Mathematics and Music

"It would be unusual if something unusual did not occur."

When a guitar student recently made that offhand statement in response to me pointing out how a predictive pattern had temporarily shifted in a song we were working on together, I captured his words immediately in my journal. When I was unsuccessful tracking down its source, I returned to my student to ask him where he'd picked up that powerful insight. Though he did not recall, as soon as I learned from our conversation that he was a mathematics professor, things fell into place.

Because, in the end, a great deal comes down to mathematics. For example, isn't it likely there will be more crime in a big city vs. a small town? More people live in a big city which increases the likelihood of more people residing there with criminal intent. Or consider this: Isn't it logical - mathematically - that time seems to speed up as we get older because ten years is only 20% of our life when we are fifty, but 50% of our life when we are twenty? Before dismissing my premise, try something first. Deconstruct some mystery that has long befuddled you by using mathematical logic. I submit you'll be surprised where this takes you. 

This all began - as much does with me - via a musical interaction. But even if you dismiss today's reflection as too prosaic, there is no denying the undeniable link connecting music and mathematics. Western music has twelve notes. Yet there are nearly limitless ways those twelve can be combined into miracles; those miracles have sustained my life. And in music - as in mathematics - it would be unusual if something unusual did not occur.  

p.s. It was hard dislodging my sister-in-law - a brilliant mathematics professor - from my head while writing this.