# How Well Can Humans Maintain a Tempo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142 "2012-12-06T01:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/81 "2012-12-09T05:44:45Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcaYhGEzKD8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcaYhGEzKD8) [on 5/8 rhythm] I just now watched this. Wonderful. This surely proves this word of wisdom (I’m pretty sure I saw it, or something like it, here as a signature): “Not everything that is on the Internet is true.” –_Abraham Lincoln_ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/82 "2012-12-09T05:59:17Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > [on 5/8 rhythm] > I just now watched this. Wonderful. > _Abraham Lincoln_ Hah! I missed that, too. Cute. Check out some of his other videos. Love how the Youtube comments miss the satire, for the most part. (And if anyone remembers the _Reality Bites_ soundtrack, there was [this number](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAVbGoR81I) in 5/4 on it.) ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/83 "2012-12-09T10:43:49Z")
The way you musicians talk, it’s amazing we even get any music to happen at all. Seriously, orchestras all just make it look so easy, and to the layman, a conductor just seems like a guy in a fancy coat who forgot to leave his chopsticks at the restaurant. It’s amazing to hear how hard it really can be to play in time! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/84 "2012-12-09T15:11:24Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > The way you musicians talk, it’s amazing we even get any music to happen at all. Seriously, orchestras all just make it look so easy, and to the layman, a conductor just seems like a guy in a fancy coat who forgot to leave his chopsticks at the restaurant. It’s amazing to hear how hard it really can be to play in time! There was actually a fun piece on NPR a week or week and a half ago about conducting, and it had examples of the same song conducted by an amateur and a professional conductor. Ah, I found it. It was on [All Things Considered](http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/11/27/165677915/do-orchestras-really-need-conductors). ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/85 "2012-12-09T21:49:09Z")
This discussion is veering off topic, but I’d like to point out that the majority of work between conductor and orchestra occurs in rehearsal, where the orchestra learns the way the conductor wants to interpret and create his version of the piece, and where the conductor learns what the orchestra can do and wants to do. This collaboration is the magic of music making - not the simplistic “authoritarian” view as discussed in the NPR piece. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/86 "2012-12-10T00:15:51Z")
But if a conductor screws up a meter or tempo change the twisted metal and shattered debris will pile up for miles, no matter how well prepared in rehearsal the correct transition is. ---
**Author:** ![al27052](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/87 "2012-12-10T04:29:36Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > But if a conductor screws up a meter or tempo change the twisted metal and shattered debris will pile up for miles, no matter how well prepared in rehearsal the correct transition is. I think that, if the orchestra is good enough, it rarely matters. i don’t think a bad conductor could keep the Berlin Phil, for instance, from staying more-or-less together. I figure they’d just stop looking at him and simply play. Of course, if they were playing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, that would probably have some rough spots. Still, I think they could do it. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/88 "2012-12-10T17:12:29Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > …(And if anyone remembers the _Reality Bites_ soundtrack, there was [this number](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAVbGoR81I) in 5/4 on it.) Naming pieces or passages in 5/4 is an old past time. I think there’s even a Wiki on it. My contribution: the theme from Mission Impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/89 "2012-12-10T19:08:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hah! I missed that, too. Cute. > > Check out some of his other videos. Love how the Youtube comments miss the satire, for the most part. All I can say is, I sure hope he’s jivin’ us. I’m not quite convinced, though I do think it’s likely. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142/90 "2012-12-10T19:31:35Z")
I don’t have the exact quote in front of me, but Frank Zappa once said he could have Aynsley Dunbar synch to a metronome, take the metronome away for 15 minutes, bring it back, and Mr. Dunbar would still be in perfect synchronization with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-humans-maintain-a-tempo/643142.md?page=4)