Music, Phi, and the Fibonacci Sequence

Musical frequencies are often based on Fibonacci ratios.

Notes in the scale of western music are often based on natural harmonics that are created by ratios of frequencies. Ratios found in the first seven numbers of the Fibonacci series ( 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ) are related to key frequencies of musical notes.

Fibonacci and phi relationships are often found in the timing of musical compositions. As an example, the climax of songs is often found at roughly the phi point (61.8%) of the song, rather than the middle or end of the song. In a 32 bar song, this would occur in the 20th bar.

It was Pythagoras who first described the fifth interval which has come to be universally recognized for its harmony. The fifth is the interval found in most western and sacred music, and it has a profound balancing effect on the human energy field.

This basic harmonic musical relationship called the fifth, is simply the interval between the first and fifth notes of a major scale. For example, in the key of A the fifth note is E (A=1, B=2, C#=3, D=4, E=5, etc). This interval is so primary and profound in music it is called the “perfect fifth.” The perfect fifth identifies that there is a progression in music that naturally cycles through all 12 keys in a way that is harmonically pleasing to one’s senses, also referred to as the cycle of fifths. Using the 12-around -1 matrix pattern as a guide, a do-decagon, one can observe two sets of the five Platonic Solids in this structure.

from the Facebook page of Andrea Wood-Cummins on August 3, 2024