Timing in music refers to the ability to "keep time" accurately and to synchronise to an ensemble,[1] as well as to expressive timing - 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.[2] 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.[3] [4] Temporal patterns in music combine two different time scales - 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.