Octopus Learns to Play the Piano

Swedish musician and YouTuber Mattias Krantz has been conducting a novel experiment for six months — teaching his pet octopus to play the piano. He describes the experience as “the worst and the most fun.”

Krantz is known for posting videos on YouTube of him modifying various musical instruments. He recently posted a video in which his pet octopus “Taco” — whom he affectionately calls “Taco” — is seen trying to play the piano with his hands.

Krantz told the Washington Post that he bought Taco from a fish farm in Portugal in March. In the video, Taco is shown as a “musical mollusk” at a Korean seafood market. Musical mollusks are a species of octopus that can learn to play musical instruments to some extent.

First, Krantz had to gain Taco's trust. Then a special keyboard was built, where Taco could play notes with his horn. At first, Taco could only play one or two notes. Water bubbles were used to encourage him.

In August, a "crab elevator" was installed in Taco's tank, which helps Taco's favorite food, crabs, move up and down. When notes were played on the piano, the crabs were lowered down the elevator, which gave Taco encouragement. Krantz also accompanied Taco by playing the guitar.

Krantz tried to teach Taco the notes of the popular children's song "Baby Shark." Although the timing wasn't perfect, Taco learned a little.

Marine scientist Jenny Hofmeister warns, “The octopus is probably not playing notes for music, but to get food. It doesn’t understand rhythm or speed, it’s just following the steps as a reward.”