The Rhythm of Language: Transcribing Viral Videos into Music

Mar 16, 2019

12:30pm – 1:30pm CT

What is musical rhythm, and how do we feel it? Recent research in neuroscience has found that our brains group musical rhythms similar to how we hear patterns in language. This insight can help us reimagine how we teach and learn music utilizing what we already know about language and vice versa. In this session, Adam Neely will utilize Youtube clips to demonstrate how our brains perceive rhythm in language and music by transcribing patterns of speech taken from videos and turning them into musical notation that he will perform live on his bass.

Part music lesson, part neurolinguistic experiment; this session is meant to illustrate how we can learn music the same way we learn language, and that artists can discover musical inspiration from unlikely sources.



Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

photo of Adam Neely
Adam Neely

Adam Neely

Primary Access
Music Badge
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Secondary Access
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