Music Math: Exploring Different Interpretations of Fractions

Powermath

by Kathleen Collins

This captivating volume explains math fractions by means of musical notation. Includes an explanation of all basic musical terminology and an annotated breakdown of the sheet music for the classic Aud Lang Syne.

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

There is more than one author in the database with this name. Not all books on this profile may belong to this author.

Kathleen Collins was a pioneer African American playwright, filmmaker, civil rights activist, film editor, and educator. Her film Losing Ground is one of the first features made by a black woman in America, and is an extremely rare narrative portrayal of a black female intellectual. Collins died in 1988 at the age of forty-six.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Discusses the fractions in music: note values, time signatures, and using them. Lots of musical terms and descriptions. Good book to use with students in band and chorus, however, believe it would be more difficult for non-musical students to understand.

6th Grade Common Core Standards: None

*Available at Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Libraries*

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A straightforward and thorough introduction to understanding how to read the timing-related aspects of music. Due to the focus, the book did not cover the names of the notes, but it does cover time signatures, how much different kinds of notes are worth, different rests, and how to determine how many beats are in a measure. It did not get into more advanced things like Codas, accel., rit., etc. The subtitle comes from the emphasis of the book on comparing time signatures and fractions, and the worth of various notes to others. I liked that it had some "practice" pages for readers to test their understanding and guide them through the reading of the timing of a short song. I would've given the book a higher rating, but the text was VERY dry (but that could also be because all of this was pretty basic stuff for me). There were some side notes added that helped the dryness a little. I thought the graphics used were nice, as well as the handy vocabulary guide in the back. Unfortunately, though the book could be helpful to any beginning musician regardless of age, the font chosen screams, 'I was written for a little kid!' I still would recommend it to music teachers and beginning musicians of any age.

[Trever · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was more clever of incorporating fractions into reading music. Even though the first part since I don't music very well, I struggled with. I liked the examples of My Country 'tis of Thee and Auld Lang Syne these were good examples and would be easily reproducible in class. My students would struggle, maybe my advanced students would see the connection.

[Hillvan]

980L