RhettOracle wrote:
You know, you are attributing too much science and physics to the act of clapping. There is not one human being who has ever contemplated the distance their hands have to be apart to strike at a certain rate. Well, except for you. It has absolutely nothing to do with muscle memory or technique. One can clap their hands to a beat whether their hands are two inches apart or spread apart as far as they can go. It's not about physics, it's about following rhythm. And I fail to understand why you ascribe this ability only to neurotypicals. I can think of no one else who is unable to do this without thinking about it. I am not NT, and I can clap my hands as well as the next person. Really, you are overthinking this to the point of absurdity. It requires no calculation of distance or time. One just follows the music.
By the same (lack of) logic, people should also consider what muscles they have to flex in order to breathe, or walk without falling over. You seem to want to ascribe levels of complexity to this most simple of actions that just do not exist.
You are mistaken in thinking that the OP is the only person who uses muscle memory to calculate rhythmic things. My sense of rhythm and beat is intimately entwined with muscle memory, and I'm a highly trained musician.
Not everyone can hear rhythm in music. Just like tone deafness, the inability to hear pitch distinctions, there is also arrythymia, which in this context is the inability to perceive rhythm. Some people can't "just follow the music".
Of course one can clap their hands no matter how far they are apart, but to bring them back together in the same amount of time requires them to be moved at a different rate of speed. I think that calculating this rate, whether consciously or by muscle memory, is a perfectly good way of compensating for not being able to hear the beat of music.
_________________
Music Theory 101: Cadences.
Authentic cadence: V-I
Plagal cadence: IV-I
Deceptive cadence: V- ANYTHING BUT I ! !! !
Beethoven cadence: V-I-V-I-V-V-V-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I
-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I! I! I! I I I
20 Feb 2010, 6:52 am
