Music on the timing grid: The influence of microtiming on the perceived groove quality of a simple drum pattern performance

In general, microtiming is considered to be an important factor for the perceived quality of rhythms. Our experiment analyzed the influence of early or late time shift of both bass drum and snare drum on the perceived musical quality of a short, simple drum pattern in rock style. In a web-based study, music students ( N = 93) listened to a simple drum pattern played on a snare and a bass drum and evaluated the musical quality (in terms of the “groove quality”) of five degrees of microtiming deviations (early and late time shifts of the two instruments by −25 ms, −15 ms, 0 ms, +15 ms, and +25 ms). We found 5 significant results: (a) The highest ratings of perceived drum pattern quality were given for the rhythmically accurate (quantized) version; (b) the increasing deviation in microtiming resulted in lower quality ratings; (c) the evaluation of drum pattern quality showed a characteristic asymmetry of ratings for the two directions of deviations: early time shift was rated more negatively than the comparable late time shift; (d) in general, microtiming deviations on the snare drum were rated worse than comparable deviations on the bass drum; (e) the subjects’ degree of expertise in rock and pop music had no influence on the ratings. We conclude that at least some styles of modern groove-oriented music are characterized by an aesthetics of “exactitude” and a groove effect independent of microtiming deviations. Consequences for the aesthetic appreciation of different styles of music are discussed.