Syncopation creates the sensation of groove in synthesized music examples.

George Sioros,Matthew Davies,Fabien Gouyon,Guy Madison,Marius Miron

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01036

Abstract

In order to better understand the musical properties which elicit an increased sensation of wanting to move when listening to music—groove—we investigate the effect of adding syncopation to simple piano melodies, under the hypothesis that syncopation is correlated to groove. Across two experiments we examine listeners' experience of groove to synthesized musical stimuli covering a range of syncopation levels and densities of musical events, according to formal rules implemented by a computer algorithm that shifts musical events from strong to weak metrical positions. Results indicate that moderate levels of syncopation lead to significantly higher groove ratings than melodies without any syncopation or with maximum possible syncopation. A comparison between the various transformations and the way they were rated shows that there is no simple relation between syncopation magnitude and groove.

Highlights

Certain types of music induce the desire in humans to tap their feet, move their body, and dance
We focus on syncopation as the physical property of the music signal that can drive the perception of groove
The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of syncopation on the perception of groove independently of other expressive features of music performances

Summary

Introduction

Certain types of music induce the desire in humans to tap their feet, move their body, and dance. This feeling is commonly known as “groove” and has a strong affective component, as well as a strong correlation with music appreciation (Madison, 2006). Madison et al (2011) show that the propensity to move differs substantially from one piece of music to another, but can be linked to certain rhythmical properties of the music signal such as beat salience and the density of events. In contrast and unlike what musicological literature points toward (Keil, 1995), microtiming does not increase groove The latter was confirmed by a systematic analysis conducted by Davies et al (2013) on simple rhythms

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