interesting atricle about "time"

[John Wentzien]

I thought this was a good "read" about how the brain perceives "time"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...abdishkeeptime

[John Wentzien]

Comments?

[John Wentzien]

Well..this is what I get from it....

Plug your ears "metronome guys"...flame away!


The brain has an "internal-clock" that lets it keep time..

If you get "hooked" on an external source...It is just a "crutch" that actually inhibits your natural sense of "time" division that every Human being is naturally "BORN-WITH".

The groove is NOT locked-in to any "CLOCK" ....except the one that is in you to begin with!

Your job as a musician is to "FEEL" this pulse...not bend over to a machine!!!!

[JtheJazzMan]

I think its pretty valid to say though, for any conscious entity, perception of duration is a subjective phenomena, while for a machine duration is quantifiable. Subjectivity becomes a problem when you have several entities trying to agree on an objective time.

Yes metronomes are crutches, but I dont think anybody said crutches do the walkin'......

[John Wentzien]

I'd go as far to say that "metronomes" actually can Inhibit the developement of applicable ...."good-time"..by using an "external" source..instead of "internal...

[John Wentzien]

Any proof to the contrary?

[251]

Originally Posted by John Wentzien

Any proof to the contrary?

My personal experience says practicing with a metronome improves my sense of musical time. The friends I jam with agree. I hate it when they notice!

Time, of course, is just a convenient way to avoid having everything happen at once. 8-)

[JtheJazzMan]

There are many ways to use metronomes though, are there not?

From personal experience I find that metronomes are helpful for becoming comfortable with metres in 5,7,9,13 etc as it ingrains the duration of the bar in your head.

But I find the metronome less useful, even unhelpful when learning complex rhythms in common metres. eg mixtures of triplets, semiquavers and semiquaver triplets in a bar of 4/4.

If I use a metronome I usually play a phrase with it, then immediately play the phrase again with the metronome off. I can tell when I can feel the pulse, and when I cannot. There is a very solid feeling of rhythmic comfort when you know you can feel it.

But that feeling of comfort is still a subjective thing. Its interesting to record yourself and actually see whether your perception of duration and time is reasonably objective....enough to function well in a band.

[ggunn]

IMO it is far more important to be in synch with your fellow musicians than to be absolutely metronome-like in your timing.

[JohnMCA72]

Originally Posted by ggunn

IMO it is far more important to be in synch with your fellow musicians than to be absolutely metronome-like in your timing.

I'd take that a little farther & say that if everybody's just a hair off sometimes, it sounds like real people playing. Otherwise, it sounds too mechanical.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by John Wentzien

I'd go as far to say that "metronomes" actually can Inhibit the developement of applicable ...."good-time"..by using an "external" source..instead of "internal...

You're missing out/adding in a lot to that article. For starters, those cells were TRAINED TO TELL TIME BY AN EXTERNAL SOURCE They were trained with an electrical pulse- guess the cells like their own metronome Also, the ability of cells to possibly keep time has no bearing on the individual sense of time- one's ability to keep time in a certain manner may be nothing like the ability to keep time in a different person. That's why external sources such as metronomes and clicks are used- to create a unified, unmistakable rhythm to follow.