Many times when I go out with a group of my friends there is always that one friend that feels embarrassed because they can’t dance. So they sit on the side and look at everyone else having a great time. But science says that it’s not your fault you don’t have rhythm.
Studies show that people can actually be “beat deaf” where they are incapable of dancing to the rhyme of a song. Seems crazy to me how such thing actually, but then I think about how many people are tone deaf( unable to perceive differences of musical pitch accurately) and it essentially is the same thing.
McGill University and University of Montreal went into deeper research and created an experiment to test if people are actually beat deaf. They took potential beat deaf candidates and 32 controlled participants and told them just to tap their feet to no music just to make sure there was no motor deficits. After that task the music came on and they were still to continue to tap their feet,the candidates could not complete this task. Beat deafness is in fact a disorder that affects the body’s internal rhyme with the external cues, making it very difficult to walk at the same speed as someone or follow simple dance moves. “While most people can adapt their rhythms in response to an external cue, some people are less able to do that”, said Caroline Palmer, psychologist.
This experiment seem weak to me because they only picked 2 potential beat deaf participants and 32 controlled participants making the ratio uneven. By adding more potential beat deaf participants the studies might have been different. Just because someone doesn’t have rhythm isn’t necessarily because they are beat deaf.
Other studies show a correlation between a child’s ability to access a musical rhythm with exceeding in va
rious grammar exercises. In many cases a child that succeeded in one always succeeded in another. Many parents can be able to tell at a early stage whether their child will suffer from beat deaf.
To lighten the situation for people who feel that they don’t have any rhythm knowing that their is a scientific explanation should make you feel better.
Your comparison of being “beat deaf” is similar to being tone deaf is quite interesting. When I first started reading your article I thought that being “beat deaf” was due to already being tone deaf. Those who are tone deaf obviously cannot dance to a tone they cannot hear. As a person who also suffers from poor hand to eye coordination, I to can empathize with those who cannot dance. However, I believe that much more people can’t dance simply because they are too afraid of being judged by peers. They never tried dancing in public therefor when they do dance they seem awkward and inexperienced. Just a hypothesis to put out there. I was wondering, in the experiment they conducted, did they ask the participants if they like to dance, whether they dance regularly, or anything of that nature? It appears that being “beat deaf” isn’t a physical debilitation because the subject had no motor deficits. So is it a mental issue or a physical issue. I would think that it would more likely be a physical issue because I always imagine myself dancing in my mind but when I tell my arms to move, they flail. Anyways great article and I hope you can find more research on this topic.
I found this blog very interesting. I am someone who loves to dance, but is terrible at it. I never thought that their is an actually reasoning as why people are bad at dancing. But, now it makes sense. It is the same thing as not being able to sing. People who can’t sing are considered to be tone deaf. So it makes sense for people who can’t dance to be beat deaf. An interesting experiment that could be done is to see if being tone deaf or beat deaf is genetic. That would explain a lot because nobody in my family can sing or dance and neither can I. Here is a quiz for everyone to see if they are good dancers or not!!!
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=NjA2MTQx
I wonder if being beat deaf ultimately effects how how those people like music. The physicality of the sound is a huge part of the appeal for genres like electro, pop, hip-hop and other bass-heavy genres. They probably like folk music or rock, genres you wouldn’t typically dance to.
I enjoyed reading your article and have nothing to point out. From the title one can clearly make out what the whole article is going to be about, and then the light intro giving more details just hit the spot. Then came the study backed statements to help enforce your initial statements. I loved the fact how you even pointed out the flaw in the study you used to support your argument by pointing out the bad ratio of control and beat deaf people. The fact that you could end while supporting your initial aim of informing people that it may not be their fault that they were bad at dancing, was perfect. Your article may not be long, but it seemed complete and made me read till the end. Thank you for the great read 🙂
I can completely relate to your blog; even though I LOVE to dance and I do it in public even when I know I’m embarrassing myself, I have realized since I was young that I have zero sense of rhythm. I can remember every word to a song, but cannot clap along to the beat, while my dad can clap perfectly to the beat but cannot ever remember the lyrics to a song. We make the perfect duo. I find it intruiging when I see someone who is able to dance well, because the majority of people cannot, so embrace your inner self and dance away on the dance floor. It is important to remember that nobody is paying attention to your dancing skills; everyone is concentrated on their own things. Have fun and dance away!
Let out your inner happiness!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un9VHorlVQY
At first when reading your blog, I was completely expecting something else. The absolute last thing I had expected to hear was that there are legitimate disorders in which beat and rhythm troubles come into play in the setting of music. After reading the experiment, I agreed with what you mentioned in that the sample size couldve been bigger. I think they should have used more people who have this disorder in proving their claims rather than just two like as you said. Overall, really interesting post! Definitely learned a lot about rhythm and those who have trouble finding it!