is classical music like math?

bob_32_116 · 04-01-2016, 08:35 AM

There is a certain amount of mathematics in the study of the theory of music. Mathematics though is a vast endeavour, with many branches. When people say "music is maths", what they are usually talking about is a very small subset of maths, namely number theory as applied to the notes of whatever scale you are discussing.

I think the idea that "music is maths" would have been news to many of the pioneer folk and blues musicians, who most likely just played and sang whatever sounded good to them, in many cases not even knowing anything about reading or writing musical notation, let alone any mathematical basis behind it.

04-01-2016, 08:35 AM	#17 (permalink)
bob_32_116 Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: 32S 116E Posts: 324	There is a certain amount of mathematics in the study of the theory of music. Mathematics though is a vast endeavour, with many branches. When people say "music is maths", what they are usually talking about is a very small subset of maths, namely number theory as applied to the notes of whatever scale you are discussing. I think the idea that "music is maths" would have been news to many of the pioneer folk and blues musicians, who most likely just played and sang whatever sounded good to them, in many cases not even knowing anything about reading or writing musical notation, let alone any mathematical basis behind it.