@deirdrebeth @geonz @joannaholman as someone who had and enjoyed music and barely passed basic maths I fail to see that connection. 😅
I can see it with language, though. Maybe the learned instrument/s and genres played a part on it too? 🤷🏻
Oct 6, 2026, 4:09 PM@eloisa @deirdrebeth @joannaholman
Most folks who don't get math haven't had good teaching. We've got folks here who *get* how to teach maths to people for whom it doesn't come naturally.
Last week I was at a webinar and a math professor talked about applying math to DJ ing and how it reeled his resistant learners it. The mmore he talked, though, the more I realized he also knew a LOT about the basic structures of arithmetic and algebra that so many people are told they're supposed to already know.
@geonz @deirdrebeth @joannaholman you're not wrong. In all my life I only had one teacher who actually made the effort to try to get me to understand it. Unfortunately it was too late, and wasn't even called maths. It was quantitative methods, from my Humanitities track in high school. That I liked.
@eloisa @geonz @deirdrebeth @joannaholman
The math<->music link exists but you don't need a ton of math to just do some music.
Western music theory does use numbers to organize itself, and if you really want to number up, look into classical Indian music and how it treats subdivisions.
I didn't study math past the age of fifteen (which is when I started music, coincidentally), but have never encountered a musical situation where math was the stumbling block.
@AlexanderVI @eloisa @geonz @joannaholman
You misunderstand my meaning. It's not a "you must know x to do y". It's "if you understand x, y is easier".
Most musicians I know don't think about maths at all, they just innately know how things come together because of all the music theory knowledge.
The mathematicians have an easier time learning music theory because it matches the things they already know.
@deirdrebeth
Yes, you are right, I took that wrong - thanks for clarifying, and I agree completely.
I suspect there's also something about the study habits and self-application of those who work hard to get better at math that is very applicable to learning music. This seems particularly the case for classical students - I can't think of many folk musicians who make a math-music connection, but I've known plenty of classical musicians who also did well in math.
@deirdrebeth @eloisa @geonz @joannaholman
Which I guess restates the original point in reverse.
What good is learning music if I'm not going to be a musician?
What good is learning math if I'm not going to be a mathematician?
Learning to learn.
@AlexanderVI @eloisa @geonz @joannaholman
You and I have, seemingly, diametrically opposed views of life.
@deirdrebeth I had a quick gander at your profile and I can definitely say our views of life are not diametrically opposed, though I suppose on any number of specifics we might disagree. Interesting discussion nevertheless - thanks again.
@AlexanderVI @deirdrebeth @eloisa @geonz @joannaholman Yes, learning to learn, but also, having something to do that you are hopefully interested in, that isn't sports. Not every kid is a jock. :)
@VE3RWJ @AlexanderVI @deirdrebeth @geonz @joannaholman and some of us are just literally falling in rabbit holes after rabbit holes, learning stuff "randomly" bc ADHD meds are too expensive anyway (don't argue with my poor math on the hobby tax that comes with it, plz). 😅
@AlexanderVI @eloisa @geonz @deirdrebeth @joannaholman
Music is patterns. Maths is patterns. At some deep, abstract level, the two things are the same thing
@geonz @eloisa @deirdrebeth @joannaholman At age 11 my maths teacher taught that mathematics is "the study of patterns". Which clearly includes music.
The point at which I could no longer "get" maths - I could, at a push, learn stuff by memorising it, which I'm bad at, but I could no longer just "see" the patterns - was second year maths at Cambridge. I gave up and did something else for my third year.
@TimWardCam @geonz @eloisa @joannaholman
Oh that's a lovely way to put it!
I could always see the patterns, but wasn't terribly good at remembering which dead mathematician figured out what, so hard a hard time in whatever year they were focused on theorems.
Sewing/knitting/etc. is also maths, speaking of patterns.
Did you understand the difference between 3/4 time and 4/4 time?
How about 7/16 time?
How about whole note, half note, quarter note?
That's all maths, and if you do them wrong (say running 4/4 time on a 3/4 time song) you end up in a different place (with a different answer) than your peers.
@deirdrebeth @geonz @joannaholman not that I recall. In my country we have music very young (since primary) and we call them something else, we don't use numbers for it. But what you said made sense bc of what I remember from seeing drawn on the partitions. Now I wish they would've explained it that way back then. I wouldn't have given up organ. 🤦🏻