What happens between people when they play music together.
Bluegrass, folk and Americana. All instruments, all levels, all fun. Bring something to play, or just come and listen.
An hour on the science of being in sync: why music moves us, what happens in a group when a jam really locks in, and what that has to do with how people cooperate. Demonstrations included.
We are researchers from Arizona State University and the Cooperative Futures Institute, and we are studying what happens in people's bodies when they make music together. If that sounds fun, you can be part of it.
Completely voluntary, and you can stop at any point. We are looking at rhythm, heart rate and how a group settles into a groove together, not at how good anybody is. Ask us anything before you decide. If you would rather just watch the sensors do their thing, that is welcome too.
When a jam clicks, do the players' hearts and breathing start to line up as well as their timing?
Musicians often say a session leaves them different somehow. We want to know what that is, and whether it shows up in our bodies and brains.
Why do some circles fall apart while others pull people in and keep them there for hours?
Making music together may be one of the oldest tools our species has for building cooperation. A bluegrass festival, where strangers form a circle and are playing as one within minutes, is about the best place on earth to study it.
Athena Aktipis and Mike McBeath, both ASU professors and both musicians, ran a romp through the science of music: ancient instruments and Pythagorean harmonics, how the ear pulls a chord apart, why timbre carries emotion, and what happens when improvisers land an ending together. Mike leads SAMBA, ASU's Science of Art, Music and Brain Activity group, and plays harmonica in Bluegreen Zephyr.
This year the workshops come back, and the research starts for real. The Cooperative Futures Institute at ASU is bringing equipment to the festival to record what actually happens between musicians while they play, here in the place where the music is really being made, rather than in a laboratory.