This dissertation proposes a theory that views beats as probabilistic domains that I term "pockets," taking a vernacular term commonly used by jazz, funk, and popular music performers to describe the state of being in a good groove and making it concrete through empirical methods. Pockets have three key properties: they are domains of time, whose membership is probabilistic, and the specific shape of the probabilistic distribution is associated the qualitative experience of a performance-its

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... el." The theory of pockets that I advance can be utilized to provide new perspectives on rhythmic structures in music, as well as new approaches to understanding patterned microtiming in performance, the phenomenon of musical "groove," and musical "feel" more generally. Pockets are a complement to Danielsen's theory of perceptual "beat bins" (2010a), theorizing extended beats in the sound signal of performances. By importing the term "pocket,"