Keeping time to music?

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Poor rhythm for me. I sometimes do dance classes that involve having one person lead the rest of the class in some movement, and I get so incredibly nervous when I have to do that because my rhythm is "off" which makes it hard for others to follow me.

Above average musical capability for me. I cannot learn instruments in a day like some people here but I would say I learn instruments faster then most. I can easily keep a rhythm or follow the instruments of other people playing.

Last edited by Flagg on 10 Nov 2006, 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can beat in time to music doing one rhythm, but if I try to beat two rhythms it's hopeless. I love conducting along to recordings that I know well though - I can conduct all of the dynamics and pauses etc - it's great fun

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Most informative book (not a cure) I've read about the topic you mention is the How To (understand) book about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild. Wild directly addresses this idea and reports several FDA approved medicines which improved his ability to sustain an even musical beat and to play the piano a little better using both hands (not a cure - but a real, temporary improvement lasting four hours plus).

Words

Gross and fine motor control
Crossing the midline of the body
Left hemisphere
Corpus callosum
Right hemisphere
Cerebellum
Dyspraxia

http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/
http://www.hemihelp.org.uk/

If your dad had this motor control challenge, it's likely it could be hereditary.

I have perfect rhythm and love any kind of music with a good beat. (Or non-music like my dryer when it is a little off balance) But because I'm a little physically awkward, I can't dance or play drums that well. My hands/feet won't do what my brain says to do. (I can't explain it better than that, unfortunately.) So when I'm in a drum circle I either shut my eyes (to reduce visual stimulation) or focus on the floor or something. Learning to recover when I've lost the beat without embarrassment is the goal right now. (You know us hippies love a good drum circle...)

As long as I don't try too hard, I have a pretty good sense of rhythm. Good enough to have been the drummer in a garage band with a couple of friends a few summers ago, anyway.

I'm pretty decent and can play basic drums, but put me by myself keeping a 4/4 beat with my hands/feet, and I'll lose tempo pretty quickly. Either too quickly or too slowly.

I'm more inclined towards melody than rhythm.

I used to kind of suck at it when I was little, I couldn't turn on a beat on the organ and play along with it at the same time. 20 something years later, I'm much better at it.

3/4, 4/4, and 6/4 are no problem (most songs I write tend to be in 6/4 for whatever reason), 9/8 is interesting (Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer), 5/4 is always fun, and sometimes I even like to play around in 7/8...can't quite get the hang of 7/4 though.

I love messing around with odd time sigs, but I haven't really in a while...sometimes I like to mix different ones together, like TOOL does.

My friend had me try that once, but there was a lag that I didn't want to bother trying to adjust to. I hate it when rhythm games have lag

I have a very good sense of rhythm. I don't like to dance because it's awkward, but I can keep time fairly well.

Yeah, me too. If I leave to take the trash out or something while I'm listening to music, I'm on the exact note/lyric that's playing when I return. I can also playback songs I've heard a bunch from start to finish in my head with perfect tempo. I have multiple recording of some songs (like studio vs acoustic) and can selectively pick witch one I playback in my head.