Have Fun with Math and Music!

Abstract

If abstraction makes mathematics strong, it often makes it also hard to learn, if not discouraging. If math pedagogy suffers from the lack of engaging strategies, the pedagogy of mathematical music theory must deal with the additional difficulty of double fields and double vocabulary. However, games and interdisciplinary references in a STEAM framework can help the learner break down complex concepts into essential ideas, and gain interest and motivation to approach advanced topics. Here we present some general considerations, followed by two examples which may be applied in a high-school or early college level course. The first is a musical application of a Rubik's cube, the CubeHarmonic, to approach group theory and combinatorics jointly with musical chords; the second is an application of category theory to investigate simple musical variations together with transformations on a visual shape.