Takoyaki, an octopus, played piano keys with its eight arms. Photo / Mattias Krantz
The white package that arrived at Mattias Krantz’s home in Sweden after a five-hour flight contained an octopus that Krantz saved from becoming someone’s meal.
Krantz’s hopes for the octopus, which he named Takoyaki, were high – maybe unreasonably so.
Within about six months, Krantz wanted Takoyaki to play the piano so well that the animal could perform Under the Sea and the theme from the movie Jaws.
Krantz, who typically makes YouTube videos playing instruments he modifies, had long wanted to teach piano to an animal.
Krantz said octopuses, whose eight arms can each act somewhat independently because of the neurons inside them, had the most potential.
But the task proved more difficult – and fulfilling – than Krantz imagined, requiring hundreds of hours and a wealth of patience. His YouTube video detailing the teaching process has more than six million views.
“It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever done, and maybe the coolest thing, but also the worst ever,” Krantz, 28, told the Washington Post. “I never pushed myself to such limits.”
Krantz purchased Takoyaki from a Portuguese fishery in March; he did not buy the octopus from a Korean market as is depicted in his YouTube video.
Once Krantz got the octopus into his home, he dumped the creature into a roughly 110-gallon (415 litre) tank containing rocks, sand and dog toys.
The tank was connected to machines that filtered water and removed octopus waste.
“You’re going to be the greatest pianist the sea has ever known,” Krantz told Takoyaki, which he nicknamed Tako.
But first, Krantz had to earn Tako’s trust.
On the first day in its tank, Tako hid behind rocks and didn’t eat the small crabs and mussels Krantz had fished off Sweden’s southern coast.
Tako began eating on the second day, and soon Krantz gave Tako a simple task to judge whether the octopus was up for the piano challenge: Take a plastic lid off a glass jar containing crab and shrimp.
Tako passed the test after about three days.
Krantz then designed a piano key on his computer, 3D-printed it and set it down in the tank.
When Tako touched the key on the second day, Krantz gave the octopus a treat.
But Krantz wanted Tako to push the key to play a note, so he added a white lever that Tako wrapped its arms around and pulled to make a sound. Tako also broke the key off its mount a few times and hid it under rocks.
After that first success, Krantz built Tako a 15-key piano - a process Tako seemed to watch closely by pressing its body against the glass. When Krantz placed the piano in the tank, Tako sat on it instead of playing it.
So Krantz tried different approaches.
First, he added a blue underwater speaker that allowed Tako – whose species has poor hearing – to feel a vibration when the octopus played a key.
Tako began playing random notes, Krantz said, but he wanted Tako to play particular keys to form a melody.
Krantz added symbols to the keys he wanted Tako to play – circles, crosses and stripes – which Tako didn’t respond to.
Krantz even added pictures of an orange crab to the keys. The octopus was interested in the pictures but not in playing the keys.
One thing seemed to grab Tako’s attention: movement.
When a bubble formed in the tank, Tako chased it.
So, with fishing wire, Krantz wiggled the lever on the keys he wanted Tako to play. It worked – despite Tako also spending time playing the wires like a harp.
Marine scientist Jenny Hofmeister said octopuses are attracted to movement because it might signal prey.
After a week, Tako played two notes in a row. After two weeks, Tako played a pair of notes simultaneously.
But in the following weeks – after about four months of training – Tako plateaued.
Plus – as expected from an octopus – Tako wasn’t focused on learning the instrument.
Tako wrapped its arms around the GoPro camera in its tank, squirted water at Krantz, and, once, escaped the tank and hid in a cupboard.
Krantz lost hope that Tako could learn to play.
But Tako stared at the piano, which sat on the ground beside the tank, throughout the day, appearing to want to play at the usual 6pm training time, Krantz said. So Krantz experimented with a new strategy.
“The one thing I’m really good at is insane stubbornness,” Krantz said.
In early August, he placed an acrylic tube inside the tank and inserted a crab – Tako’s favourite treat – at the top.
When Tako played a key, Krantz lowered the crab closer to the bottom of the tube. Krantz called his device the “crab elevator”.
Tako initially tried to retrieve the crab by swimming into the tube and attempting to pull the crab down.
Once Tako saw the crab inch closer after playing a note, the octopus became more motivated to play. After a few weeks, Krantz gave Tako the crab once the octopus played seven or eight keys.
In mid-August, Krantz began playing chord progressions on his acoustic guitar and simultaneously wiggled keys for Tako to play so they could perform together. Krantz fed Tako after each recital.
Krantz never taught Tako to consistently play the right keys at the right times.
Sometimes the piano sounded good; other times, not so much. Tako played the keys to Baby Shark – even if it was off tempo, Krantz said.
But the fact that Tako could play keys at all was like a “fever dream”, Krantz said.
Hofmeister, the marine scientist, said Tako probably didn’t know he was playing the piano; he was motivated by food.
Octopuses are smart in their own ways: they change colours based on their surroundings, build dens with stones, use makeshift weapons, throw objects at targets and eject ink clouds when they’re in danger.
“The octopus is not perceiving rhythm,” Hofmeister said. “It’s not perceiving, you know, tempo. It wants to do the steps it has to do to get the crab.”
She said teaching an octopus to play the piano perfectly is nearly impossible.
In addition to creating music, Krantz received another benefit from the process: a friend. He has kept Takoyaki – the name means grilled octopus – as a pet.
Octopuses typically live for a year or two, and Krantz said Tako, which he estimated to be about 14 months old, now sleeps most of the day. That hasn’t stopped Tako from continuing to practise its unique skill; the octopus plays piano about every other day.
The recitals still leave Krantz in awe.
“I can’t believe I sit here,” Krantz said last week, “and play with an octopus”.
Kyle Melnick is a reporter for The Washington Post, where he writes for The Optimist, a section devoted to inspiring human interest stories.
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