strathspey@strathspey.org:11840

Donald F. Robertson

Re: Dancing to pipes - or not!

April 28, 1998, 10:28 a.m. (Message 11840, in reply to message 11659)

Michelle C. Nogales wrote:
> 
> A person who has no
> sense of rhythm might normally walk rhythmically, but if you ask him to
> deliberately walk to a particular rhythm, whether internal or from an
> external source, they won't be able to do it.  

This is a very interesting point, Michelle.  I think that you are
correct.  I also think that a sense of rhythm can be taught.  I did not
have much of a natural sense of rhythm, and so learning to be a
percussionist was a long hard struggle for me.  And, at least in the
classical world, I will never be more than a competant percussionst. 
However, I did persevere to that degree.  (I became a percussionist
because a fourth grade teacher decided -- for reasons that I am sure my
friends will find as hard to understand as I! -- that I might be
hyperactive.  She thought drumming would be a way to use up the excess
energy.)

I'm not even sure there is a "natural sense of rhythm."  Some people
find it easier than others, but I suspect that most people have to learn
it, in the same sense that most people have to learn to match a note, or
intervals, or harmony.  

Finally, I don't see why people should expect it to be any easier for a
dancer to learn to precisely execute complex rhythms than it is for a
musician.  

-- Donald