Certain recorded drum breaks, i.e., drum patterns played without other instrumentation, have achieved iconic status, largely as a result of being frequently “sampled” in other recordings. Although these highly influential drum breaks (sometimes called breakbeats) have been integral to much of the hip-hop and other music produced in recent decades, there has been little scholarly investigation of their rhythmic features. To that end, this study examined 30 classic drum breaks from the “breakbeat canon,” focusing primarily on sixteenth-note swing (a systematic delay of even-numbered sixteenth-note divisions of the pulse). Such swing was common among the examined drum breaks, though the magnitude of swing was often fairly subtle (median swing ratio = 1.2:1). In contrast to some findings regarding jazz drumming, the magnitude of swing was uncorrelated with tempo, though the ranges of both variables were somewhat constrained. Backbeat delay (a systematic delay of snare drum at even-numbered beats) was found to be frequently present at beat 2, but not at beat 4. Additionally, this study introduces a quantity called “swing density,” defined as the proportion of even-numbered divisions (at the swing level) that contain events. The importance of this quantity to the perceptual effect of swing is discussed.

Swing refers to a characteristic long-short subdivision of the beat that is generally considered a crucial aspect that contributes to the quality of a jazz or pop performance. The current study measures this pattern (referred to as the 'swing ratio') at different tempi in jazz drumming. The experimental setup differs from earlier studies in a number of ways. First, swing ratios were systematically measured at different beat durations in a musically realistic range. Second, repeated performances were collected to check for consistency. Third, drummers were asked to perform on a full MIDI drum kit. The results show that professional jazz drummers have enormous control over their timing. Nevertheless, the swing ratio is not kept constant, but it is systematically adapted to a global tempo. As such, this study provides further support for the hypothesis that expressive timing generally does not scale with tempo.

The timing in jazz ensemble performances was investigated in order to approach the question of what makes the music "swing." One well-known aspect of swing is that consecutive eighth notes are performed as long-short patterns. The exact duration ratio (the swing ratio) of the long-short pattern has been largely unknown. In this study, the swing ratio produced by drummers on the ride cymbal was measured. Three well-known jazz recordings and a play-along record were used. A substantial and gradual variation of the drummers' swing ratio with respect to tempo was observed. At slow tempi, the swing ratio was as high as 3.5:1, whereas at fast tempi it reached 1:1. The often-mentioned "triple-feel," that is, a ratio of 2:1, was present only at a certain tempo. The absolute duration of the short note in the long-short pattern was constant at about 100 ms for medium to fast tempi, suggesting a practical limit on tone duration that may be due to perceptual factors. Another aspect of swing is the soloist's timing in relation to the accompaniment. For example, a soloist can be characterized as playing "behind the beat." In the second part, the swing ratio of the soloist and its relation to the cymbal accompaniment was measured from the same recordings. In slow tempi, the soloists were mostly playing their downbeats after the cymbal but were synchronized with the cymbal at the off-beats. This implied that the swing ratio of the soloist was considerably smaller than the cymbal accompaniment in slow tempi. It may give an impression of "playing behind" but at the same time keep the synchrony with the accompaniment at the off-beat positions. Finally, the possibilities of using computer tools in jazz pedagogy are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to (a) objectively measure and analyze performance deviations from mechanical regularity for three jazz pianists via MIDI-based "groove quantize" procedures and (b) measure how experts rate musical examples incorporating these deviations as being representative of the swing style. The "groove quantize" software procedure was used to measure performance deviations from mechanical regularity for (a) note placements (timings), (b) note durations (articulations), and (c) note velocities (dynamics) contained in 281 measures from 33 performances by three professional jazz pianists. Differences among the performers and for relationships between the performance variables and tempi were measured. Performance models or "grooves" were developed representative of each performer's style and a general swing style. For comparison, "mechanical" models were constructed on the basis of mathematical ratios. Forty-two judges rated the "swing representativeness" of an unaltered melody from each pianist and seven variations of each, four based on the derived performance models and three based on the mechanical model. Analysis revealed that four derived performance model variations were rated significantly more representative of the swing style than were the mechanical variations. Swing ratings did not differ significantly between an unaltered melody and variations based on individual performance models for two of the performers, suggesting that they were representative grooves.

