Timing (music)

Timing in music refers to the ability to "keep time" accurately and to synchronise to an ensemble, as well as to expressive timing&mdash;subtle adjustment of note or beat duration, or of tempo, for aesthetic effect.

Research in music cognition has shown that time as a subjective structuring of events in music, differs from the concept of time in physics. Listeners to music do not perceive rhythm on a continuous scale, but recognise rhythmic categories that function as a reference relative to which the deviations in timing can be appreciated. Temporal patterns in music combine two different time scales&mdash;rhythmic durations such as half and quarter notes on the one hand, and on the other, the continuous timing variations that characterize an expressive musical performance.