Math for Drummers (UMAP)

Author: Rachel Wells Hall

This Module presents musical and mathematical topics in a general education mathematics course entitled Sounding Number: Music and Mathematics from Ancient to Modern Times. This particular unit covers musical meter, rhythmic patterns, and their relationship to modular arithmetic. Exercises, quizzes, sample exam questions, and recommended listening are included.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Measuring Time

3. Rhythm and Groove
4. Notation
4.1 Steve Reich's Clapping Music
4.2 Led Zeppelin's Kashmir
4.3 Circular Notation
4.4 Scientific Time

5. The Beat Class Circle and Modulus

6. Polyrhythm
6.1 General Polyrhythm Formula
6.2 Phasing
6.3 Farey Rhythms

7. Solutions to Selected Exercises

8. Quizzes
8.1 Quiz 1
8.2 Quiz 2
8.3 Quiz 3

9. Solutions to Quizzes
9.1 Solutions to Quiz 1
9.2 Solutions to Quiz 2
9.3 Solutions to Quiz 3

10. Sample Exam Questions

11. Solutions to Sample Exam Questions

References

Acknowledgments

About the Author