ABSTRACT

This chapter describes an investigation into a possible link between people's typical movement frequencies and the tempo of the beat of the music. People have a dominant frequency of movement close to 2 Hertz (Hz), the tempo of walking. The data in the chapter suggests that the precision at which synchronization can happen is tempo-dependent, with the most accurate synchronization occurring at around 2 Hz. Children's spontaneous oscillatory arm movements can be thought to be determined by an oscillator in their biomechanical systems. One of the simplest mathematical models of this oscillator is the harmonic oscillator. To conduct an experiment with young children, an ecological setting is required: appropriate music, musical instruments, and environment are needed. Therefore, familiar children's songs were chosen as stimuli, with toy drums with sticks as tapping instruments. The chapter shows a simple experiment to measure the individual parameters of human subjects become a complex experiment when it is set in a social context.