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Science Quickly

What That Jazz Beat Tells Us about Hearing and The Brain

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Very small delays in swing jazz point to our evolution as a supremely auditory species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.j.p.

0:23.9

That's y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

What can a 35- millisecond moment in swing jazz tell us about our sense of hearing,

0:39.0

capacity for music, and even human consciousness?

0:43.3

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in what makes swing jazz swing.

0:47.6

It's a phenomenon that's so fleeting, even professional musicians can't point to it,

0:52.1

but we can feel it.

0:53.8

The results appear in

0:55.2

communications physics. I'm Joseph Palladuro, and you're listening to Science Quickly.

1:03.1

Swing is a subgenre of jazz, but the word swing also refers to a distinctive rhythm that

1:09.3

long outlasted the swing era, and to be heard in music from Chuck Berry and the Beatles to rage against the machine and the electronic project anomaly.

1:17.6

Here's a straightforward unswinging rhythm.

1:25.6

And here's a swing rhythm.

1:33.1

Swing rebelled against a straight 50-50 meter with a prolonged first beat or downbeat and a shortened second beat or offbeat.

1:46.5

This swing ratio can range from light, about 55%, to hard, around 72%.

1:53.4

In terms of feel, swing grooves.

1:57.2

It makes you want to move your body.

2:00.0

You'd think that swing ratio would be all there is to swing, but it's not.

...

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