/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.7640006]

Hey /sci/, math major here.
So earlier today my dad asked me why I don't study music, because 'music is all math'. What the fuck? He actually said. I'm not joking. Now discuss.

[Anonymous No.7640014]

>>7640006
Fucktards keep perpetuating that meme and now normalfaggots believe it.

Musicians aren't thinking about harmonic analysis when they play keystrokes from a paper you fucking morons. Composers aren't solving wave equations when they put notes down.

I want to murder every single kek who's ever perpetuated the math-music connection meme.

[Anonymous No.7640025]

There's a bunch of mathematics in music (the development of tuning for example is fairly interesting), but I don't think the two are in any way comparable.

[Anonymous No.7640028]

>>7640014
>Musicians aren't thinking about harmonic analysis when they play keystrokes from a paper you fucking morons.

Sure they are, they're just doing it intuitively, much like a good (i.e. much better than you) mathematician does.

[Anonymous No.7640037]

>>7640028
Mathematicians aren't good at using math intuitively, that's engineers. They are good at rigorously understanding very complex ideas.

And also
>Sure they are,
No, they are not.

[Anonymous No.7640046]

>>7640028
>Beat, tempo, time etc can be broken down into math.

It's the equivalent of kindergarten math, music is fucking dogshit, listen to talk radio you fucking brainwashed faggots

[Anonymous No.7640051]

>>7640046
>music is fucking dogshit, listen to talk radio you fucking brainwashed faggots

/sci/, 2015

[Anonymous No.7640091]

>>7640037
>Mathematicians aren't good at using math intuitively,

I said a GOOD mathematician, and yes they fucking are. That's what separates the good ones from the plebs, in fact.

>that's engineers.

No comment on meme.

>They are good at rigorously understanding very complex ideas.

Yes, in the same way an English professor is probably good at deeply analyzing the nuances of language, which he can only do since he also has an intuitive facility with it.

[Anonymous No.7640101]

>>7640006
He knows about that D in Calculus III baka desu senpai.

[Anonymous No.7640184]

>>7640006
why are most musicians are shit at math ?
but a lot of mathematicians can play an instrument? ps: kek

[Anonymous No.7640231]

>>7640101
>Calculus III
Did you mean Math 2D?

[Anonymous No.7640233]

My dad told me this when I was younger to get me to play the guitar. It didn't work but don't get so triggered you fucktard.

[Anonymous No.7640378]

>>7640014
Good musicians think about harmonic analysis while playing. It's called just temperament.

[Anonymous No.7640706]

>>7640006
>>7640014
Look up this man Naom Elkies.

He won the International Math Olympiad at 14
He won a Putnam competition at 16.
Consistently teaches Math 55 at Harvard, claimed to be the most difficult math course in the country.

Also, from wiki, he studies the connections between music and math, and sits on the advisory board of the Journal of Mathematics and Music. So this guy might think about math when playing, and he's pretty fuckin good at math. His music, who knows.

[Anonymous No.7640822]

>>7640006
>>7640014
Sounds like you insufferable mongs don't know dick about synthesis. Even rudimentary subtractive synthesis involves some interesting maths.

[Anonymous No.7640855]

>>7640706
Interesting find anon.

[Anonymous No.7640864]

>>7640014
>Musicians aren't thinking about harmonic analysis when they play keystrokes from a paper you fucking morons.
? i think about chord changes every time i improvise

[Anonymous No.7640869]

boards of canada did this

[Anonymous No.7640872]

>>7640869
I expect anything from those melancholic fucks

[Anonymous No.7640887]

>>7640006
Then your dad is a retard.

Saying music is math is the liberal arts version of "we wuz kings 'n shit," or that you're doing math when you read a clock. Its such a huge distortion of the word it makes it lose all meaning. Everybody's gotta be a le nerd XD now so even if they can barely add they have to say they are a mathematician of some sort.

[Anonymous No.7640888]

>>7640014
>Musicians aren't thinking about harmonic analysis when they play keystrokes from a paper you fucking morons.

No, you do that before playing. You look at the key signature so you know which notes you'll be playing before reading the piece.
You're not thinking of what equations to use to solve a math problem in the middle of solving, you do it before and then work with the numbers.

Your post indicates you have little to no actual musical knowledge besides a grade school course so I'm not sure why you think you even have a say in the argument

[Anonymous No.7641006]

>he hasn't even studied categorical theoretical methods to counterpoint

[Anonymous No.7641024]

You can abstract music theory into math and it is quite beautiful. But music is not math almost in the same way physics is not math.

I know it is triggering to hear pseudocientific faggots chanting how music and math are the same shit, but your butthurts are pretty autistic m8s

[Anonymous No.7641045]

>>7640006
It's true. playing music requires addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for rhythm
composition is where it gets deeep
the way our brains interpret rhythms is directly related to the ratio of the frequencies of events between different sounds. The way we hear harmony is similarly linked to frequency ratios

If you want to hear music that's never been made just take 2 large prime numbers A and B and multiply them together. That is your time signature, then play one sound every A beats, and one every B beats. If it sounds familiar use bigger primes.

I compose experimental music and for me Music composition is about matching a feeling to a sound as accurately as possible , which is all mathematics.

[Anonymous No.7641059]

>>7641045
The process behind this one was pretty mathsy https://soundcloud.com/ishkalola/name-this-song

and
https://soundcloud.com/ishkalola/keira-second-draft

[Anonymous No.7641072]

>>7641024
Have to agree, Music is inherently mathematical, but is not math. a song is not a proof any more than a theoretical physics paper is a mathematical proof

[Anonymous No.7641093]

>>7640046
>>Beat, tempo, time etc can be broken down into math.
>implying that is all there is to music
Holy shit kill yourself pop pleb. lrn2harmony, counterpoint, phrasing and form

>>7641072
A sheet music is like a program code. By the Curry-Howard isomorphism, it can be transformed into a mathematical proof :^)

[Anonymous No.7641222]

>>7640046
>something that is open for interpretation brainwashes you
>people spouting off their opinions as gospel doesn't

[Anonymous No.7641225]

>>7641045
>Implying that arithmetic is real math

[Anonymous No.7641368]

>>7640887
>Saying music is math is the liberal arts version of "we wuz kings 'n shit,"
Couldn't have put it better myself.