The grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) as musician: an experiment with the Temperate Scale

Vowel-Like Sound Structure in an African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) Vocal Production

“…An analogous pattern was observed about the acquisition of a musical code by the same parrot during a previous experiment: trained to use the Temperate Scale to answer to couple of musical notes played by a keyboard with appropriate sequences, at the end of the experiment she continued to use learnt notes by assembling original sequences [37].…”

“…Both companion parrots were chosen among naive (non trained) animals, in order to avoid any influence on Teo speech learning patterns. Teo was previously trained in music discrimination [37], but never formally trained in speech production.…”

Sounds of protolanguages: Some preliminary insights from developmental psychology

“…We know that during early development infant perception of surrounding sounds, including language, is much more advanced than motor competence (Lenti Boero 2014): infants discriminate language phonemes, sharing this capacity with many animal species: rhesus macaques, dogs, chinchilla, quails, and parrots (Adams et al 1987;Bottoni et al 2003Bottoni et al , 2009Dewson 1964;Kluender et al 1987;Kuhl and Miller 1975;Miller 1977;Morse and Snowdon 1975;Pepperberg 2007). This is a key point: why both human infants and many animal species are competent in phonemic discrimination?…”

“…I believe that this ability is a subcomponent of a more general competence in acoustic spectra analysis, and that it must be widespread at least among vertebrates. Animals, similarly to us, must be updated with the auditory scene, they must distinguish between abiotic sounds from the environment, and biotic sounds uttered by preys or dangerous predators (according to the viewpoint), between familiar and unfamiliar sounds, and this competence is only achieved by analyzing acoustic spectra (Bottoni et al 2003).…”

Are “non-human sounds/music” lesser than human music? A comparison from a biological and musicological perspective

“…From a zoological point of view, however, animals are regarded as "musicians", who display musical sensibility and use ornamentation or instruments to deliver their musical compositions (Jellis 1977;Bottoni et al 2003). Birds may sing for pleasure and enjoyment, as sound signals may have evolved not just for the purpose of reproduction and survival (Hartshorne 1973;Jellis 1977).…”