Mathemusics

I've noticed that a lot of my math friends are into music.

I'm taking graduate-level math classes, and I really like to play both classical and jazz flute. In addition to that I listen EDM, rock, indie, and rap, and am well-versed in music theory. My professor and advisor is a graduate of Cornell University, and he plays guitar in a local rock band. Most of my friends on math team play classical violin. One plays jazz trumpet.

Do you think there is some sort of correlation between love of math and love of music? Examples? Why do you think this is?

Pic is my favorite classical flute piece to play.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=2MHhLDCJ57E
youtube.com/watch?v=RyHFVtgsCzI
youtube.com/watch?v=SEGElOwQP6w
poisson.phc.unipi.it/~fidanza/matemusica/papers/Mazzola - Topos Of Music.pdf
soundfile.sapp.org/doc/WaveFormat/
youtube.com/watch?v=dqtFGaHcWRk
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

no. there are a lot of people who like music.
i have a masters in physics and listen to this so fuck off with your classical gay-fedoracore
youtube.com/watch?v=2MHhLDCJ57E

I know your ilk
You are the same idiots who think because you understand the mathematics of pool you can hustle at the local pool hall. But then you walk out broke.

All of the greatest musicians of all time knew dick about math and barely knew much of anything about music theory.

I think the two are definitely related, maybe something to do with ratios and selective loops. I had a math professor that had a second phd in music theory and I always wondered how he heard music

I never said that math people are the only types of people who like music. I only said that all of my math friends happen to like music as well.

And I am not a classical elitist. I even explicitly said that I listen to jazz, EDM, rock, indie, and rap. Here, I'll post you some of the stuff I listen to.
youtube.com/watch?v=RyHFVtgsCzI
youtube.com/watch?v=SEGElOwQP6w

Wow. I've never seen someone fit so many assumptions about a person they've never met in a single sentence. I've been playing music for over a decade and have played in various state and national orchestras. I've only stated that I've noticed that a lot of my math friends are also really into music. If there is anything in my comments that you can point to that suggests that I am being pretentious, I wholeheartedly apologize.

And you'd be surprised at how many musicians actually know music theory. Actually, it's sort of obvious. Schoenberg wrote an entire book on the theory of harmony. The Beatles definitely knew a thing or two about music theory. Bill Evans, Brian May, and Shostakovitch all knew music theory.

>The Beatles definitely knew a thing or two about music theory

No, they knew shit. They understood circle of fifths and relative keys, memorized some scale shapes and then dropped a ton of acid. Ditch your ridiculous self righteous mathfag attitude.

While it is true that the Beatles were innate musicians rather than studied musicians in the classical sense, they knew stuff. George was "schooled" through Ravi Shankar, which is where he learned how to use weird time signatures and different modes. Even though they did not know the names for the stuff that they did, they had an understanding of what those things were.

I'm not trying to be ridiculous and self-righteous. I'm simply stating my opinions. All I've said so far is that I've noticed that a lot of the people I know who like math are also into music. Never have I claimed that all mathematicians are good musicians, nor have I claimed that all musicians are good mathematicians. I honestly don't see how I'm being a "self-righteous mathfag." If you explain what specific thing I'm saying to trigger you, I'll gladly stop.

Here is something interesting to chew on:

If you take a set of pitches P, call C(P) the set of chords that contain P.

We have the formula C(P U Q) = C(P) Π C(Q), where the big pi is intersection (I'm on mobile, sorry).

This is dual to the relationship between ideals in a polynomial ring and the corresponding algebraic sets, per Hilbert's Nullstellensatz. The the ideal corresponding to an intersection of algebraic sets is the union of the ideals of the individual algebraic sets.

I think there is some generalization of the language of algebraic geometry that allow for a formalization of the structure of chords and pitches, and such that tools of algebraic geometry can tell us more about music theory.

I've noticed that a lot of my math friend are heterosexuals.

Do you think there is some sort of correlation between love of math and loving persons of the other sex? Examples? Why do you think this is?

No, people just like music in general. Hell, my brother has been playing classical and jazz violin for 27 and 10 years respectively, and hes the biggest dumbass ever.

Conversely, Ive met some of the levturers over at the math dept and theybare the biggests autists ever and dont listen to anything at all.

