Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - The Power of Rhythm

[mrjollypantsjolly]

The time signature matters not. All timings can be divided by one. Hence a seven is simply 1 to seven and repeated, or 11/4 is one to eleven repeated. We may cut out the middle man and just count one one one one one etc if we so desire. The signature may be felt Rhythm is at its bottom line a simple pulse. We can complecate it if we so desire , but in essense its just a "bang, bang ...................etc". I am a drummer , and so I know about these matters, he he.

[Seahorse171]

Perhaps you have not done studies on animals , or you would notice that a number of of other social animals besides humans respond to music and rhythm as well.

[PIERRECLARY]

my mum said to me that the only proof of the possible existence of god was MUSIC. I was 6 or 7 then...and asking about god's existence in a catholic non praticant scientific orientated family...

[MikeGsaxman]

I didn't see or hear any reference to time signatures in this video! Rhythm exists in all time signatures and meters.

[elizabethmartignetti]

Well, the desire to move (blood flow to the legs and other parts of the body) is physiological and universal.

The aesthetic behind the organization of music is culturally determined (as to whether it is arranged in symmetrical meters or not).

I don't think he actually mentions any particular meters...

[uneedtherapy42]

so the rhythm is really gonna get cha...lol

[ReallyPsilly]

My sisters Parakeets would dance to music.

[Atarien6]

yea my brothers parrot bobs his head to music. This is not true. I know chimps dance to music as well.

[joshgreen19]

@Atarien6 find me evidence of a chimp dancing

[leakeg]

@ReallyPsilly were they dancing because of the music, or had they learnt to 'dance' by imitating the humans that they saw moving oddly when those strange sounds came on?

[ReallyPsilly]

@leakeg

Parakeets definitely have their own dance. Or at least didn't get theirs from imitating my moves... I think that many of the parrots do this. I have seen Cockatoos and a neighbors Military Parrot do the same thing.

[leakeg]

@ReallyPsilly scientifically document it and get back to me.

[aaronlikesalex]

brain worms

[averyellis]

wait...

oh, "hoe" together, got it.

[spacecadet2016]

Heartbeat, walking, baloney. Every animal has those paradigms, yet only humans react to the isochronous beat. Males display their reproductive fitness and females judge it. A distinctly human behaviour that probably developed during the Pleistocene era concerns this genetic phenomenon: it is so much easier for females to judge and compare males' coordination, CV fitness, and creativity when the males dance to a beat. That is almost certainly why the isochronous beat developed in humans.

[broadcastmyass4u]

@spacecadet2016 but what if i feel gay, or unconfortable "dancing to the beat" in front of someone? what can i do? More importantly, how can i not be awkward?

I just can't seem to enjoy moving to music in front of people. Hell i even have a hard time smiling around people, is that wrong, do you hate me for that? I think it's from being around too many ignorant and inconsiderate people. I live in alabama by the way, with my grandparents :(

[leakeg]

@broadcastmyass4u get drunk!

[leakeg]

Count your heartbeat - 1-2,1-2,1-2....

That's 2/4 time.

A time signature is not related to tempo so it's obvious you don't know what you are talking about. You can have 2/4 at 70 bmp, you can have 2/4 at 170 bmp - any tempo.

[leakeg]

But our heart beats in 2/4 time - why then is 4/4 time the "natural" option?

[dubproof]

because it feels good! 2/4 and 4/4 whatever man. if you count 1-2-1-2 you might as well count 1-2-3-4! or better yet, just don't count and feel that groove. Groove is in the heart!  LOL!

[leakeg]

@dubproof very superficial response. You're not interested as to WHY it feels good?

[dubproof]

@leakeg the WHY is different for everybody. i know Why it feels good to me so i'm good with that.

[leakeg]

@dubproof you're telling me you fully understand the thousands of years of evolution and the specific environmental effects unique to you that make you enjoy certain sounds put together in a certain way?

[Solaris125]

Well that's a very western view.

Traditional Indian music, for example, is arranged in 5s, 7s, 11s and other meters considered "odd time" by us.

Brazilian and other Latin grooves are often based in 6.

To say there is a "natural" time siganture is really quite absurd, seeing as music in the first place is an entirely cultural experience.

