Musician Survey
- Thread starter Spider-manf4n4t1c
- Start date
TERI Sexton
New member
Oh this whole music and maths correlation thing again, hey?
1.) Are you a Musician? Yes
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? Alternative, rock, classical, jazz... a whole range.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? Eight.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? 6/10
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? I can't remeraber, it was about 4 years ago and it was a relatively easy one.
1.) Are you a Musician? Yes
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? Alternative, rock, classical, jazz... a whole range.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? Eight.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? 6/10
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? I can't remeraber, it was about 4 years ago and it was a relatively easy one.
This survey seems to have an unusual amount of serious cooperation. 
1.) a. Are you a Musician?
Yeah
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Bass, keyboard
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Anything I can get my grubby mitts on.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
Started playing keyboard at 8, but stopped for many years and recently picked it up again.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
9
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
Maths with Calculus
1.) a. Are you a Musician?
Yeah
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Bass, keyboard
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Anything I can get my grubby mitts on.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
Started playing keyboard at 8, but stopped for many years and recently picked it up again.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
9
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
Maths with Calculus
Male, 20
1.) a. Are you a Musician?
I guess.
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Mandolin, tin whistle, alto sax. I can play a little guitar and bass too, but only a little.
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Listen to all sorts of stuff. I mainly play jazz, bluegrass and folk, among others.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
14... I think...
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
Pretty bad. I barely scraped a GCSE in it.
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
I really don't remeraber
1.) a. Are you a Musician?
I guess.
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Mandolin, tin whistle, alto sax. I can play a little guitar and bass too, but only a little.
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Listen to all sorts of stuff. I mainly play jazz, bluegrass and folk, among others.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
14... I think...
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
Pretty bad. I barely scraped a GCSE in it.
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
I really don't remeraber
1.) Are you a Musician? I play for fun.
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? All kinRAB of rock.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 18.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? 9/10
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? Calculus
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? All kinRAB of rock.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 18.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? 9/10
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? Calculus
B
Bob Sanchezel
Guest
I agree too that math and music is related, but curious if it speaks for our preferred genre of music?
*intrigued*
*intrigued*
lacrossegal511
New member
1.) a. Are you a Musician? Yes
b. What instrument(s) do you play? Viola
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? I listen to just about anything, but the orchestra usually played classical music. Sometimes we'd play popular songs or avant garde stuff, but very rarely.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 4th grade so I think age 10.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? I did really well in algebra, but struggled in geometry and statistics. I think the statistics thing was just senioritis, though.
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? Statistics.
b. What instrument(s) do you play? Viola
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? I listen to just about anything, but the orchestra usually played classical music. Sometimes we'd play popular songs or avant garde stuff, but very rarely.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 4th grade so I think age 10.
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school? I did really well in algebra, but struggled in geometry and statistics. I think the statistics thing was just senioritis, though.
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school? Statistics.
JohnnysAngel
New member
I realize that, I'm pointing out that there might be weaknesses by doing it that way.
Just as an example, what if the people who play instruments on average come from families with a significantly higher income than the ones who don't? Family income could then be a variable that helps explain the data, but it's not accounted for in the survey ("hidden variable"). You might end up saying that ability with an instrument correlates positively with understanding of maths when it should have been family income.
Just an example of a variable - there could be many more .. Probably also much better examples.
Just as an example, what if the people who play instruments on average come from families with a significantly higher income than the ones who don't? Family income could then be a variable that helps explain the data, but it's not accounted for in the survey ("hidden variable"). You might end up saying that ability with an instrument correlates positively with understanding of maths when it should have been family income.
Just an example of a variable - there could be many more .. Probably also much better examples.
love my kids
New member
you chauvinist pieces of shit
1.) a. Are you a Musician?
Yes
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Piano + guitar
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Listen to indie, classical, jazz. Play classical
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
I think 9 for piano and i was 12 when I started guitar
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
Above average
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
It will be AP Calculus (I'm a senior right now)
EDIT - I'm 17 + Male.
