Everything about Pitch Music totally explained
Pitch is one of the three major
auditory attributes of
sounds along with
loudness and
timbre, and it represents the perceived
fundamental frequency of a sound. While the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of
overtones, also known as partials,
harmonic or otherwise, in the sound. The human auditory perception system may also have trouble distinguishing frequency differences between notes under certain circumstances. According to
ANSI acoustical terminology, it's the auditory attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high.
Perception of pitch
The note A above middle C played on a piano is perceived to be of the same pitch as a
pure tone of 440 Hz. However, a slight change in frequency need not lead to a perceived change in pitch. The
just noticeable difference (the
threshold at which a change in pitch is perceived) is about five
cents (hundredths of a
semitone), or about 0.3% in frequency, but varies over the range of hearing and is more precise when the two pitches are played
simultaneously. Like other human stimuli, the perception of pitch also can be explained by the
Weber-Fechner law.
Pitch may depend on the amplitude of the sound, especially at low frequencies. For instance, a low bass note will sound lower in pitch if it's louder. Like other senses, the relative perception of pitch can be fooled, resulting in "
audio illusions". There are several of these, such as the
tritone paradox, but most notably the
Shepard scale, where a continuous or discrete sequence of specially formed tones can be made to sound as if the sequence continues ascending or descending forever.
A special type of pitch often occurs in free nature when the sound of a sound source reaches the ear of an observer directly and also after being reflected against a sound-reflecting surface. This phenomenon is called
Repetition Pitch, because the addition of a true repetition of the original sound to itself is the basic prerequisite.
Standardized pitch (A440)
The
A above
middle C is nowadays set at 440 Hz (often written as "A =
440 Hz" or sometimes "A440"), although this hasn't always been the case (see
"History of pitch standards in Western music").
Concert pitch
Since some instruments in an orchestra use different key signatures (because of
transposition), "concert pitch" describes a particular pitch in absolute terms, regardless of notation.
Labeling pitches
Pitches are often labeled using
scientific pitch notation or some combination of a letter and a number representing a
fundamental frequency. For example, one might refer to the A above middle C as "A4" or "A440." However, there are two problems with this practice. First, in standard Western equal-temperament, the notion of pitch is insensitive to spelling: the description "G4 double sharp" refers to the same pitch as "A4." Second, human pitch perception is logarithmic with respect to fundamental frequency: the perceived distance between the pitches "A220" and "A440" is the same as the perceived distance between the pitches "A440" and "A880."
To avoid these problems, music theorists sometimes represent pitches using a numerical scale based on the logarithm of fundamental frequency. For example, one can adopt the widely used MIDI standard to map fundamental frequency
to a real number
as follows
»
A string that's more dense will produce a lower pitch.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pitch Music'.
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