News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by khedoros1 on Thursday May 10, 2018 @02:06PM (#17041444)
OK. What is music theory about? The explanation using frequencies, ratios, etc matched my understanding of the underlying physics and their effects on human perception.
Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by HenryTheHorse on Thursday May 10, 2018 @04:41PM (#17042775)
"Music Theory" is a very specific term that's used in music studies.

It is mostly a descriptive theory in that it studies musical patterns (rhythm, melody, harmony, intervals, scales, modes, chords and chord progressions) but it can also be prescriptive (for e.g. - don't use certain note intervals in a guitar solo if you are using certain chords in your song)

None of this has anything to do with Physics. Music Theory is completely abstracted from the physical world.

Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by Double_Cast on Thursday May 10, 2018 @02:54PM (#17041888)
Frequencies : Music Theory :: Logic Gates : Computer Science.

See my other comment.

Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by khedoros1 on Friday May 11, 2018 @03:18PM (#17050110)
Well...logic gates are (at a slightly abstracted level) just the reification of some of the logical concepts in computer science. Those concepts could be arrived at by observing the behavior of the gates.

Similarly, it seems like studying the frequencies and their relationships illuminates at least a portion of what music theory covers.