Yes
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Piano + guitar
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Listen to indie, classical, jazz. Play classical
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
I think 9 for piano and i was 12 when I started guitar
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
Above average
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
It will be AP Calculus (I'm a senior right now)
EDIT - I'm 17 + Male.
michaelempeigne
New member
Wow really?
Little Miss Chatterbox
New member
I'm 15 and female.
1) a. Are you a Musician?
Yes.
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Guitar, drums, piano, french horn, bass.
2) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Rock/Classic Rock/Punk...Even though I sometimes listen to other stuff (dance, funk, etc.)
3) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
I started playing drums when I was 3. Piano when I was 6. Guitar when I was 8. French horn when I was 9. I picked up bass over the years.
4) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
I am a sophomore in high school right now. Well..uh..I've gotten an A in math for the past two years. And I got 100% on my last test And A's on all the others. So 9/10 (cos I probably won't get an A forever) P.S. I listen to music while I do math...Always...Even in class.
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
I'm in Algebra 1B.....Don't make fun of me! I took a crappy entrance test freshman year.
1) a. Are you a Musician?
Yes.
b. What instrument(s) do you play?
Guitar, drums, piano, french horn, bass.
2) What Genre of music do you listen to/play?
Rock/Classic Rock/Punk...Even though I sometimes listen to other stuff (dance, funk, etc.)
3) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing?
I started playing drums when I was 3. Piano when I was 6. Guitar when I was 8. French horn when I was 9. I picked up bass over the years.
4) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
I am a sophomore in high school right now. Well..uh..I've gotten an A in math for the past two years. And I got 100% on my last test
And A's on all the others. So 9/10 (cos I probably won't get an A forever) P.S. I listen to music while I do math...Always...Even in class.5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
I'm in Algebra 1B.....Don't make fun of me! I took a crappy entrance test freshman year.
1.) a. Are you a Musician? sometimes
b. What instrument(s) do you play? guitar / bass
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? loud, immediate, and intense both for listening and playing.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 16
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
i'd rather know why this is the 2nd musician's survey i've seen on this site in recent memory that referenced math class.
Also please leave your age and gender in your response.
32, i think the 'mr.' should be indicative enough.
b. What instrument(s) do you play? guitar / bass
2.) What Genre of music do you listen to/play? loud, immediate, and intense both for listening and playing.
3.) If you play an instrument, at what age did you start playing? 16
4.) How would you rate your performance in math classes during high school?
5.) What was the last math class you took in high school?
i'd rather know why this is the 2nd musician's survey i've seen on this site in recent memory that referenced math class.
Also please leave your age and gender in your response.
32, i think the 'mr.' should be indicative enough.
THE KiNG OF POP
New member
i'm sure they don't work in some insane statistics company.
i'm sure it is a highschool/university paper to see if musicians excel at math (which, i'm told that if you can read and write music, you are generally pretty good at math.)
i'm sure it is a highschool/university paper to see if musicians excel at math (which, i'm told that if you can read and write music, you are generally pretty good at math.)
dolphinprincess_sarah
New member
^You seem like a pretty cool guy. You played in an orchestra?
Are you agreeing with me? .. Because I never wrote that I assumed that taste for music will go along with taste for maths. I think I have heard something along those lines, but I'd like to read an article before I make up my mind.
My comment was regarding this survey - I have an inlking that these questions will in fact not give very reliable data on how music and maths correlate (or don't).
.. So if it was my survey, I'd rewrite the questions to account for more variables. The hidden ones!
I'll add (jokingly
) that if music and maths really did correlate positively, more people would understand the last two posts I wrote. I've been writing about statistics after all.
EDIT :
For the OP :
I'll give a hint as to how to improve this survey a bit. First of all, I think the approach might be a little off to start with. Try and think like this; what is it you want to show with the data for your survey? What are you investigating? How do you show it? I suggest coming up with a hypothesis.
