How to improve your rhythm

Drastically improve your timing and rhythmic feel by tapping into your natural ability to speak language, all without the aid of a metronome. Science is on your side!

CLICKBAITY MISMATCH NEGATIVITY STUDY

SNOWBALL THE COCKATOO STUDY

Original study on beat deafness

Follow up study

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Peace,
Adam

[martinkrauser]

this is a scam, the guy that adam is talking to is just adam in black and white but standing in another spot!

[sengroagers]

My band director says that he had a freshman student (percussionist) with absolutely terrible rhythm. Even entrances on upbeats were tricky for them. But the next year, they came back to band with much greater ability, along with an amazing sense of rhythm. When my director asked the kid how they were able to improve so much, the kid said, "Well, it became a lot easier when I tried counting to 4 while I played."

[legoblox]

> By counting while you play

All wind instruments just died a little inside

[PlayTheMind]

Adam: "Were you *rushing* or were you *dragging*?"
Also Adam: "I-I don't know."
<loud slap>

[jjajaz]

My drum/percussion teacher had this thing where he'd think of a weird phrase (i.e. "the maths department stole my mug, oh what a shame") and then come up with a fairly complex rhythm which fit with the words. It's incredible how much easier it made learning long rhythmic parts

[JonI-vcmm]

TFW you play a wind instrument so you can't count out loud and play at the same time

[Corvid]

When I was training as a paramedic my instructors were always confused as to how I managed to maintain such a relentlessly precise rhythm of 110/minute chest compressions... even under the stress of real resuscitation. I never got on with the tempo of "Staying Alive"... I used the morbidly appropriately titled Rammstein song Ich Tu Dir Weh (literally translated as "I hurt you"), the first song I ever mastered playing as a brand new guitarist by sheer brute force. Very fitting, given that textbook CPR fractures the ribs from the sternum almost immediately, resulting in an extremely painful recovery for the tiny percentage of cardiac arrest patients who regain some form of consciousness. Three people survived to hospital discharge during my 4 year career, with me literally miming the guitar rhythm in my head... wonderful non musical application for good rhythm!

(From a technical perspective, the heart needs a fairly precise tempo of chest compressions to allow the upper chambers of the heart to passively fill with the maximum amount of blood, for the most efficient artificial circulation of blood. Certainly worked OK for a few lucky people :D Ich tu dir Tut mich nicht leid!) Perhaps it was more the aggressive resucsitation... I hated the "Nah mate, don't bother trying too hard, no one survives cardiac arrest" mentality of some oldshool paras. Fuck that. 50 year old heart attack? I don't care how many thousand pounds the air ambulance costs to turn out... the words "What the fuck happened... why does my chest hurt" are worth every second, and every hour of hard guitar practice :D

[tobiasobsen]

using your a pic of yours to picture "humans" may be the most basic, yet best joke I have ever witnessed in such subtleness

[matthewsheehan]

The papyrus font for the "meditation" was hysterical. I love all your little humorous nuances, Easter eggs and inside jokes. Its really great when coming back and rewatching videos I notice things I haven't in the past. Your internet speak is on point

[rajin]

The notes Galileo sung were the lick right?

[WritingOnGames]

This is quickly becoming my favourite channel. Reignited a love of theory in me and has actually got me *studying* my craft again. So yeah, thanks!

[Charlyfromthenuclearcity]

"Who knew practice was actually work ?! Oh my gooood."

[OscarBedford]

Hi Adam! Great clip, as usual! I just wanted to touch upon Patel’s ‘vocal learning’ theory, which you reference around minute 4:00. This is a highly enticing theory which has its roots in the field of music cognition, particularly in the realm of beat processing. Yet, as with every theory, it must be taken with a pinch of salt. As you aptly point out in the video, the theory revolves around the ability to vocalize complex sounds, which is shared by a select number of animal species, including humans. In essence, Patel focuses on the fact that all animals capable of entraining their body movements to an external rhythmic source also seem to be capable of learning and reproducing complex vocal patterns from their peers, and to use these patterns in a communicative and adaptive way. This convergence would seem to point to a causal, perhaps even evolutionary, link between these two seemingly disparate abilities.

However, in a more recent paper by Pattel himself (2014), the author cautions the reader by explaining that the ability to synchronize to a beat has also been verified in sea lions, which are animals that do not happen to express complex vocalizations, nor vocal learning. This does not necessarily mean, however, that the theory is irrevocably flawed or incorrect. In fact, Patel goes on to explain that, although sea lions do not exhibit vocal learning characteristics, the other members of the sea lion’s evolutionary lineage (namely seals) do express this ability. Thus, it is possible that sea lions inherited the brain structures needed for vocal learning and beat processing but only expressed the latter, due to particular evolutionary constraints affecting this species alone. If this turned out to be true, the ‘vocal learning’ theory would remain intact.

A radically different but plausible explanation would be that these two abilities are typically expressed concomitantly, but are in fact functionally and evolutionarily independent from each other, which would explain why sea lions exhibit one but not the other. If this second explanation turned out to be true, the ‘vocal learning’ theory would be in jeopardy. In any case, we will never know for certain unless we peek into the sea lion’s brain and ultimately compare it to the brain of other vocalizers (and beat tappers!). For now we can neither prove nor disprove Patel’s theory and, thus, must wait for more evidence to come our way.

I hope you found this information interesting! Here’s a link to Aniruddh D. Patel’s 2014 paper, titled 'The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?':

[paurullan]

The timing of this video is impeccable! I have been focusing on my piano rhythm and have become so frustrated I was going to ask this for a Q&A. Thank you!

[SuperDaveOkie]

As a vocalist, I can tell you that the great conductor Robert Shaw required all of his choirs to learn their pieces through "Count Singing." Under his method, the words to every song is the subdivided beats "One-ee-and-uh two-ee-and-uh" and so forth. "Three" is pronounced "Tee, " "Four is "Fo, " "Five" is "Fie" and "Six" is "Sic." He pointed out that you could use the same method to zoom in and subdivide subdivisions if that level of precision is necessary. As an example, a symphonic choir may be performing the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth in eight weeks of rehearsal. Robert Shaw would ban words for the first five weeks of the rehearsal process, forcing the choir to learn the musical language for its own sake before adding the actual language of lyrics. Only when there was three weeks to go in the rehearsal process did he give the choir precisely one phoneme at a time, which was filled in at the specific spot formerly occupied by the subdivision name. By substituting this way, each singer knows down to the 16th note where to place an ending consonant. It's revolutionized the way I learn sheet music as a singer.

[pontuserickson]

Notification from Adam Neely: the day is saved

[awall]

Holy crap! I have been playing guitar for 8 years now and singing for longer. And for almost all of that time I have struggled with rhythm. Tons of people have told me to count before, but I always over think it and try to MAKE my counting rhythmic, causing my counting to be off. But, the way you explained how we naturally count in rhythm, made a lightbulb go off. I just picked up my guitar and started counting how I would naturally, and I have never been more in rhythm in my life. THANK YOU!

[SonicXRage]

6:50 Friends and relatives wonder why I never dance at parties even when they so kindly insist. Little do they know, I'm actually protecting them from myself.

[IferMasterofFire]

And now I'm practising counting unmetronomically, just because I can.

[maxbasilone]

Now I'm not a cognitive scientist or a music teacher. I actually study language and play music and I'm doing research on aesthetics and neuroscience. It's great when findings like the ones you shared can be such eye openers for different disciplines. This was really helpful, Adam. Thanks so much. My brother and I really enjoy your videos.