“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
-Albert Einstein
According to Dictionary.com, music theory is “the study of the theoretical elements of music including sound and pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, and notation.” When I listen to my favorite musician, every part of their performance can be described by using these theoretical elements. Every song starts with a melody. The melody is simply a series of pitches. The change of pitch is called an interval. The notation for an interval is the distance from the starting note in a scale. Harmonic intervals, which are when two notes are played simultaneously, can be compounded to form chords. Chords are named by which scale degree the root of the chord is, and each chord has a harmonic function. In the Classical era this was the way each chord led to another. Overall this forms the basic idea of a piece using basic theory.
I hypothesize that the links between music theory and math are where the thought processes overlap. The common ideas are rhythm and intervals. The time signature is basically a fraction. The numerator measures how many beats there are while the denominator shows what kind of note value gets the beat. On top of the time signature, the melody does not usually stay on each beat. If you listen to a pop song, you will notice that they are almost never on the beat. You can divide a measure with any number to create unique rhythms.
Intervals relate to math by being a number that can be added, subtracted, or inverted. All of the different combinations of pitches create the unique tunes that we all know. They are simply numbers. You can use basic arithmetic to change them in an organized way. The main example of this is transposition which is moving every note in the melody by an interval. You can even have a pattern in a seemingly pattern-less piece. The more complex the music, the more prevalent math becomes.
While music has evolved, so has the complexity behind the theory. “At the highest levels of music theory there are thought patterns and abstractions that overlap with higher-level mathematical thinking,” said Psychologist Randall Engle of the Georgia Institute of Technology in a Wall Street Journal article. It makes sense that if you have a great mathematical mind the theory will come easily.
Since the highest levels of music theory logic overlaps with math, this connection seems to be in favor of the mathematicians. In one particular instance, the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in science and math recorded that around three fourths of the participants were gifted musicians, stated the Wall Street Journal article.
Huffington post published a study that points out that mathematicians look at formulas as they do art. They find math beautiful in a way like listening to music or looking at art. The study found that both activities stimulate the medial orbitofrontal cortex area of the brain.
Practice habits also develop problem solving skills. My personal experience has shown that consistently striving to become a better musician has helped further my understanding of overcoming obstacles. This is because when a music student notices something they have a difficult time with they will literally spend months working on it. The two things that being a music student teaches you is that there is nothing that can't be fixed by time and determination.
These practice habits have helped thousands of high school band students achieve great things. This will leak into everything you do. In my case, I noticed that music led to my math capabilities.
Loraine Young, a calculus teacher from Heritage High School, replied to my question that she has definitely seen a positive correlation between a students participation in band and their success in her class. She says it could be due to higher parental involvement in students lives. Along those lines, I infer that music doesn't just affect one area of learning, but all of them.
It seems the reason is far beyond just music theory and math. Overall, students who are enrolled in music classes tend to score higher than other students. Play music magazine posted an article on Scott Somers, who was labeled as trouble student by teachers. That is until he joined his school's band program and became a high scoring student. Another example is Mary Margaret Neel, a violin performance major at Columbus State University. She attributes her love of English to music.
The link between music theory and math is just one out of many between music and its relationship with us. It affects all of us who grew up playing an instrument or studying music. I have found that if you are a good math student, music theory will come easier to you than others. The more complex theory becomes, the closer it resembles math.
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