Music theory Memes

Posts tagged with Music theory

The Disciplinary Superiority Complex

The Disciplinary Superiority Complex
The eternal academic standoff! Music teachers insisting their Roman numeral chord progressions are basic stuff while rocket scientists claiming their orbital mechanics diagrams are elementary. Both fields thinking their complex notation systems should be intuitive to everyone else, while simultaneously being baffled by each other's "simple" concepts. The cognitive dissonance is stronger than a tritone resolution or an escape velocity calculation!

It's Not Rocket Music Theory

It's Not Rocket Music Theory
The perfect encapsulation of academic gatekeeping! Top panel shows a music professor drowning students in complex notation while saying "it's not rocket science." Bottom panel shows an aerospace engineer pointing at actual rocket schematics saying "it's not music theory." Every field thinks their complexity is the baseline while dismissing others as trivial. Meanwhile students are sobbing in both classes. Trust me, after 30 years in academia, I've seen engineering students crumble at Bach and music majors faint at differential equations. We're all just specialized monkeys pretending our particular banana is the hardest to peel.

When Math Meets Music: The Unsimplified Truth

When Math Meets Music: The Unsimplified Truth
Musicians aren't bad at math - they're just playing by different rules! In music notation, 6/8 time isn't a fraction waiting to be simplified to 3/4. It tells you there are 6 eighth notes per measure, creating a completely different rhythmic feel than 3/4 time (which has 3 quarter notes per measure). It's like saying "why don't we just call all dogs 'small wolves'?" Sure, mathematically they might look equivalent, but try telling that to a conductor when you're playing a waltz instead of a jig! The beauty of music is that these "unsimplified fractions" create entirely different emotional experiences. Math and art collide in the most delightful way!