Life Mathematics - Music Major Math
Life Mathematics -- Music Major Math
I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with the joke that “Music Majors can only count to FOUR.” And, they only need to learn their letters up to “G”.
Granted, there's less of the higher levels of Mathematics involved for a B.A. in Music than there was to obtain a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, I'll give you that. (And privately I was evilly satisfied to find out that the math involved for a Chemical Engineer was even that much harder, and that Mr. Perfect couldn't help his son with it at all ! In fact, he gave up when the kid was still in high school ! Bwah-ha-ha !)
But Musicians have their own kind of “Math”, and it can get pretty weird.
8 to 5
No, this is not the hours of your job. At least not only that. I'm talking about taking 8 steps to five yards - something I used to be able to do with my eyes closed. Something I used to do for hours, in the sun, or in the mud. And I chose this lot - arranged my entire school schedule for six years to accommodate this "privilege" !
(8 steps to 5 Yards: 5 yds. = 15 ft. = 180 inches in those 5 yards. 180 / 8 = 22.5 inches per step.
100 yard football field @ 36 in. per yard = 3600 inches, divided by 22.5 inches per step = 160 steps.
Also 100 yds. / 5 yds. to each line = 20 lines per field. 8 steps to each five yard line = 20x8=160 steps.)
Seven eighths, divided somehow into two
This knocked us for a loop for awhile.
And no, the answer is not (7/8)/2 = Decimal: 0.4375 or (7/8)/2 = Fractional: 7/16
Reason? This 7/8 is not completely a number, at least not in math, and the “two” can't be messed about with either. This short nightmare was trying to figure out how to march with two feet, playing music written in 7/8 time (already weird, uncommon, and downright awkward), and then sometimes still having to fit all this into that step-distance of 8 to 5 yards - (Not with your eyes closed, but all without looking down at all!). Who says music majors are bad at math? Not too shabby considering half of us don't know our left from our right before college!
Fun times! And yet, after six years of this, I dropped the clarinet (for once not literally while marching on the field, and praying that the bass drummer coming up behind me wouldn't crush it) and became a voice major. And I was quite glad to put away the math, in favor of memorizing pure GIBBERISH in four languages I didn't understand - all for the same week. Can you say, “Out of the frying pan, into the fire.”? (Yeah, but can you say it in German, French, Italian, and Latin? LOL)
__________________________________
(A truly hilarious Marching Band fiasco and my most humiliating public moment) here:
My First Days at Band Camp - A Laugh at My Expense - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/6726.html)
More “Life Mathematics” here:
Music Major - Trials and No Triumph after all - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/22488.html
Life Mathematics - Maternity Math, Mommy Mathematics - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/26584.html
I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with the joke that “Music Majors can only count to FOUR.” And, they only need to learn their letters up to “G”.
Granted, there's less of the higher levels of Mathematics involved for a B.A. in Music than there was to obtain a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, I'll give you that. (And privately I was evilly satisfied to find out that the math involved for a Chemical Engineer was even that much harder, and that Mr. Perfect couldn't help his son with it at all ! In fact, he gave up when the kid was still in high school ! Bwah-ha-ha !)
But Musicians have their own kind of “Math”, and it can get pretty weird.
8 to 5
No, this is not the hours of your job. At least not only that. I'm talking about taking 8 steps to five yards - something I used to be able to do with my eyes closed. Something I used to do for hours, in the sun, or in the mud. And I chose this lot - arranged my entire school schedule for six years to accommodate this "privilege" !
(8 steps to 5 Yards: 5 yds. = 15 ft. = 180 inches in those 5 yards. 180 / 8 = 22.5 inches per step.
100 yard football field @ 36 in. per yard = 3600 inches, divided by 22.5 inches per step = 160 steps.
Also 100 yds. / 5 yds. to each line = 20 lines per field. 8 steps to each five yard line = 20x8=160 steps.)
Seven eighths, divided somehow into two
This knocked us for a loop for awhile.
And no, the answer is not (7/8)/2 = Decimal: 0.4375 or (7/8)/2 = Fractional: 7/16
Reason? This 7/8 is not completely a number, at least not in math, and the “two” can't be messed about with either. This short nightmare was trying to figure out how to march with two feet, playing music written in 7/8 time (already weird, uncommon, and downright awkward), and then sometimes still having to fit all this into that step-distance of 8 to 5 yards - (Not with your eyes closed, but all without looking down at all!). Who says music majors are bad at math? Not too shabby considering half of us don't know our left from our right before college!
Fun times! And yet, after six years of this, I dropped the clarinet (for once not literally while marching on the field, and praying that the bass drummer coming up behind me wouldn't crush it) and became a voice major. And I was quite glad to put away the math, in favor of memorizing pure GIBBERISH in four languages I didn't understand - all for the same week. Can you say, “Out of the frying pan, into the fire.”? (Yeah, but can you say it in German, French, Italian, and Latin? LOL)
__________________________________
(A truly hilarious Marching Band fiasco and my most humiliating public moment) here:
My First Days at Band Camp - A Laugh at My Expense - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/6726.html)
More “Life Mathematics” here:
Music Major - Trials and No Triumph after all - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/22488.html
Life Mathematics - Maternity Math, Mommy Mathematics - http://qwinkly.livejournal.com/26584.html