The importance of mathematics in music

1. By Carol Kempiak The importance of mathematics in music

2. When reading rhythms in music, musicians use counting and fractions Sound in music can be broken up into proportions Frequencies can be graphed mathematically (will not cover this) What forms of math are used in music?

3. What is a time signature? 4 6 3 2 9 2 7 4 8 4 2 8 4 8 The number on the top tells you how many beats per measure there are. The number on the bottom tells you what note value receives one beat.

4. What is a measure? 4 4 A measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. (wikipedia.org)

5. Note values in 4/4 time Quarter Note: 1 beat Half Note: 2 beats Whole Note: 4 beats Eighth Note: ½ beat Sixteenth Note: ¼ beat

6. 4 4 4 4 4 4 Note: During the presentation, the class will be taught how to read and clap these three rhythms through the use of math.

7. According to legend, Pythagorus first realized that music and math were connected when hearing the tones of a blacksmith’s anvils. Strings of proportional length create tones of proportional frequencies. He found the four “overtones” that created common intervals to become primary building blocks of musical harmony. http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/harmony/prop.html (shows example of overtones series) Pythagorus and music

8. What is the importance of mathematics in music? • Without mathematics music would not have structure. • 1) There would be no way to measure rhythm. • 2) There would be no relative pitch. • Without mathematics, musicians would not have the ability to composeand read music.