Hypothesis : Musical and math skills correlate (means that skill at music and maths relate to eachother, either positively (hand in hand) or negatively (bad at one makes the other better))
You should also have an alternative hypothesis, like this :
Alternative hypothesis : Musical and math skills do not correlate (means your musical skills don't matter when it comes to maths)
The point is that evidence in favour of one will disprove the other one. Hypotheses like these are easy to test and get a good answer out of. Before you can start testing, you need to gather data to back up your hypotheses .. And then you need to make a survey that gives you some kind of good data. For example :
How many instruments do you play?
How many years have you played instrument(s)?
On a rating where 1 is lowest and 10 is highest, where do you rank yourself at math skills?
Putting some thought into questions is important. I mean, how are you gonna use an answer like "bad" in statistics? Nothing's impossible, but designing better questions may remove the problem completely.
Finally, you should watch out for hidden variables. Sex and age are accounted for (very good!), but there could be others. For example, as I mentioned, people who play more instruments may come from more wealthy families (because they can afford them) and if this really is a trend, that could influence your data (if being rich or poor influences skill with maths or music). To account for something like that, you need to make up more questions.
How would you describe your family's economic situation as you grew up?
You could make a sort of rating, f.ex - 1 = Poor, 2 = lower middle class, 3 = Upper Middle Class, 4 = Higher middle class, 5 = Rich.
I know that a question like that might be getting a bit intimate for people answering on a public forum, but just some suggestions to get your thoughts spinning. From the posts here, it seems to me like the question about genres for example is not gonna help you much in a statistical sense. I mean, maybe you could say something like "people who listen to classical music is smarter than people who listen to rock", but I don't think I'd believe in it and frankly .. you should have a pretty large sample size for anything like that.
Well, that's it for statistics 101 for now, but feel free to ask questions.
My comment was regarding this survey - I have an inlking that these questions will in fact not give very reliable data on how music and maths correlate (or don't).
.. So if it was my survey, I'd rewrite the questions to account for more variables. The hidden ones!
I'll add (jokingly
) that if music and maths really did correlate positively, more people would understand the last two posts I wrote. I've been writing about statistics after all. EDIT :
For the OP :
I'll give a hint as to how to improve this survey a bit. First of all, I think the approach might be a little off to start with. Try and think like this; what is it you want to show with the data for your survey? What are you investigating? How do you show it? I suggest coming up with a hypothesis.
Hypothesis : Musical and math skills correlate (means that skill at music and maths relate to eachother, either positively (hand in hand) or negatively (bad at one makes the other better))
You should also have an alternative hypothesis, like this :
Alternative hypothesis : Musical and math skills do not correlate (means your musical skills don't matter when it comes to maths)
The point is that evidence in favour of one will disprove the other one. Hypotheses like these are easy to test and get a good answer out of. Before you can start testing, you need to gather data to back up your hypotheses .. And then you need to make a survey that gives you some kind of good data. For example :
How many instruments do you play?
How many years have you played instrument(s)?
On a rating where 1 is lowest and 10 is highest, where do you rank yourself at math skills?
Putting some thought into questions is important. I mean, how are you gonna use an answer like "bad" in statistics? Nothing's impossible, but designing better questions may remove the problem completely.
Finally, you should watch out for hidden variables. Sex and age are accounted for (very good!), but there could be others. For example, as I mentioned, people who play more instruments may come from more wealthy families (because they can afford them) and if this really is a trend, that could influence your data (if being rich or poor influences skill with maths or music). To account for something like that, you need to make up more questions.
How would you describe your family's economic situation as you grew up?
You could make a sort of rating, f.ex - 1 = Poor, 2 = lower middle class, 3 = Upper Middle Class, 4 = Higher middle class, 5 = Rich.
I know that a question like that might be getting a bit intimate for people answering on a public forum, but just some suggestions to get your thoughts spinning. From the posts here, it seems to me like the question about genres for example is not gonna help you much in a statistical sense. I mean, maybe you could say something like "people who listen to classical music is smarter than people who listen to rock", but I don't think I'd believe in it and frankly .. you should have a pretty large sample size for anything like that.
Well, that's it for statistics 101 for now, but feel free to ask questions.