this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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If you were studying all that, double majoring and double minoring, you aren't a musician, no musician is smart enough for all that. You were a computer/science guy who was also good at music.
My brother is one of those bona-fide geniuses, and he was also a decent saxophonist in high school, but he wouldn't have described himself as a musician. He also loves sports because it has lots of interesting statistics, but that doesn't make him an athlete.
you haven't met any really good musicians then
I actually have, many of them. It's a joke, good musicians are insanely smart. They can be loose cannons though, that's no secret.
I was quoting you. I am musically and artistically inclined. I wouldn't call myself a musician, I'm just a proficient singer and can play at a performance level with almost every instrument. I'm also just a tech guy, not really a computer guy. Really I have spent the last 20 years making myself a jack of all trades and a master of a few.
I was mostly studying all that because I have ADD, and no one tried to stop me, lol. I keep doing it because books are free.
I suspect you're better at math than you give yourself credit for. Most Americans that are "bad at math," weren't taught fractions properly and without that, none of the rest (Algebra, Trig, Calc, Number Theory, etc.) could possibly make any sense. Geometry is really the only mathematics that you can do without understanding fractions, and that makes sense since we were using Geometry to build buildings for millenia before anyone did a fraction to decimal conversion.
I understand "business math" very well, percentages, profit margins, etc., and use it every day. But not once in my entire life have I said "I really wish I'd paid more attention to Algebra." If I've ever needed it, I didn't recognize it, and have no idea how it would have solved my problem.
You mention that Algebra, etc. grows out of fractions, and I understand fractions, but have no idea how fractions fit. Another guy I knew told me that once you understand how Algebra relates to a circle, it all makes sense. WTF? I've never heard that before or since. Now you say its all about fractions with the same level of confidence. I don't understand what either of you are talking about.
I think American students would be better served if the math curriculum emphasized Business Math, with advanced math like Algebra, Calc, Trig, etc., available for students on a engineering, aeronautics, aerospace, etc. track.
I just noticed during my TA work that when most students were having issues in the more advanced maths, that their fundamental issue was a misunderstanding of fractions and decimals. Once I got them to understand how those two relate to each other, they started understand the rest of the math. The fractions in algebra are generally an entire term in the equation. The other issue that kids had was getting them to stop thinking literally about distinct numbers, and getting them to think about the concept of numbers.
I think the other guy was saying that calculus makes the mathematics of curves a whole lot simpler than algebra does, but that's a weird way to describe that.
Having flirted with the education system of the US and having two parents with degrees in education, I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I have no clue how to fix how math is taught in this country, just that the way we do it seems fundamentally broken right around 4th to 5th grade.
Thanks, great clarification. I still don't understand the application of algebra, but I'm sure it's good for something. I don't question it, because I don't have knowledge about it. I know a lot of really arcane, obscure, super advanced musical stuff, but I understand why casual bystanders wouldn't get it at all. The difference is, I wouldn't expect middle schoolers to learn obscure musical knowledge that they'll NEVER, EVER need.
To be fair, Algebra and Trig are mostly just stepping stones that are needed to understand Calculus. Calculus is the easy way to calculate curves, which you do instinctively. If you've ever thrown a ball, gone bowling, or driven a car you used calculus, just unknowingly, and, most likely, with poor precision.