nora’s playing reminds me of the music from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood!
I LOVE this, especially the affectionate purry meows.
I have lots of musical friends and I am sending them this link.
Nora has mad piano skillz.
So much for kitties on strike!
‘affectionate purry meows’ – comments are as good as the movie. mphh! until i saw her in the green room i didn’t realize how chubby she is. er, excuse me, as garfield would say, she is of the large bone persuasion.
Sigh. I <3 Nora.
I love her music and I love that squeaky purr.
She is so attentive. What is going on in her little kitty brain?
I luv how she’ll play then stop to look for approval. I want a kitteh just like that!
Not to be a downer, but Nora doesn’t have much range, yanno?
I love the call and response.
Also, check out Nora’s face 1:17-1:20; like “you expect me to keep up with that?”
“intermission” had me ROFL
at first i was thinking how cute, but really it is more than cute. it is extraordinary.
i love the end when she rests her chin on the keys.
This video is a masterpiece! Bravissimo, Nora! You’re a superstar.
Thank you so much for posting such a gem…instead of snakes. *ahem*
O
M
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Love this!!!!!!! She plays better than me!
I might have been interested in piano lessons if I’d known kitteh duets were an option!
“Cat Like Playing Detected”
I LOVE this!!!! Thanks Betsy & Nora & videographer, and espesche thanks to our Meg for posting. This is a superb video, started my day off with a cheesy grin.
Nice find Meg..
Nora is so wishing she had hands so she could really play that piano.
wonderful thanks again meg
Oh I wish we had a way to check in Nigels family and make sure they are all still with us ……..
i had to check out their website. i bought a nora calendar! it’s so cute!
http://www.cafepress.com/ravenswingshop/2351062
9poppy, lol – yes does anyone have the phone # for Nigel’s house? i really think we should make sure everyone is ok.
Wow, she has talent!
She has the soft touch of a master, the crooked left ear, the sweet scratchy voice, and that glance to her accompianist that says “Ur doin it rong”…reminds me of my own piano teacher.
I’d put tips in her jar if she played at my local coffee shop.
Nora is a darling AND a musical prodigy! I think she’s inventing a new type of avant guard jazz.
Hmm….perhaps my kitty girls need a piano?
Does this mean the strike’s over?!
Let’s chip in and buy Nora a synthesizer! That way she could touch the buttons and make find a whole new range of sounds!
I wanna know how Betsy does it…I’ve been trying to get Bertha to pick up the mandolin for years, to no avail (she says she’s “tone deaf” but that’s a cop-out).
You guys! Miss Nora is very talented…really. What fun!
nora has her people trained so well.
she is a fabulous teacher.
Awww. Cats do such amazing things, and that’s why they are one of my fave creatures!
How very interesting!
They say that wild house cats are mostly silent, communicating with scent and body language, only vocalizing when fighting, mating and communicating with kittens.
They hiss to communicate warning to other species like dogs or humans.
On the other hand, tame house cats, especially males, vocalize much more, which is taught to them by the humans who care for them. Humans regularly use vocalization for communication rather than scent and body language, so in order to communicate with humans, tame house cats learn to vocalize regularly.
This tame house cat apparently lives with a piano teacher, and so has learned 2 forms of communication not normal for her species, vocalization and piano.
At the end of the film, the Call and Answer section, the cat plays, then looks to the human for a reply. She attempts several times to involve the human in “conversation” with the piano as she does during the rest of the film.
When it is apparent that the human is not going to participate, she turns her head away and lays it on her paw, and we all know what that means
Sorry for getting all psuedo scientific, this is just what happened when I watched the film…
SO cute! I really wonder what the cat’s thinking…
berthaslave: count me in on synthesizer! would love to see Nora’s face when she plays it for the 1st time.
Awesome musical cat! Combine a whole lot of video of Nora playing different notes with the video editing skills of this guy (http://youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo) and you’ll have an instant internet star. The guy in this video cannot play the drums or piano, but recorded himself just hitting individual drums and keys, and used video editing to compose them into a song.
Nora is too cool! What a talented bebeh! Love love love that she is so loved and spoiled and they praise and applaud her after she’s done playing. “Good job Nora!” Indeed!
I wonder if it’s worth buying a piano for my tux boys? They’ve already got the evening dress, they just need the talent.
Beautiful, smart and talented! Nora has it all!
I *completely* need a piano-playing cat. I don’t have a piano but I can figure something out. So amazingly cool!
I thought the kitties are on strike? How come cuteoverload keeps posting pictures of their pets being “cute”? Are we forgetting the poor writers?
If this doesn’t make you feel good, then you’d better dial 911!
Nora is just so dear. I love her.
is it not interesting that her favorite note is ‘middle c’? c for cat of course.
Nora now will perform “Feline Rondo in the Key of C”, a long-lost work by Peter Ilyich Tchaikatsky.
suzi is totally right, it is just like the music on mr rogers
This is so heartwarming ans super sweet. ahnnnnnn!!!!!!!
I like when she asks the kitteh if she’s ready and she squeak-purrs “yes!” 
ahnnnnn!!!!!
I swear Nora’s playing works right in with the student’s.
And the cat chirping is killer.
The perfect response to that common fallacy that animals have no soul or self awareness.
Good on ya Nora! Play them blues!
that is just so prosh.
