By Azam Shaghahgi for STEM Magazine

Music the aesthetic of rhythms, is a blend of expression of feelings, art, skill and math. Pythagoras explains the relations between the math and music: “There geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.”

Redefining music in the “M” in S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is easier to understand the medium of the intervals between notes and derived musical tones from geometrical patterns, mathematicians have linked music to numbers.”

The young Canadian female model-turned DJ player Eva Shaw explains the distinctive

correlations between music, math and science as “ineluctable”.

Azam Shaghaghi: Would you describe the vibe of music writing?

Eva Shaw:

When writing music, you find a specific pattern of notes that when they’re put together, create a sound you like.  You might be influenced by trends in music in chord structure and sound in general.  I think I use math without being conscious of it. Depending on the feeling you’re trying to achieve with a song, you can adjust the tempo, pitch, structure, and chord progressions to achieve the vibe you want. There’s a correlation in measurement of time and frequency. There’s always a certain beat count, rhythm and structure. I actually think structure is one of the most important features in a song that you may not necessarily consider as a listener. Proper order and repetition is part of most pop music.

Eva found her art and music talent at her early 17th. The urge to create the music, mixing the rhythms and feelings, she explains. “The musical scale is related to math, of course.  The distance between notes (pitch) is the way of dividing up the scale. Rythym is a way of dividing up time. Each scale repeats musical intervals , normally after each octave. Betweens octaves, there is a frequency range (this varies depending on the note).”

Making music for a living, she obtained a residency at the Hakkasan nightclub in Las Vegas after it opened in 2013 and has preferred at many music festivals and slew of other venues all over the world; but she believes she would be a scientist if she was not a DJ player.

How do you relate music to science?

Eva Shaw:

I think music is related to our biology as well. Certain rhythms, beats and sounds make us feel specific ways. I can relate a heart beat to a music beat and I think your body has a natural rhythm.  When you hear a beat, you feel it too. You can also physically feel certain frequencies but not necessarily hear them. We use this knowledge for mixing songs; cutting and boosting specific frequencies.

You can actually see music visually in wave forms and graph out sounds and music. A lot of musicians can tell by looking at a wave form what it sounds like. When producing music, I also create sounds using synthesizers. You can change the way something sounds by adjusting the wave forms within the synthesizer.

How do you see technology has impacted the music industry?

Eva Shaw:

Technology has made music more accessible to people who either want to create it, buy it and/or listen to it. You can upload your own compositions to websites such as Soundcloud, and you can just as easily find and stream music from artists. I think there are lots of benefits to technology and music. But, I also wonder if perhaps it takes away some of the value of people’s relationship to music. There was a certain excitement about going to a CD store (or record store) and finding that physical disc. Record labels used to really “break” (introduce an artist to the public) whereas now an artist has the ability to “break” themselves. I think with the growth of technology, artist’s music can get lost in the shuffle. Record labels need to find new and creative ways to identify new artists and work with the new and changing technology.

Many from science and also music field such as “The Boards of Canada” have called “Music is Math” what do you think of that?

Eva Shaw:

The relationship between music and math and science has definitely existed for a long time . Even Beethoven, who famously went deaf , continued to make music.  We can guess it was probably a combination of hearing the notes in his mind, musical structure he’d learned and maybe feeling the pulses. It’s funny because I was never interested in math in school and I think it’s because I was never taught to connect it with human things like music and art. I think if it’s taught with examples that one can use in real life such as examples in music, kids in school will be more open and interested to learn. If someone had told me, “maybe you will become a musician or a music producer, and this information will help you in your future”, I would have been  more interested. I was always interested in science,  specifically biology and the human body. I am the type of person who goes by feeling, a lot of the time. If I think something sounds , looks or feels right, I go with it. You can’t always find a formula for that.