For years musicians and critics have made statements about the nature of swing in jazz in general and the playing of Louis Armstrong in particular, based on the evidence of their ears. In order to quantify these issues, precise timing analyses of two mid-tempo solos by Louis Armstrong were analyzed, focusing in particular on stop-time sections. Two key elements of swing were analyzed; placement of the downbeats, and the swing or triplet ratio. For these solos, Armstrong played fairly close to on the beat, with a swing ratio of about 1.6 to 1.

A POPULAR THEORY HOLDS THAT "SWING" STEMS specifically from asynchronous timing between bass and drums in their shared articulation of the beat, a phenomenon Charles Keil has dubbed "participatory discrepancies" (PDs; Keil, 1987). The "push and pull" between these instruments purportedly generates a "productive tension" thought to drive the groove with energy. This paper presents the results of two experiments on the perception of PDs. Experiment 1 employed synthetic recordings of a conventional swing groove in which the onset asynchronies between bass and drums were varied. Participants used three listening strategies to perceive the asynchrony and its purported effects. Experiment 2 employed recordings of professional jazz musicians and tested for the effects of learning in the perception of PDs. Little evidence emerged from either experiment in support of the PD framework. An alternative proposal drawn from metric entrainment theory explains the effects of PDs as more limited and local than previously thought.

T he present study tested two assumptions concerning the auditory processing of microtiming in musical grooves (i.e., repeating, movement-inducing rhythmic patterns): 1) Microtiming challenges the listener's internal framework of timing regularities, or meter, and demands cognitive effort. 2) Microtiming promotes a “groove” experience—a pleasant sense of wanting to move along with the music. Using professional jazz musicians and nonmusicians as participants, we hypothesized that microtiming asynchronies between bass and drums (varying from −80 to 80 ms) were related to a) an increase in “mental effort” (as indexed by pupillometry), and b) a decrease in the quality of sensorimotor synchronization (as indexed by reduced finger tapping stability). We found bass/drums-microtiming asynchronies to be positively related to pupil dilation and negatively related to tapping stability. In contrast, we found that steady timekeeping (presence of eighth note hi-hat in the grooves) decreased pupil size and increased tapping performance, though there were no conclusive differences in pupil response between musicians and nonmusicians. However, jazz musicians consistently tapped with higher stability than nonmusicians, reflecting an effect of rhythmic expertise. Except for the condition most closely resembling real music, participants preferred the on-the-grid grooves to displacements in microtiming and bass-succeeding-drums-conditions were preferred over the reverse.

I n a study of tempo perception , L ondon , Burger, Thompson, and Toiviainen (2016) presented participants with digitally ‘‘tempo-shifted’’ R&B songs (i.e., sped up or slowed down without otherwise altering their pitch or timbre). They found that while participants’ relative tempo judgments of original versus altered versions were correct, they no longer corresponded to the beat rate of each stimulus. Here we report on three experiments that further probe the relation(s) between beat rate, tempo-shifting, beat salience, melodic structure, and perceived tempo. Experiment 1 is a replication of London et al. (2016) using the original stimuli. Experiment 2 replaces the Motown stimuli with disco music, which has higher beat salience. Experiment 3 uses looped drum patterns, eliminating pitch and other cues from the stimuli and maximizing beat salience. The effect of London et al. (2016) was replicated in Experiment 1 , present to a lesser degree in Experiment 2 , and absent in Experiment 3 . Experiments 2 and 3 also found that participants were able to make tempo judgments in accordance with BPM rates for stimuli that were not tempo-shifted. The roles of beat salience, melodic structure, and memory for tempo are discussed, and the TAE as an example of perceptual sharpening is considered.

S killed ensemble musicians coordinate with high precision, even when improvising or interpreting loosely defined notation. Successful coordination is supported primarily through shared attention to the musical output; however, musicians also interact visually, particularly when the musical timing is irregular. This study investigated the performance conditions that encourage visual signaling and interaction between ensemble members. Piano and clarinet duos rehearsed a new piece as their body motion was recorded. Analyses of head movement showed that performers communicated gesturally following held notes. Gesture patterns became more consistent as duos rehearsed, though consistency dropped again during a final performance given under no-visual-contact conditions. Movements were smoother and interperformer coordination was stronger during irregularly timed passages than elsewhere in the piece, suggesting heightened visual interaction. Performers moved more after rehearsing than before, and more when they could see each other than when visual contact was occluded. Periods of temporal instability and increased familiarity with the music and co-performer seem to encourage visual interaction, while specific communicative gestures are integrated into performance routines through rehearsal. We propose that visual interaction may support successful ensemble performance by affirming coordination throughout periods of temporal instability and serving as a social motivator to promote creative risk-taking.

