Message #3441

From: Ray Zhao <thermostatico@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Re: Introductions!
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:10:49 -0400

Huh, I actually got a few things going on the music side – I play violin
(and some piano) and enjoy teaching music theory, except no one wants to
learn it for fun so I don’t end up teaching music theory.

"so that the air gets cut into two streams"
I guess that’s the secret. I always assumed it was redirecting the air
completely over or completely into.

"Recorders and penny whistles are great ways to see if someone might be
interested in the flute and similar instruments because they produce the
sound naturally."
Recorder has a bad rep though – most people play three distinct notes,
squeak four times during, and then stop playing it. Middle school strings
or band class is an ok motivator, though there, most people play just for
easy marks, based on my experiences.

"I don’t know what music’s connection is with math but it’s clearly there."
Tonewise, I think it has to do with harmonics on a string and the overtone
scale. The Xenharmonic wiki really explores this, but it goes really far.
For example, I found this on the bottom of a page: "For the mathematically
inclined, this kind of diagram is closely related to the Riemann zeta
function
<http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/The+Riemann+Zeta+Function+and+Tuning>."
Actually, zeta function? I guess that’s number theory. Welp, time to start
reading on number theory. @Edward maybe you can understand more of the wiki
in general; someone’s gotta dumb it down for the casual reader eventually.
xP

Ray