Music math notes
A whole pizza is like a whole note, half a pizza like a half note, and then quarter, eighth, and etc. (Hint: there are two eighth notes in every quarter note.) In solving this problem, your student is doing the exact same work as in the pizza word problem.
MUSIC MATH NOTES HOW TO
As a bonus, see if your student can demonstrate how to continue the pattern by halving the quarter notes while keeping the time signature the same. Try to keep tempo together as best you can. If there are other people available, have them clap the whole notes.
Try this exercise with your student: have your student clap the quarter notes while you clap the half notes. Now it’s time to experiment with how ratios can overlap. Underline the 1s and only clap when you say them.
MUSIC MATH NOTES FULL
(You can also circle 1 and 2, showing that half note takes up two parts.) Now try whole notes, which are notes that last for a full measure. Write out 1234 (four times) again, but this time underline the 1s and 3s and tell your student to only clap when they say those numbers. Next, try out the half note, which in 4/4 signature takes up two beats. To see this in action, write 1234, 1234, 1234, 1234 (that’s the four beats of the measure, in four measures) then have your student count those numbers while clapping for each number. So for example, if my time signature is 4/4, I know I can fit four quarter notes (♩) into that same measure. The top number indicating there are four beats per measure, and the bottom number indicating that one quarter note equals one beat. We also have time signatures, which specifies how many beats are contained in each measure, which are expressed as ratios such as 4/4. In notation, we have whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc., which all designate how long a note should be held in proportion to other notes. Let’s begin with musical notation, the sheet music that tells musicians what and how to play. Simple Addition, Ratios, and Fractions in Music But music is also intuited and felt through the body, and this post will also try to provide opportunities for you and your student to feel the math in music.
And this post will feature some light introductions to music theory. Music theory is the formal study of music, with a focus on the interplay of number and sound. If your musically-inclined student is struggling to enjoy math, exploring the connections between the two disciplines can help to reinspire your student in both studies. But did you know that your brain is doing similar calculations when it listens to music? The mathematician Gottfried Leibniz famously observed that “music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.” What fraction of the pizza is left?įor many of us, word problems like this feel like torture. )Ī pizza is divided into half, and then half again, and then half again.
MUSIC MATH NOTES SERIES
Previous installments in the series have included History, Art, and Philosophy. We believe that students thrive when they can form meaningful connections across different areas of study. (The following post is Part 4 in a four-part series on studying math through the lens of other disciplines.