Stop making this thread every month

> tools of algebraic geometry can tell us more about music theory.
No.

Okay... will you give more justification for your disagreement? I know it's Veeky Forums, but we can have intelligible discussion on Veeky Forums at least.

The correspondence you mentioned above is trivial by the definition of the algebraic set described by an ideal and does not need any result such as Hilbert's Nullstellensatz. Such formulas occur literally all over mathematics (whenever you define something as the set of objects that satisfy a condition for all elements of another set). From the formula looking similar, it is quite far-fetched to conclude there must be some relationship between algebraic geometry (of which there is almost nothing present in that simple formula) and music (of which there is almost nothing present in that simple formula). Well, obviously I can't disprove any alleged correspondence, but the argument you give is very weak.

Heterosexuals make up a large portion of the population. The proportion of heterosexuals in math team more-or-less lines up with the general population. However, musicians seem to be over-represented from personal experience.

Thank you for your input. I haven't seen much of that personally. Also, I wasn't aware that this thread has been done to death. I apologize.

Hmm. You're right of course, but it's a matter of perspective: it tells me that the language of ideals and varieties is ubiquitous. This is partially substantiated by the many ways in which topos theory is used (since this all is just happening internal to a suitable topos). It tells you that Nullstellensatz is unexciting because it's obvious (also true, once the language is all in place).

Coltrane and Bird both knew and evolved theory of the time, you fucking mongoloid.

>barely knew much of anything about music theory.
This is false.

I love three things in life. Mathematics, physics, and blues/jazz. I play about 6 instruments, guitar being my principal instrument, and I have won a lot of awards for my playing. I have spent a lot of time in the shed as well as most of my childhood going to jazz camps and festivals. I can swing and solo like a motherfucker and I've even got a chance to play with big dogs like bob mintzer and Wayne Bergeron.

Also I jammed with Joe Bonamassa once

>EDM, ROCK, INDIE, RAP

Fucking die man

>Mathematics
>Music

Book related. Note the appendix chapter 16 that gives an overview of all sorts of pre-requisite mathematics including algebraic geometry and topos theory.
poisson.phc.unipi.it/~fidanza/matemusica/papers/Mazzola - Topos Of Music.pdf

Math/statsfag with music as a side hobby here.

I'm trying to write an algorithm that takes in a recording of a song (.WAV, polyphonic) as input and attempts to identify the notes/chords played. Essentially automating chord transcription.
I'm hoping to do this via the spectrogram data itself, instead of referencing a machine learning algorithm that would be constrained by the genre of songs in its library (training data).

Beyond the obligatory background reading on Fourier analysis and wavelets (which seems to be more appropriate for separating instruments) what resources/papers should I be looking into?

I'm writing a digital synth atm (using .WAV files). If you're interested how to read .WAV files from scratch (from a bytearray), you'll need to know how the header looks like. Check this webpage: soundfile.sapp.org/doc/WaveFormat/
All words are big-endian and all numbers are little-endian.

I also note it may be easier to use libraries for this, but it's fun to write your own code, then you'll really understand how the .WAV format works.

I love math, and my biggest regret is that I never learned to play an instrument when I was a kid. I've been trying to teach myself some piano on the side now, but it's pretty slow going. Reading music is difficult.

The band Neurosis is one of the most influential metal bands of all time. The singer/guitarist only recently learned the fucking names of the open notes on a guitar.

I know theory, but you don't need it for music since it is just a collection of conventions. It helps you think differently and that's it.

Confirmation bias

t. Math Phd. that wasn't going to post in your thread, but realized that you may be left with the impression that everyone on Veeky Forums likes music

I don't even listen to any kind of music

xenakis is Veeky Forums music
youtube.com/watch?v=dqtFGaHcWRk

this is your typical death grips fan

Everyone you named, other than Shostakovich, is shit

playing a musical instrument increases your IQ

Music existed before The Beatles, you know

not as we know it

A single metal band having a guitarist who is not knowledgeable does not invalidate my point. Of course an in depth knowledge of music theory is never required, but having a grasp of the basics goes a long way towards understanding how to more easily translate your ideas into music. Most of the great musicians have been comfortable with these notions.

>rant degenerates to biases
>switches topic all together

You are really fucking stupid.