Can I say that I’m loving this cat? Nevermind that she is the image of my cat Jessie; same face, body type and coloring. Could they be related? Could he have musical talent, too? Let me get a toy piano and find out!
hahaha, I love the “purr-cussion” at the beginning of the video
And the way she strokes the keys so gently… “ooh, look, it makes NOISE!”
First we had “Why Cats Paint”. Now we have “Why Cats Play the Piano”.
Aww, look how hard Nora’s trying to get their attention! She keeps looking over at the student: hey! Look what I can do!
The intermission carpet even LOOKS like intermission carpet! Oooh, I’m impressed!
Gasp! No spam guard! I have to take advantage of this by posting AS MANY STUPID COMMENTS AS I CAN!!!
Yay
No
Spam
Okay, I’m done. Next picture!
Happie Christmas Nora! I adore your pianna!
Uh… excuse me. No, you did not find this one.
I linked Nora TWICE to an email to you and it was never posted. And I couldn’t figure out why since Nora is the most talented feline in the world.
Maybe I’m crazy, but a couple of times it sounded like she was going to start playing ”Chopsticks” hmmmm….
Check out the “Nora’s Song” music video. Too cute!!!
My cousin in Philadelphia actually knows Nora and her people. She apparently does this even when the video camera is not rolling, for the sheer love of her art!
http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/index.php
spam spam spam but GOOD spam!
Catsquatch, I often got the same idea about my two chatty boycats. Once they came here as kittens, they quickly learned that to get any attention around here, you have to speak right up. And so they do.
Its kind of like the scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Communicating through music.
Catsquatch I loved your explanation. My cat unfortunately, rather than learn to play the piano and make me rich and famous, has chosen to learn to yowl at full volume during the middle of the night. She gets no positive reinforcement for that so I’m not sure what her purpose is.
By the way, I love Nora! I’d totally pay for a ticket to her concerts if I lived nearby.
Nora is adorable, but that woman is just plain creepy.
is it just me, or did nora gain some weight..?
Okay, my cat – who has never touched the piano keys – was brought over to watch the video by Sullen Pre-Teen Boy. She meowed and meowed at Nora’s tunes.
But then, my cat’s a tortoiseshell and they meow at EVERYTHING!
I ad this on my blog MONTHS ago. Cute though!
I keep replaying this. Nora is simply awesome. She has tapped into a new way to communicat-e with her people. Wonder what her preferred tonal range is on other instruments. Put her on a lightpad, somebody!
How about her anerable reflection in the piano while she is playing?
I can’t get enough of this. Nora really enjoys tickling the ivories.
Can Nora give me some lessons !?!?!?!
I love the way cats, who are widely known for their grace and sense of balance, can be so unbelievably goofy sometimes…
I dig her minimalist style. Also, she looks a lot like my dear departed Sallybear. Sounds like her, too (sniff).
That ruled.
Our old cat used to do this when she was hungry. If we had forgotten to shut the piano’s lid, she’d walk up and down on the keys in the middle of the night until someone came and feed her. She wasn’t as musical, though – just walked up and down because she knew someone would wake up and serve her.
rum tum tugger, musical peeps are often of the *ahem* large boned persuasion… that’s my excuse and I’m not even as talented as Nora. Betsy is a very attentive teacher and I would take lessons from her. She is totally focussed on her pupil, which is why she isn’t blinking much.
OMG! She is just AMaZING. And she got so much better since the first video. I just LURVE her.
DD
What was so amazing was that Nora was playing in the approximate octave of what the piano students were playing, and the one time she actually matched pitch with the chord being played, I laughed out loud! Nora is amazing!
Love it! Completely!
Hi Theresa
Yes, tame boy cats are much more vocal than girl cats, it seems to be proportionate to their level of being demanding
Hi Mary
The first part wasnt mine, I came across the information at Cryptozoology.com some months ago, and it makes sense, all the cats I have ever cared for back up the information.
Your female howling in the middle of the night, does she sleep with you? If not, she is probably lonely.
Wild house cats may be solitary, although there are places where they form prides sometimes up to 100 cats, but tame house cats consider themselves to be members of your pride, so if left alone for sleeping they become depressed and lonely.
If she does sleep with you, she may be experiencing her natural nocturnalness, the need to be up and doing something while its dark. If this is the case, she may need something to entertain her while you sleep, and is howling out of sheer boredom.
I hope this information helps
Love that sweet Nora!
That meow at the end pretty much killed me.
aww! totally reminds of The Aristocrats.
You must learn your scales and your arpeeeeegios!
aristoCATS, dammit!
She’s such a sweetie! I love her.
Saw it first time and int struck me, that somehow Nora’s behavior is similar to my cat’s – trying to understand what people do and copy it and see, if something interesting on useful turns out. (In Nora’s case, attention does
)
For years my cat was very interested in drinking straws, as my handicapped father used one to help him drink from cup. You could almost hear little cog-wheels turning in cats head, when he looked my father drinking… “Water disappears, and it’s obviously got something do to with this weird thing human helds in his mouth.. but what really happens?”
Some time after that he gave up, probably because no matter what he tried he couldn’t get the thing working.
Countless times cat stole the straw, when my father was asleep on not looking, but lost interest to it pretty quickly, when straw didn’t do the magic on its own. Finally, he realized it’s also got something to do with water, and tried to put some flowerstalk I gave him for playing, to water, because flowerstalk looked like straw.
“Some human magic, I see, not meant for cats, yeah?” you could almost hear him mumble, when he passed the cup full of water. XD
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