[leakeg]

@Solaris125 would you be able to point me in the direction of some reading that talks about time signatures in non-western music? I've often heard people mention that non-western cultures quite often base their music in 6 or even an odd numbered metre but have never read it anywhere I would consider entirely reliable.

[anhaba1]

@Solaris125

Subdivisions of rhythm in latin, brazilian and indian music ARE duple though. Even though the beats are divided into 5, 6, 11 etc. they are subdivided into 2 for embellishment. In indian music the matra may be divided into 14 but conventional embellishment is still usually in groupings of two. instead of 5 or 7 or 11 you could think of it as 5 groups of two or 7 groups of two. Feeling music in smaller groupings of 5,7 etc. is actually a fairly recent western concept.

[RonBurgundy609]

@Solaris125 at no point did he say anything even remotely related to time signatures in this video

[paniq303]

@leakeg it's more 3/4, which is pretty close to 4/4.

[leakeg]

@paniq303 haha are you high?!

[paniq303]

@leakeg no, i'm a musician.

[leakeg]

@paniq303 so is everyone.

[MisterHowe]

@leakeg Really, our hearts beat in three (unless you are swinging the two). I think his premise is solid but a few of his extrapolations are questionable.

[BonBon3589]

@leakeg Perhaps to count for the dual beat of the heart, the 'lub-dub' if you will?

[anhaba1]

@leakeg The fact that most music is based in two probably doesn't have to do with the heartbeat but rather because two is the smallest grouping that you can feel. If you just played groupings of 1 over and over you would just have a steady tempo, the simplest way to vary this is to play two beats in the space of one. I don't think that it is a "natural" option to have 4/4 it makes more sense that groupings of two are conventional because two beats is the simplest way to divide one beat.

[mrjollypantsjolly]

@leakeg No, our heart beats in whatever time signature we so dedicate. I suggest 1/1. ie, 1 e an a :

The beats would in my example be on the 1 and the "a".

[Motvicker]

But plenty of animals hear their mothers' heartbeats and don't, as he said, display any propensity for music that we do.

[soup17]

Look at that small head, how does such a large juicy brain fit in that small cavity?

I stay up late and ask myself questions like this.

[jordonbenson]

saying that animals don't spontaneously react to rhythm is just plain ignorance. any mild observer and anyone owning a pet could tell you otherwise.

for a Dr. he's a bit of an idiot. just one more Dr. trying to put humans as some kind of superior being over other species within the animal kingdom....

[Lago187]

when did he say so, idiot? humans are far more developed than the rest of the animals, so its more interesting to do research of human brains than the ones of birds or so...your dog headbangs or what?

[jordonbenson]

that hardly makes any sense. you can't prove it is more interesting to do research on. that is a matter of opinion.

try again.

[Aggoe00]

you cant prove this mans an idiot, its your opinion too...you are right "interesting" is the wrong word, i should have said useful...i own a cat and a dog, they never reacted to rhythm or music, except fear when its too loud, what are your experiences you mild observer?

[mpmrecords]

Dr. Sacks is not correct about humans being the only species that spontaneously moves to music. I've had several different kinds of parrots of all of which would bob naturally to music, but not just any music, only certain songs. That points to an even more sophisticated reaction towards music in animals: Taste and predilection.

[unkahdet]

agreed

[kejholliday]

Sachs says only humans spontaneously "move to the beat." I don't agree - just look up Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo on youtube for a demonstration. Heck he dances better than me!

[ZACKALACK8999]

He says spontaneously. I think by this he means not through imitation. If a child sits in a room alone, he/ she will rock or move to music without seeing anyone else do it. Much of a cockatoo's behavior is based on imitation. This is just a thought though, i could be completely off.

[HJLiddy]

I'm with ZACKALACK on this one.

[bfavs]

Snowball is just as happy dancing with his back to people. Check out the 4.27 min video of him dancing to back street boys. They have to keep turning the chair around to face camera. I'm convinced he is responding/dancing to the rhythm of music for its own reward.

[Coventrey]

but he learned it from imitating humans...  sure he knows it now, but snowball would not have started "dancing" on his own without having seeing it first

[jordonbenson]

prove it.

[Coventrey]

how about reading bfavs comment or watching the friggin video again ace...

[jordonbenson]

yeah. prove it. really prove it. watching the video doesn't prove anything. i read it. did you? go read some books before coming into something beyond your personal understanding .....ACE.