Watch a note wiggle on screen — then sing into the mic and see YOUR voice.
for teachers: waves · frequency · 1/xOpen →
Eighteen ways in — all of them make a noise
Every instrument is a maths machine. Start with the playground below — nine activities built straight out of the Nathaniel School of Music theory syllabus, aimed at ages 9 to 14 — then dig into the deeper labs underneath.
Start here
Fractions, line graphs, coordinates, counting patterns, partitioning, rates and percentages — the actual maths on your timetable, turned into nine things you can bash, drag and listen to. No questions, no marks. Just push it and hear what happens.
Stack blocks until they fill one bar. ¼ + ¼ + ½ = 1 — then hit play and hear it.
Play itThere are 56 different rhythms that fill 4 beats. How many can you find?
Play itDraw a line graph with your finger, press play, and the graph sings back.
Play itPlot points on graph paper — except the graph paper is a stave and the points make sound.
Play itSkip round a clock of twelve notes: 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 — and you have built a major scale.
Play itSplit 8 into 3 + 3 + 2 and the drum starts to dance. Same total, different feel.
Play it3/4 and 6/8 last exactly the same time — and sound nothing alike. Hear why.
Play itSlide the metronome and watch 60 ÷ BPM do the work. Then tap your own tempo.
Play it3 hits out of 8 slots = ⅜ = 0.375 = 37.5% of the bar. Toggle them and listen.
Play itGo further
For older students and anyone who wants the physics: waves, ratios, harmonics, decibels and the speed of sound — each one a working instrument you can slide, pluck and measure.
Watch a note wiggle on screen — then sing into the mic and see YOUR voice.
Slide a bridge along a string. Half the string sings twice as high. Really.
Stack the secret notes hiding inside one note. It's the times tables, but audible.
Two notes at once: tidy ratios sound friendly, messy ones argue. Hear it yourself.
Chop one bar of music into halves, quarters, eighths and threes — then make a groove.
Make the wave big and small — and meet the decibel, loudness measured in logs.
Count 'one-two-three' between lightning and thunder — that's how you measure a storm.
Push a swing at the perfect time and it soars. That's resonance — why instruments have bodies.
A whole = two halves = four quarters. Add the note-fractions up to fill a bar.