Rhythm is in the eye of the beholder
The visual experience also determines whether we are physically stimulated by a rhythm. This has been proven by a British research team.
The team led by music psychologist Daniel Lloyd Eaves from Teesside University in the UK tested how test subjects are physically stimulated to tap or groove along when they watch a drummer. To do this, they either synchronized or shifted visual and acoustic experiences to the test subjects.
This showed that the visual experience plays a role in determining whether we are physically stimulated by a rhythm. According to the team, their findings support the importance of multimodal sensory experiences for the holistic experience of music.
Original article:
Daniel Lloyd Eaves, Noola Griffiths, Emily Burridge, Thomas McBain, Natalie Butcher, Seeing a drummer's performance modulates the subjective experience of groove while listening to popular music drum patterns, Musicae Scientiae, First Published February 1, 2019,
https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864919825776
Linked photo credits: Günter Havlena / pixelio.de