notes inégales is a common practice in the performance of French baroque music. It indicates that the first of a pair of equally notated notes is played longer, similar to the use of swing eighths in jazz. The performance of that inequality is an ongoing source of debate, but the actual performance has not been studied yet. In an experiment, eight harpsichordists and eight baroque violinists performed six melodies of French baroque gavottes in three tempo conditions. The mean ratio of inequality was 1.63, with mean ratios of individual performers varying between 1.89 and 1.33. Another significant source of variance was the metric structure, with larger inequality found at metrically important points. Tempo also had an important influence, but individual interpretation varied greatly. For example, while most performers played more evenly while tempo increased, some performers chose the opposite strategy. Pitch interval had only a minor impact on the execution of the notes inégales, but also showed differences between performers. The results show the importance of personal style in music performance: although the music played is highly standardized, we show how the timing of different performers can be influenced by different aspects of the musical structure.

W hile syncopation generally refers to any conflict between surface accents and underlying meter, in rock and other recent popular styles it takes a more specific form in which accented notes occur just before strong beats. Such “anticipatory” syncopations suggest that there is an underlying cognitive representation in which the accented notes and strong beats align. Syllabic stress is crucial to the identification of such syncopations; to facilitate this, we present a corpus of rock melodies annotated with lyrics and syllabic stress values. We propose a new measure of syncopation that incorporates syllabic stress; we also propose a measure of anticipatory syncopation, and show that it reveals a strong presence of this type of syncopation in rock music. We then use these measures to explore other aspects of syncopation in rock, including its occurrence in different parts of the 4/4 measure, its dependence on tempo, its historical evolution, and its aesthetic functions.

T he normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) is a measure originally used to compare the rhythms of languages. Patel and Daniele (2003a) introduced the nPVI to music research and it has since been used in a number of studies. In this paper, I present a methodological criticism of the nPVI as applied to music. I discuss the known qualitative features of the nPVI and illustrate the nPVI's fundamental features and assumptions through its application to a number of musical datasets. My principle criticism regards the application of a linear average (the nPVI) to categorical data (rhythmic notation). I argue that that simpler mathematical characterizations, which are more musically intuitive, can capture the same useful information as the nPVI. Specifically, counting the proportion of successive IOIs that are identical accounts for as much as 98% of variation in nPVIs in musical corpora. I argue that abstract mathematical measures ought to be avoided in preference for more concrete empirical descriptions of specific rhythmic features, and that, rather than focusing on a single measure, multiple measures ought to be used. Finally, I conclude that the usage of nPVI in music research should be limited to specific methodologically justified contexts.

W hat are the factors that determine how long a person chooses to listen to an unfamiliar piece of music? We examined this question across three experiments in which we played participants novel repeating multi-instrument stimuli and recorded their listening times and reasons for their decisions to either continue or stop listening. To influence the habituating effects of repeating musical material drawn from a large stimulus library (> 450 items), we manipulated novelty along several musical dimensions. In Experiment 1, all instruments entered simultaneously. In Experiment 2, instrument entrances were also offset in time. In Experiment 3, we composed core multi-instrument loops and manipulated them to further minimize harmonic variability, minimize rhythmic variability, introduce spatialization, or change timbral characteristics. Novelty introduced by instrument entrances was the strongest determinant of listening times, though harmonic variability and timbral features were also important. Subjective enjoyment was the best predictor of listening times, mediating the effects of the degree of perceived groove in a stimulus, the urge to move, interest in a stimulus, perceived complexity, and congruency with current mood. We conclude that naturalistic looping musical stimuli serve well to examine the diverse psychological and musical determinants of choice behavior underlying music consumption.

I t has long been assumed that rhythm cognition builds on perceptual categories tied to prototypes defined by small-integer ratios, such as 1:1 and 2:1. This study aims to evaluate the relative contributions of both generic constraints and selected cultural particularities in shaping rhythmic prototypes. We experimentally tested musicians’ synchronization (finger tapping) with simple periodic rhythms at two different tempi with participants in Mali, Bulgaria, and Germany. We found support both for the classic assumption that 1:1 and 2:1 prototypes are widespread across cultures and for culture-dependent prototypes characterized by more complex ratios such as 3:2 and 4:3. Our findings suggest that music-cultural environments specify links between music performance patterns and perceptual prototypes.

