# Musical Arrangements **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509 "2009-09-10T02:36:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/1 "2009-09-10T02:36:25Z")
I was looking through [www.metal-archives.com](http://www.metal-archives.com) and it just blows me away how many bands there are. I believe in order to make it onto that website you need to be a _mostly_ original band, i don’t have a cite, but that’s beside the point. That website only includes heavy metal and all of its various sub-genres. So given an average band, of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and vocalist. How many possible musical arrangements are there? And if your feeling really ambitious, what about when you add a keyboard, sampler, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/2 "2009-09-10T02:43:51Z")
I don’t get the question. Elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/3 "2009-09-10T02:49:30Z")
> [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](#): > > I don’t get the question. Elaborate. I’m not very musically inclined. But say your playing a drum to make a beat. “SNARE-SNARE-TOM” etc. They you play a guitar whatever the notes are. Then you add whatever notes the bass player is doing. How many possible combinations are there? Sorry, i know this is a confusing question. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/4 "2009-09-10T02:51:24Z")
There are an infinite number of ways to combine melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/5 "2009-09-10T02:52:46Z")
You mean, in a simplified sense, how many possible songs are there? Infinite. Even within a range of ten minutes with at least 50 percent variation in sound waves between songs there would be infinite possibilities. Most of it would suck. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/6 "2009-09-11T02:21:14Z")
> [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](#): > > You mean, in a simplified sense, how many possible songs are there? > > Infinite. Even within a range of ten minutes with at least 50 percent variation in sound waves between songs there would be infinite possibilities. > > Most of it would suck. Agreed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/7 "2009-09-11T02:55:46Z")
> [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](#): > > You mean, in a simplified sense, how many possible songs are there? > > Infinite. Even within a range of ten minutes with at least 50 percent variation in sound waves between songs there would be infinite possibilities. I don’t dispute your general point, but it wouldn’t be infinite by any reasonable standard of “sameness” of songs. If we say, for example, that two ten-minute things must be the same song if their representation on a CD is identical, then the number is finite–namely 2^(number of bits in ten minutes of CD-quality sound)–although huge. That’s counting too many; the same song, performed by the same band, as identically as they can, will have many different CD-quality representations. And if we abstract further, e.g., to all ten minute standard musical scores for five instruments, with no smaller than, say, 64th notes, the number of songs is much smaller. But still huge. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-arrangements/509509/8 "2009-09-16T12:08:15Z")
It’s just the general fallacy of equating infinity with a very large number. It’s common colloquially but can be somewhat confusing in the more academic context of this forum.