# Is four a universal number in music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-four-a-universal-number-in-music/401867>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 27, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-four-a-universal-number-in-music/401867 "2007-04-27T14:58:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-four-a-universal-number-in-music/401867/21 "2007-04-29T07:25:58Z")

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[QUOTE=don’t ask]  
I’m at a loss here. You bring up further early stuff to prove what? He was simply making the point that triplet patterns aren’t some new invention - they aren’t a product of classical music, or rock or the blues or jazz; they are ancient.

You seem determined to chastise me by agreeing with his point of view.  
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, wasn’t meant to be a chastisement (except of Goodall 😉 ), and yes, we are agreeing. The only point I really was making was that ‘folk’ music as we know it, or as we have any knowledge of, isn’t necessarily all that old.

[QUOTE=Sleel]  
Notes of one-half the frequency and double the frequency of a reference note are perceived as being “the same”. That quite often leads to fours or multiples of it being used in musical notation and thinking.  
[/QUOTE]

I don’t follow how one leads to the other?

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