Graham English

Two Canadian mathematicians from the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, have created an entirely new kind of string instrument that exploits a kind of mathematics owing more to Pythagoras’s theorem for triangles than to anything he ever thought about music.

Math is integral to music and its instruments. read more.

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Tags: guitar, math, musical instruments, pythagoras, Science

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Music Education, Prose. You can leave a comment if you follow my Living Room Rules. If not, you can leave a trackback from your own site.

Comments

1. Heather says:

   July 9, 2006 at 9:36 pm

   Very fascinating article! A new guitar-like instrument based on mathematics. My two strongest subjects are math and music and as this article suggests, there is a strong connection between the two. For example, I’ve found it fascinating that in 4/4 time the whole note is worth 4 beats which makes the half note worth 2 beats (half of the whole). Then, of course the quarter note gets 1 beat (1/4 of the whole) and the eighth note gets 1/2 beat (1/8 of the whole). When you switch to a different time signature, you can just reapply the fractions to calculate each note’s worth. So in 6/8 time, you have the eighth note at one beat and since the quarter note is worth twice the eighth note (1/8 1/8=1/4) it will now be worth two beats. And in 3/2 time, the half note is worth one beat, which means the quarter note (1/4 1/4=1/2) is now 1/2 beat, and the eighth note is 1/4 beat.

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2. Graham English says:

   July 11, 2006 at 8:49 pm

   Fun stuff. If you liked that, check out these articles when you get a chance: Phi

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