The music-theory tag has no wiki summary.
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Possible Playable Chords on a Guitar
Fingerstyle Guitar Chord Diversity Check
Considering a $20$-fret $6$-string acoustic guitar and supposing that the fretting range (inclusive of the fingered notes) for an average hand is $4$ frets in ...
0
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1answer
44 views
How to calculate the ratio between Semitones in the diatonic scale?
There are twelve semitones in the diatonic scale, so the frequency doubles every twelve steps.
Knowing this, how do you calculate the ratio between the frequency of one semitone and the next?
0
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1answer
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Minimizing error in user-entered series of timestamps representing musical beats
I've got an app in which the user taps a key to the beat of a music to mark out measures. If a song has a tempo of 120, for example (500ms / beat), the human-entered values might look like this:
$$u ...
2
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0answers
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Different mathematical models for Audio? Their dimensions and limitations?
Stephen Hazel suggested some dimensions such as
time, pitch, velocity of note down event, current root note of chord, chord type(major/minor/7th/etc), pan of the mix, volume of the mix and holding ...
4
votes
1answer
115 views
Is there a branch of math studying music algorithms?
I have found 2-3 search engines for scientific studies, things like algorithms, thesis, piece of researches and stuff like that; I'm really surprised to see a lot of applications for the math ...
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3answers
86 views
How to find a formula for a sequence of slightly inaccurate numbers
I'm in the process of reverse engineering a music file format from an old computer game. It uses numbers from 0 to 127 to represent note frequencies, however I need to convert these numbers to a ...
2
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4answers
782 views
What is Octave Equivalence?
This is an updated copy of a question I asked on Physics Stack Exchange not too long ago. Since I work primarily in mathematics, I thought it would be a good idea to ask it here as well (especially ...
6
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1answer
356 views
“The Music of Pi” [closed]
For anyone interested, see the Oct/Nov MAA Monthly Supplement about The Music of Pi. I originally posted this along with a couple questions, but have since asked for the original question to be ...
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2answers
436 views
A Weaker Version of the ABC Conjecture
The ABC conjecture states that there are a finite number of integer triples (a,b,c) such that $\frac {\log \left( c \right)}{\log \left( \text{rad} \left( abc \right) \right)}>1+\epsilon $, where ...
1
vote
1answer
152 views
MATLAB adding notes to an array to make music [closed]
I have the following code which adds a note at 3.5 seconds to the array music which is 10 seconds long, however I'm trying to make 10 different 1 second notes e.g. note1, note2 etc. and add them to ...
6
votes
2answers
425 views
How do you determine the closest whole number ratio for a given real number?
I've been messing around with formulas for musical notes (trying not to read anything that would help me unless I get stuck) and currently I'm at a point where I'm trying to get a function that ...
5
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1answer
415 views
What is Mazzola's “Topos of Music” about?
Disclaimers: I am neither a musician, nor I want to discredit Mazzola's work. Corollary of the first point: please use a plain style, without technical terms in the area of Music Theory. Corollary of ...
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1answer
380 views
Music and Math conversions [closed]
I am a musician in my spare time, and while sight-reading I realized that it might be possible to convert a musical piece into a mathematical expression! I was able to do rhythm, but tone is ...
4
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4answers
2k views
Music — Is the diatonic scale optimal in some sense?
I have recently found a mathematically-sound "proof" that the twelve-tone musical scale is optimal. I am looking for a similar explanation proving that the diatonic scale is optimal in some sense.
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16
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3answers
530 views
Why isn't a harp in a logarithmic shape?
I was watching a harp, yesterday, and thought about the mathematics involved. I know that music is closely related to logarithms, because having a string or pipe twice as long produces the same note.
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16
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9answers
903 views
Mathematics and Music
I have heard that, in recent years, many mathematicians as well as music theorists have applied different branches of mathematics to music.
I would like to know about some books/resources relating to ...
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3answers
1k views
The mathematics of music - why sine waves?
Of course, the Fourier transform is an extremely elegant mathematical method of overwhelming simplicity, and this straight away puts sine waves (or complex exponentials) on a high pedestal.
But what ...
13
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5answers
841 views
Math and Music theory books
Are there any good books on musical theory from a mathematical standpoint?
Is "Music theory and mathematics : chords, collections, and transformations", edited by Jack Douthett, Martha M. Hyde, and ...
4
votes
1answer
280 views
What constants do I need to create this specific logarithmic spiral?
please bear with me as I'm not a mathematician and this is difficult to word properly. :]
I need the equation for a logarithmic spiral (let's call it $S(\theta)$) that meets certain constraints for a ...
225
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20answers
44k views
Mathematical difference between white and black notes in a piano
The division of the chromatic scale in 7 natural notes (white keys in a piano) and 5 accidental ones (black) seems a bit arbitrary to me.
Apparently, adjacent notes in a piano (including white or ...
