Music & Math
SPACE!!!!
After I graduated high school, I started down the path of an engineering degree. I did a two year associates degree, transferred the credits, and began taking some high level math & science shit.
I love numbers. Always have. They’re constant across the universe, the language to describe them changes but the one is always one, no matter what word, bleep, or alien fart you use to define it.
After a bit, I knew I’d made a mistake. I’d often find myself in the back of calculus doing calculations on how many different ways you can arrange the 12 notes in an octave if you don’t repeat them (Thank you, Arnold Schoenberg).
BTW, there’s a little over metric f-load, over 479 million different ways, if you don’t repeat them.
If you do repeat a note, then the math gets tiring and I don’t want to.
SHENANIGANS!!!
So I switched. I did a music degree, English Lit Minor. I can compose, and songwrite with the best of them, and I have the piece of University stamped paper to prove it. But I found that the math of music was AS eloquent and elegant as that of high level mathematic.
And while it took a bit to balance the emotional instinct of songwriting with the data driven mathematics of harmonic relationship, I found that there exists a beautiful harmony between them.
I found the mathematics of music was good for two things:
Catalyzing my creativity when I wasn’t feeling inspired, caffeinated, or when I was hungover thanks some tequila loving bachelor party buddies.
When I had followed my muse to a musical corner where I was stuck. The mathematics of harmonic relationships illuminated a path ahead.
UNSEXY NUMBERS, SEXY RESULTS!!
Here’s a simple example of what I mean.
If I have four notes, let’s say, key of A Minor
A B C D
I have 24 different ways I can arrange those four notes. Four columns for each starting note, and 6 ways to rearrange the other 3 notes in the series. For example, let’s start on A:
A B C D A B D C A C B D A C D B A D B C A D C B
B A C D B A D C and so on…
I can also do this starting on any one of the four notes.
This simple exercise gives direction based on a series of numerical parameters. In the unsexy numbers, I found creative boundaries in a vast musical universe. I find that very exciting.
There are no limits beyond those we set upon ourselves.
And that is the sexiest thing of all.
