I remember many years ago when I had a great friend who was a sax player. We used to play jazz standards together alot and we were both studying music at the same college. He recorded himself one time practicing along with Abersold probably and I noticed something that I never heard before when playing with him live. His musical phrasing sounded like his speech phrasing patterns. It was really obvious to me when I heard it recorded.
That was probably the beginning of my thinking and interest in the sort of ideas and questions you've raised in this thread Jay.
I know you've raised the question specifically about tempo but I tend to see tempo as included in what I think of as general 'rhythmic personality traits' and how those are translated into an individuals musical expression.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JayFreddy
The easiest explanation is, as you said, people like what they like, and everyone has different tastes. Still, I'm wondering if there might be measurable psycho-acoustical factors involved too. The key is to identify and be able to measure those factors.
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I wasn't meaning to imply that personal preferences don't have psycho-acoustic' factors. I think almost certainly they do. I think those facors are what the preferences are based in. So I'm not so certain that the idea of personal taste or preference is an "easy explanation" because it involves alot of factors that contribute to those preferences some of whcih will be biological I'm certain.
I was just trying to distinguish that the ability to hear pitch, it seems to me, is more a hardwired, unchangeable and physiologically based thing whereas tempo preferences are more flexible and as you point out in your OP the range preference can be extended with practice.
I find the whole area of how psychology and biology and music interface really interesting. I've read "This Is Your Brain On Music" and thought it was pretty interesting but it didn't quite get into the things that interest me the most.