Music and love! They go together like two turtledoves. Corny. I know. But come to think of it, birds do sing, and now we suspect that cockatoos use objects as instruments of serenade. Sciencenews.org has put a little video online to show a cockatoo pounding a nut rhythmically. The species seems to be highly adaptive: Other cockatoos use sticks. What’s next? Pounding a spoon on an overturned pot?
The narrator of the video notes that not even our close relatives the chimpanzees use tools to make music. That practice seems now to lie in the realm of only two animals: Cockatoos and us. Our kindred musical spirits are birds. And they do what we do: Use music to attract mates.
Lest we consider ourselves a little diminished by having another species match our accomplishments, we should remember that we can use syncopation in our drumbeats. Cockatoos seem to be relegated to a consistent beat.
Syncopation might also be cause for claiming our superiority over all other species. We can do the unexpected. There it is! Humans are creative. They can surprise. Many first dates and marriage proposals center on creativity, on some strange drumbeat that separates suitors.
It’s not only in our mating that we like a creative rhythm, it’s also in our daily lives. Some seek to live syncopated lives, searching restlessly for a beat no one else has produced or heard. It’s our protection against ennui.
Cockatoos can use different kinds of nuts and sticks to make their music. Unlike them, we seem to have an endless variety of musical instruments, some even oscillating on quantum levels. But it isn’t in the instrument that our creativity in love stands out. A repeated drumbeat can mesmerize, but it can’t revitalize. Rather, it’s the unexpected, and sometimes, arrhythmic nature of our pounding that attracts one of us to another. Mating to a different drummer isn’t just a human thing; it’s the essence of our passion.
It’s in misunderstanding how humans make music to attract one another that advertisers err in imposing only “ideal” people in “ideal” circumstances. We don’t always look for the ideal. We can be attracted to the real, however strange it might seem against a background of cultural perfection. Ideal and regular drumbeats can eventually dull our senses.
Think back or forward. If you have already found that creative drummer or if you are still looking, isn’t attraction manifested in syncopation?
The narrator of the video notes that not even our close relatives the chimpanzees use tools to make music. That practice seems now to lie in the realm of only two animals: Cockatoos and us. Our kindred musical spirits are birds. And they do what we do: Use music to attract mates.
Lest we consider ourselves a little diminished by having another species match our accomplishments, we should remember that we can use syncopation in our drumbeats. Cockatoos seem to be relegated to a consistent beat.
Syncopation might also be cause for claiming our superiority over all other species. We can do the unexpected. There it is! Humans are creative. They can surprise. Many first dates and marriage proposals center on creativity, on some strange drumbeat that separates suitors.
It’s not only in our mating that we like a creative rhythm, it’s also in our daily lives. Some seek to live syncopated lives, searching restlessly for a beat no one else has produced or heard. It’s our protection against ennui.
Cockatoos can use different kinds of nuts and sticks to make their music. Unlike them, we seem to have an endless variety of musical instruments, some even oscillating on quantum levels. But it isn’t in the instrument that our creativity in love stands out. A repeated drumbeat can mesmerize, but it can’t revitalize. Rather, it’s the unexpected, and sometimes, arrhythmic nature of our pounding that attracts one of us to another. Mating to a different drummer isn’t just a human thing; it’s the essence of our passion.
It’s in misunderstanding how humans make music to attract one another that advertisers err in imposing only “ideal” people in “ideal” circumstances. We don’t always look for the ideal. We can be attracted to the real, however strange it might seem against a background of cultural perfection. Ideal and regular drumbeats can eventually dull our senses.
Think back or forward. If you have already found that creative drummer or if you are still looking, isn’t attraction manifested in syncopation?
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