Research shows the more you know the more you hear.
Musical groove is a feeling of excitement and movement that you get when you listen to music. A group of researchers recently studied that feeling and what might make people think a song is more or less groovy.
It turns out that people with more musical and dance experience are better at perceiving and responding to the rhythmic and temporal features of music that contribute to groove. This is because musical training enhances the neural networks involved in auditory-motor integration, which is essential for groove perception. These people also generally think that music is more groovy than people with less specific training.
So, if you want to be able to appreciate all the groove in the music, it’s a good idea to get involved in music and dance activities. Our belief in the benefits of grooving inspire us to share GROOVE SESSIONS® for free in our Facebook group.
Here is an activity that you can do to help you understand musical groove:
Find a song that you think has a lot of groove. Maybe try ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
Listen to the song and try to identify a section of the lyric that has a catchy rhythmic pattern. How does it contribute to the groove? Do instruments play similar memorable rhythmic patterns in the accompaniment?
Once you’ve identified the groove features, try to move your body to the music.
Final Thoughts
Every time I bring a new group of folks into GROOVE SESSIONS®, someone invariably says they thought they would be the one with absolutely no sense of rhythm. Because we use the groovy lyrics in the songs to join in and play along, I’ve seen everyone able to move or be moved to groove.
So get your groove on!
O’Connell, S. R., Nave-Blodgett, J. E., Wilson, G. E., Hannon, E. E., & Snyder, J. S. (2022). Elements of musical and dance sophistication predict musical groove perception. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998321
To learn more about GROOVE THERAPY™ as a model for better mental wellness click here.
