Proof that Rhythm is more important than Pitch

I'm back

[yuvalne]

I think the piece that has the highest rhythm importance to pitch importance is the imperial march

[krieger]

When you played with bad rythm i was like oh, la cucaracha, but when you played the no pitch version i got confused thinking that it might be a different music, had to listen to it a second time.

[augustsanchezdunn]

Of course if we are playing jazz, none of this matters

[doomgirl]

I genuinely just thought it was Megalovania. I was so confused with the right rhythm

[valentinziegler]

I found it rather easy to recognize the piece by pitch. Not sure if I would have been able to recognize the piece by rhythm…

[Etholux]

Two things:
1. You only heard La Cucaracha because your brain was already primed to hear the rhythm in that way. I didn't hear that at all until it was revealed what the song was.

2. It would be more fair to play the completely wrong notes, rather than 1 note; that is, if you wanted to more fairly compare the two.

[ishaboy]

That wasnt bad rhythm, that was completely restructuring the rhythm of the song and doubling the length

[NuclearCaptain]

I had the exact opposite experience in this, as soon as you hit the first few notes I knew what song this was with no rhythm, but with no pitch I was completely lost

[creepinator]

Wow, fascinating concept! But I think this demo was a slightly unfair comparison. When you were testing how it sounded without melody you played it all on the same note, but when you were testing how it sounded with poor rhythm you used intentionally bad rhythm that distracted from the melody.
I think a more fair comparison would have been either playing with all quarter notes for the "wrong rhythm" test or playing random notes with the correct rhythm for the "wrong melody" test.

[PeterBarnes]

Articulation is an important part of rhythm, too. I had a little trouble telling even with the right rhythm. Granted, I'm on hold listening to the grainiest classical music you ever did hear.

[jazonandes]

i could tell it was la cucaracha with bad rhythm but yeah no pitch would be way easier to figure out

[stephenweigel]

Didn’t recognize either of them
A fun psychological fact is that our brain recognizes the contours of melodies based on the rhythm even if the pitches aren’t in the exact right spots. For example, you can play “the star spangled banner” with each of the intervals twice as small and people may still recognize it!!!

[sohandas]

i i sort of figured out it was la cucaracha with just the pitch, and didn't with just the rhythm

[Rude_i_Wredne]

guessing based on pitches was easy, guessing on the rhythm alone would be pretty much impossible... but maybe if you kept the general direction of a melody on the second one, it would be easier.

[evankozak]

I missed your vids so much, so glad you’re back!

[maramazone]

We have missed you, glad to see you back in action!

[stefanomorbidelli]

I love how the second one has sloppy rhythm as well

[SeraphsWitness]

Totally guessed it on the bad rhythm one. The intervals are pretty iconic.

[caesarortega]

I could tell from the pitches what it was and if only shown the rhythm one I wouldn't have likely heard la cucaracha, but I agree that rhythm is more important than pitch because the second one sounded more musical.

[chizhang]

Welcome back to the youtube grindset, keep grinding bro.