Death Metal music with violent themes is characterized by vocalizations with unnaturally low fundamental frequencies and high levels of distortion and roughness. These attributes decrease the signal to noise ratio, rendering linguistic content difficult to understand and leaving the impression of growling, screaming, or other non-linguistic vocalizations associated with aggression and fear. Here, we compared the ability of fans and non-fans of Death Metal to accurately perceive sung words extracted from Death Metal music. We also examined whether music training confers an additional benefit to intelligibility. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design (fans/non-fans, musicians/nonmusicians), four groups of participants ( n = 16 per group) were presented with 24 sung words (one per trial), extracted from the popular American Death Metal band Cannibal Corpse . On each trial, participants completed a four-alternative forced-choice word recognition task. Intelligibility (word recognition accuracy) was above chance for all groups and was significantly enhanced for fans (65.88%) relative to non-fans (51.04%). In the fan group, intelligibility between musicians and nonmusicians was statistically similar. In the non-fan group, intelligibility was significantly greater for musicians relative to nonmusicians. Results are discussed in the context of perceptual learning and the benefits of expertise for decoding linguistic information in sub-optimum acoustic conditions.

There is a quality of music that makes people tap their feet, rock their head, and get up and dance. The consistency of this experience among listeners was examined, in terms of differences in ratings across 64 music examples taken from commercially available recordings. Results show that ratings of groove, operationally defined as “wanting to move some part of the body in relation to some aspect of the sound pattern,” exhibited considerable interindividual consistency. Covariance patterns among the 14 rated words indicated four prominent factors, which could be labeled regular-irregular, groove, having swing, and flowing. Considering the wide range of music examples used, these factors are interpreted as reflecting psychological dimensions independent of musical genre and style.

We measured the postural sway of two trombonists as they each recorded multiple performances of two solo pieces in each of three different expressive styles (normal, expressive, non-expressive). We then measured the postural sway of 29 non-trombonist listeners as they moved their arms and body, “air-conducting” the recorded sound as if to draw out the emotion from the performance (Experiment 1), and of the two trombonists as they played along with the same recorded performances (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the velocity of listeners’ postural sway was more like that of the performer than expected by chance. Listeners entrained more to back-and-forth than to side-to-side sway in Experiment 1 and only to back-and-forth sway in Experiment 2. Entrainment was not due entirely to performer and listener both swaying to the musical pulse in the same way. Listeners in Experiment 1 rated performances as more expressive when they entrained more, suggesting that entrainment enhanced their aesthetic experience of the music. The whole body appears to contribute to unpacking the expressive content of musical communication.

Music functions, at least in part, to convey certain structures to the listener via a surface of notes. For communication to occur successfully, the structures must be recoverable from the surface. I argue that this consideration has been an important factor in the shaping of musical styles, and sheds light on a number of phenomena: the greater degree of syncopation and lower degree of rubato in traditional African music and rock versus common-practice music; the extensive use of rubato in pieces with consistent repeated patterns (e.g., much Romantic piano music); the rise of swing tempo and the higher degree of syncopation in jazz as opposed to ragtime; and the greater variety of chord-tones and lower tolerance for chordal inversion in jazz as opposed to common-practice music.

Structure in musical rhythm can be measured using a number of analytical techniques. While some techniques—like circular statistics or grammar induction—rely on strong top-down assumptions, assumption-free techniques can only provide limited insights on higher-order rhythmic structure. I suggest that research in music perception and performance can benefit from systematically adopting phase space plots, a visualization technique originally developed in mathematical physics that overcomes the aforementioned limitations. By jointly plotting adjacent interonset intervals (IOI), the motivic rhythmic structure of musical phrases, if present, is visualized geometrically without making any a priori assumptions concerning isochrony, beat induction, or metrical hierarchies. I provide visual examples and describe how particular features of rhythmic patterns correspond to geometrical shapes in phase space plots. I argue that research on music perception and systematic musicology stands to benefit from this descriptive tool, particularly in comparative analyses of rhythm production. Phase space plots can be employed as an initial assumption-free diagnostic to find higher order structures (i.e., beyond distributional regularities) before proceeding to more specific, theory-driven analyses.