Ongoing History Daily: The problem with perfect rhythm

You’ve probably heard about people who have perfect pitch.  This means they have an innate, instinctive ability to recognize and re-create any given musical note without any help. They hear a note and can immediately say “That’s D#” or whatever. People have been studying perfect pitch for centuries. What’s less understood is perfect rhythm.

Scientists have been looking at people who can keep a steady beat. They’ve found drummers who can keep a rhythm going within a tolerance of ten milliseconds.  But they’ve also discovered a downside. Just like people with perfect pitch can be annoyed by notes that are slightly off–like, say, a car horn–those with perfect rhythm are distracted by rhythms in everyday life that just aren’t quite right.