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Author Topic: Is Music Really just Maths?  (Read 8724 times)

Offline Volley

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Re: Is Music Really just Maths?
« Reply #60 on: November 23, 2009, 09:41:17 PM »
As a musician, I know music is based in math.  There are different scales for Western music (I'm talking geographically.  Europe, The Americas), Indian, Asian, etc.  

Indian music is based on a 24 note scale where western music is based on a 12 note scale.  That's why Indian music sounds so odd.

Octaves always double in frequency.  An A on a guitar (open 5th string) is 440 Hz.  The next octave up is 880Hz and so one.

Time signatures are math: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 5/4, 7/4 and so on.  You subdivide the beats: whole, half, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 and so on.  Tempo is based on beats per minute, bpm.  

Math is all over the place in music.  Now, that doesn't mean I always balance my check book!!!

Redsun


I'll agree with that. Though when I think of music, I don't think of the sounds it makes. I don't think of the waves, the frequencies, or the pitches. I think of when I read music.
How do we name notes? By whole, half, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, and so on. It's like every measure is a PIE!! And every note is a piece of that pie.

BUT when combining music, you have things like hemiola..playing triplets and duplets. One person can eat three pieces of a pie in the same time another person can eat 2 pieces of a pie!!

Musicall measures, when being composed, have to equal one big pie. It's all just fractions. 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + 1/8 + 1/64 + 1/64 = 1 pie/measure. These pies are even divided into different sizes, like red sun said (4/4, 2/2, 3/4, and so on...). Like good musicians do, they count how many beats they have to play as their conductor only conducts in 2 or 3 or 4, or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8....! :)

Every conductor tells their students...SUBDIVIDE!

It's all math!!! Dotted half note with one eighth note and 2 sixteenths = 1 measure in 4/4!!

 ;D ;D

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Offline Marty

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Re: Is Music Really just Maths?
« Reply #61 on: November 24, 2009, 03:13:33 AM »
Sorry guys, I kinda lost it here...
« Last Edit: November 24, 2009, 02:44:36 PM by BFM_Marty »


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Offline jim360

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Re: Is Music Really just Maths?
« Reply #62 on: November 24, 2009, 06:48:50 AM »
The idea that you can say that, because most people found mahts their least-favourite subject at school means that there is more to music than maths is - well, I've covered this already. High-school maths isn't maths, it's just a collection of numerical methods that you might find useful at a supermarket or building a child's playpen. That's not maths, in any way, shaper or form. If you want to know what maths is, study it at a top university. If you pass through that and still find maths uninteresting, then of course that's your opinion and there's nothing wrong with it. But I'd advise you to talk to mathematicians rather than the man in the street.

By the same token, would you say that if you went up to someone and explained to them that, "a computer takes a series of binary square-wave inputs induced by components that possess the properties of resistance, capacitance and inductance (in the case of a square-wave, the capacitor will dominate this circuit if connected to an operational amplifier that is cyclically overloaded) and by passing this square-wave input through a series of silicon chips and logic gates produces a square wave output that, in turn, passes through another circuit to produce a characteristic monitor response according to the American Standard Code for Information Interchange..." that people would suddenly stop using computers? Admittedly, while much of the above paragraph is essentially made up, that's only because I've simplified it. The people you told that to would give you a funny look and then say, "Yeah, but do I need to now that?" and then carry on as normal.

A bit like I'd expect them to if you told them that, "the notes on a standard treble-clef stave represent the approximately linear relationship between the height of the note on the stave and its frequency when mapped to logarithmic space." Which, for the record, is true. There's no way that anyone is seriously going to stop listening to music because you tell them it's all maths because, frankly, they wouldn't believe you. And probably wouldn't care either.

As a final aside, why does it make any difference to the truth of the matter if everyone thinks otherwise? E.g "the earth is flat", "heavier objects fall faster than light ones", "Cliff Richard is a good singer" and so on.
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Offline Wic

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Re: Is Music Really just Maths?
« Reply #63 on: November 24, 2009, 10:41:46 AM »
Maybe just time to "agree to disagree" on this one folks!  :)

A very interesting topic and discussion, but it feels like its getting a bit heated perhaps, and has turned into a bit of a 'back and forth'.  It really does seem to be a matter of personal interpretation.

As it would seem everyone has had a chance to state their opinions and reasoning, and at Three60's request, I'm locking this thead at this time.

Wic

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