Patterns In Music

Patterns and mathmatics are present in all kinds of music, from rythm, to riffs, to melodies, to just simple beats.

Tool, an American rock band formed in 1990, created a nine minute twenty second song called Lateralus. This song had a repeating riff that played in the background. This riff had the tempo pattern of 9-8-7, which put together is the sixteenth term of a great pattern. This pattern is known as the Fibonacci Sequence. This song also uses this sequence in another creative way. Each of the words has a certain amount of syllables before a break. The syllables start at one and then follow the sequence to eight then falls back down to three. Then at the pre-chorus it goes from thirteen, to eight, then five and finally three (these verses don't actually correctly follow the sequence, as the sequence would spiral infinatly and not go back down). However, the chorus doesn't actually follow this sequence in any way.

The Fibonacci sequence can also be seen in piano scales. For example, the C scale on the piano consists of 13 notes, eight white keys and five black keys, with black keys arranged in groups of three and two. Isn't that cool?

A famous type of musical beats or tempo is called the March Tempo. The March Tempo is a tempo played with a marhcing band during festivals or celebrations. Over the years the March Tempo has been varied by different artists and composers. Some of the examples of this are in Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, in the Marches Militaires of Franz Schubert, in the Marche funèbre in Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor, and in the Dead March in Handel's Saul.

In music, a melodic sequence is a repetitive pattern that can be used with any scale. These are usually used in solos. Another repetive pattern is a riff. A riff is a compilation of notes that are repeated throught the song. Take Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. The bass guitar thumps the iconic riff we hear and plays it for the entirety of the song. Look at pretty much any song with a guitar, and you will hear a riff that is being played for the entire song, or for most of it.

Many teachers usic music to teach kids about math. Eric Chandler, an elementary school teacher in Purcellville, VA, writes songs and changes the lyrics of others to make the learning of mathematics and other subjects memorable. Songs that repeat and are catchy get stuck in your head, so, he embeds math lessons in music that students might recall one day when taking a test.

Created By
Gabriel Batizy & Nathanael Batizy
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Created with images by stevepb - "piano music score music sheet" • cocoparisienne - "piano keyboard keys" • skeeze - "musician band marching" • Barni1 - "music clef notenblatt" • 3dman_eu - "white male 3d model isolated"

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