Dr. Jennifer Groh

It doesn't make any sense.

Imagine a familiar tune like Happy Birthday, but the duration of the notes was completely arbitrary.

It would sound crazy.

It would sound crazy.

It would not be recognizable to us as happy birthday.

But you can play it fast.

You can play it slow.

You can play it, you know, pitch shifted up or pitch shifted down, musical terms in a different key.

And we would recognize that as like a particular, you know, song.

So that's what I mean about rhythm being really critical here.

And the criticality of rhythm offers up the following kind of wild theory.

This is not my theory.

I wish I could quote whose ever theory it is.

But it is that perhaps what rhythm, what music and rhythm is for is to help us act in concert with one another.

and be louder than any of us could be by ourselves and to scare off predators and competitors.

So, for example, imagine a pack of hyenas are surrounding a kill from, you know, a lion.

The lion is long since sated and has gone away.

But now a bunch of scrawny humans want to scare off the hyenas.

If they go after the hyenas all stomping their feet together and shouting together, it's going to be a lot louder than any one person could do by themselves.

It's kind of nice, right?