
The Link Between Jazz and Physics - azazqadir
http://www.openculture.com/2016/07/the-secret-link-between-jazz-and-physics-how-einstein-coltrane-shared-improvisation-and-intuition-in-common.html
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6stringmerc
Not sure how much rigorous examination this kind of connection can really hold
up using modern science, tools, resources, etc, but as far as intuition goes,
this seems like a natural fit.

In graduate school, I did work through some published educational experiments
that, in short, concluded having music time in the average school week was an
improvement in nearly all other study fields, and particularly pronounced in
Math of all things. Even compared to an alternate test group with _extra_ Math
time, the Music group did better than that one. The control group got neither
and showed no improvement, if I remember it correctly.

The relationships between long-form, technical musical proficiency and
abstract, logical thinking should be complimentary I think. Lots of the same
mental pathways I'd imagine. One guy I knew from finance - a real genius in
the synthetics / derivatives arena - had originally gone to University on a
full-ride music scholarship. Jazz saxophone and piano I think. After having
an, um, trippy experience, he discovered a new-found love of Math and switched
majors almost immediately, with great success. Anecdote, sure, but that's how
we can make connections for such obtuse notions.

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TheOtherHobbes
Many employers will tell you that music grads make excellent employees. It's
usually easier for a music grad to learn coding to an undergrad standard than
vice versa.

But I'm underwhelmed by these kind of fluffy semi-literary linkups between
otherwise beautiful things.

No matter what science people tell you, music is _not_ math. It's much more
complex than that. :)

~~~
tjr
_No matter what science people tell you, music is not math. It 's much more
complex than that. :)_

After three semesters of majoring in music, I made things easier for myself as
a student and switched to computer science, with a hefty dose of math on the
side. (I also thought that might be better for employment prospects; I think I
was right.)

I've continued to pursue music as well, but wow, those classes are intense.

~~~
nathanyo
I had a similar thing happen, where I had this insane aspiration of dual
majoring in computer science and engineering and music. After doing marching
band my first semester, which was 6+ hours of work a week ignoring games, and
seeing how hard the music majors were working, I realized how difficult that'd
be.

I still do the occasional ensemble, but the time you need to commit to those
courses are insane.

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dharma1
Thought I'd just leave this here. Cracked me up.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYzYpb1MY0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYzYpb1MY0)

On Einstein - [https://www.quora.com/How-did-Einsteins-musical-practice-
inf...](https://www.quora.com/How-did-Einsteins-musical-practice-inform-his-
scientific-work)

~~~
6stringmerc
That second link has a lot of really cool quotes and reference points for
Einstein and music!

> _Thus Albert directly attributes the Theory of Relativity to his study of
> music and how it allowed him to access his intuitive thinking. He once said
> that "the highest form of musicality in the realm of thought" (Paul Schilpp,
> 1979) as a way to explain to "mathematical" students that thought in its
> highest form is not mathematical but musical._

This is the quote I've been needing for so long - it's hard to put into words,
but I've gotten into XX arguments with people that "Math is the universal
language" is wrong and it should be "Music is the universal language." Math is
a form of notation. Music is a form of communication.

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beat
This reminds me of one of the best music lessons I ever received. It was from
one of the guitarists of a moderately well-known band from the CBGB's era of
American music. He linked the Circle of Fifths (a basic musical concept of
western harmony) to both its underlying mathematics and the more esoteric side
of Christian theology. Consonance and dissonance became our relationship
between Heaven and Hell. Intervallic relationships could be measured both
mathematically and theologically, and both tied directly to our intellectual
and emotional response to the music.

It's a short and obvious step from the mathematics of harmony to the structure
of Kabbalah, and from Kabbalah to theology.

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beefman
I followed all the links in this article and watched Alexander's TEDx talk.
The only "link" I could find is a rather loose one, mentioned at the end of
the TEDx talk[1]. A cyclic ('big bounce') cosmology is proposed as a solution
to the fine-tuning problem, and this is likened to a jazz soloist trying
different things over a repeated chord progression.

The associated paper[2] doesn't mention jazz or music.

Perhaps a tighter crossover between physics and music lies in the use of
Grassmann algebra to study both scattering amplitudes[3] and musical
scales[4][5].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9_ZzY99-6U&t=14m5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9_ZzY99-6U&t=14m5s)

[2] [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.00727.pdf](http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.00727.pdf)

[3] [https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5605](https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5605)

[4]
[http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Regular+temperament](http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Regular+temperament)

[5]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Ward_Smith#Music_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Ward_Smith#Music_theory)

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grendelt
Shhh! What are you doing?!? It's a SECRET LINK!!!

