[tuning] Further thoughts on rhythm

Bill Alves suggested that rhythm might be as rapid as the lower fringes of human hearing, around 20 Hz. This raises the question of how fast an instrumentalist can play. Of course, a synthesizer or computer might be programmed to play much faster than any human could. Some instruments can be played faster than others. But whatever the time signature and tempo, the upper limit on rhythm would be no faster than individual notes could be played (or tones sounded). Generally, the perceived rhythm would be slower than this, at one "beat" per measure or less, but just suppose that it could be so fast that every note counted. Perhaps the fastest performers are tap dancers and xylophone players (with the short mallets rebounding rapidly even though most notes would have multiple strikes). But for most wind and string players, the motion of fingers is the limiting factor (disregarding the triple tonguing of a trumpeter). By analogy with typewriting, this would appear to be around 150 net words per minute (after deductions for mistakes). This is slightly above the record held for many years on a manual Dvorak keyboard. Electric typewriters, with the fingers doing less work, have been used to set somewhat higher records. With an average word length of five letters, plus a space between each word, the key stroke rate would be about 900 per minute. That is only 15 per second. So I believe it is safe to conclude that the "frequencies" perceived as rhythm are almost always, if not always, below the range of hearing that could be perceived as tones.

>Bill Alves suggested that rhythm might be as rapid as the lower fringes of
>human hearing, around 20 Hz.

I don't believe I suggested that. In fact, I was arguing against the idea
that modulation at audio rates could be heard as a rhythm.

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^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^
^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^
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