I studied music at high school and it has been one of my main passions ever since. Even now I am sitting listening to music as I write this blog post – Adele if you are wondering – and listen to different artists/genres for every piece of writing I complete. I just can’t focus in silence; I need the beat, tempo, words and rhythm in order to concentrate. This is something that I have never been able to understand, shouldn’t I be able to concentrate without Bowie or John Newman singing into my mind?

Following our input with Anna (in which we discovered some mathematics that is involved in music), I decided to discover just how much maths actually influences music. In my mind it does not influence music very much, as they are such different areas. How could maths influence something so creative and beautiful? In my mind, mathematics is rigid and stable, non-changing and uncreative. Basically the opposite to music.

After researching these two topics, I can now say that my perception of maths and music was wrong. They actually identify and connect with each other more than I thought, and in more ways than one.

Anna provided us with various examples of how basic mathematics is used within music, such as rhythmic patterns, which we attempted to recreate through various clapping exercises. In this activity we discovered that counting and speed are crucial to clapping in time to the beat which we were shown. This exercise became harder when we were split into groups and each group was given a different clapping sequence to complete at various times to other groups. Finally adding them all together so that the different rhythms overlapped each other, an example of this is shown below. This is a simple way of mathematics – counting, speed and rhythm – being involved within music which is transferable into the primary school.

(Robb, 2015)

Throughout primary school and high I learned how to play different brass instruments, and now contain the knowledge to play them all. I remember being taught the number value of each note, and when playing from sheet music told to imagine the numbers instead of the shapes of the notes. This is something which I still do today and find it easier to comprehend than working from the notes themselves. This is an example of how I use mathematics myself when I play instruments. Also, when I tune my instruments I use frequency in order to determine if the pitch is correct. Another mathematical term which I forgot was involved within music.

However it is not only when I play my instruments that I use mathematics, but also when I dance. I use rhythm and beat in order to keep in pace with the music and also other dancers. Within Irish dancing we count in sets of 8 and will work steps into routines based on the 8 count rule. This is an example of how repetition influences my dancing, a further mathematical concept found within music.

References 

Robb, A. (2015) ‘Discovering Maths: Music’. [PowerPoint presentation] ED21006: Discovery mathematics (University Elective). Available at: https://my.dundee.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_54593_1%26url%3D (Accessed on: 10 November 2015).