Are maths and music connected? This is a question I never thought I would ask myself and the answer was even more surprising… yes, they are!
At first I must say that I did not see the link between the two. In my opinion I view maths as a very structured subject. It has set formulas and for each question only one set answer, something in which music is not. Music, to me, is a way to express your feelings and emotions; it is free for you to do what you like with, you are free to make your own styles, there is not set structures and not set answers. However, even though musicians do create their own music they use maths to help them develop, express and communicate their ideas (Shah, 2010)
There are many aspects mathematical knowledge that musicians use when playing and creating music, one of the simplest aspects is being able to count, for example a musician needs to be able to count the number of beats in a bar. A musician also uses their mathematical knowledge when looking at rhythm, scales, intervals, patterns, symbols, time signatures, overtones and pitch (American Mathematical Society, 2017).
Maths is not only used to help musicians to create and play music, it is also used to help them to tune and play their instruments. Mathematics is able to explain how strings vibrate at certain frequencies and that sound ways are used to describe these mathematical theories (Shah, 2010).
However, it is not just string instruments such as violins and cellos that use their frequencies to help with tuning and playing, a pianist will also do this. But the maths is not always enough and so a pianist will use the frequencies along with their knowledge of the sound of the keys in order to tune the piano (Sangster, 2017).
Seeing first-hand the ways in which maths and music connect is something I have enjoyed. This has made me consider the possibility of using music as a way of explaining mathematical concepts such as patterns and sequences in my teaching practice. I believe that doing this well bring an element of enjoyment as well as a large amount of engagement from pupils as this would be an interactive activity that could be used with a variety of ages and stages within the primary school.
References:
American Mathematical Society (2017) Mathematics & Music Available at: http://www.ams.org/samplings/math-and-music (Accessed on: 6th November 2017)
Sangster, P. (2017) Discovering Maths: Music and Mathematics [PowerPoint Presentation]. ED21006 Discovering Mathematics. Available at: https://mydundee.ac.uk (Accessed on: 6th November 2017)
Shah, S. (2010) An Exploration of the Relationship between Mathematics and Music. Available at: http://eprints.ma.man.ac.uk/1548/1/covered/MIMS_ep2010_103.pdf (Accessed on: 6th November 2017)
