Maths For Music

[mathsformusic]

hello

imagine you were someone with virtually no knowledge of mathmatics at all (failed basic school qualification, couldnt see the point etc) but you were a composer and was becoming more and more interested in using maths for music. (thats "me")

Im interested in using fractals and stochastic structures to make music, both in the details and the overall form (self similar, probably)

Ive been using the golden ratio and golden strings and they seem to work very well, they fulfill a compositional maxim, "unity in diversity", or "the same but different".

So two questions for the experts (or anyone else who has an opinion). What course of maths would you recommend for someone like me? (i dont want a degree level understanding or to work on mathmatical problems, I just need to be able to produce equations (i think) or work with them to produce useable numbers/proportions.)

Second question, does anyone have any recommendations for formulas or mathmatical ideas suited to music? (im looking at the lindermeyer system at the moment for instance, the idea of branching sounds seems interesting, but im having trouble with terms and computations and am wondering what books I should be reading to help me gain more control of the materials?)

Sorry for long post, sorry if its not relevant here (moderator please delete or move the post if so) Hopefully it will interest some, the more I learn about maths the more aesthetic it seems, in a good way (a beauty in the numbers, or the form, because we see them everywhere, not because we are supposed to, i.e. culture)

[Math Tutor]

Your questions are very interesting. But I think that can not help you much.

I think you should visit
http://www.bugman123.com/Fractals/Fractals.html

There are much information about fractals.

What course of maths would you recommend for someone like me?

I would like to recommend you to search in the internet.
You do not need courses. There are too much info in the internet about fractals.

[mathsformusic]

thanks very much for the reply, i`ll check out that site

I think what you are saying is I can learn to use fractals and other mathmatical ideas for music by picking up the specfiic skills as I go along? (sounds reasonable to me, i`ll have a go)

thanks.

[mathsformusic]

excellent site, thanks for the link. (lots of patterns and systems I can peruse and find ones that suit my musical ideas/tastes etc)

[Math Tutor]

I am glad to read that.

[leesajohnson]

I don't understand what are you trying to say with this post "math for music".