Questions tagged [pitch]

Use this tag whenever the topic involved relative or absolute tones. It can be the frequency of a note, or perhaps the comparison of a tuned instrument vs an untuned one.

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6 votes
8 answers
2k views

A melody is built from both notes and chords

A web site reads : The difference between notes and chords is that a note is a single pitch (for example C). ... This is important in music theory because a note will have no characteristic when ...
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9 votes
3 answers
521 views

Pitch and Hearing beginner question

I'm a total newbie. And I'll pretend there are no black notes so it is easier for me to explain. CDEFGABḈḊ (where Ḉ and Ḋ are one octave above C and D) When a Musician says, "oh, C and Ḉ are the ...
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0 votes
4 answers
94 views

If I have a combination of pitches played as a chord in a MIDI, how do I extract only two pitches from it and get somewhat similar tone?

While extracting pitches in a MIDI file of piano instrument, I get chords with combination of pitches as D2.D3.D4.F#4.A4 played for 0.2 duration. However, I want to receive only a maximum of 2 pitches ...
4 votes
1 answer
370 views

calculating midi pitch bend value from key numbers with fractional part

I am creating a tool for composing with midi micro-tonal message (pitch bend), and I wanted make sure I am calculating the amount of bending correctly. I would appreciate it if any one could tell me ...
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7 votes
7 answers
1k views

Do People and/or Robots Speak on Pitch and in Harmony with themselves?

I asked this in Linguistics, but apparently nobody there wants to venture an answer; maybe this is a better place to ask it. My ear is not good enough to tell via observation whether people speak in ...
17 votes
7 answers
3k views

What is the reason a given note can have different "sounds"

People, instruments, objects, etc. all are capable of producing "sounds" that sound different (not sure the proper term for this) but can produce the same note. Given that sound can be ...
6 votes
5 answers
547 views

What determines a Note?

In the context of guitar for example: if I press down on string 6 fret 3 and play that string, that note is a G. if I play the open string 3 that note is a G if I press down on string 1 fret 3 and ...
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5 votes
2 answers
147 views

Are there languages/cultures which use a different mental framing of note pitch than "low/high"?

It occurred to me recently that the way we refer to the pitch of notes is somewhat arbitrary. We refer to notes with a low frequency as "low" and notes with a high frequency as "high.&...
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1 vote
0 answers
70 views

How to improve what I am doing, thanks! [closed]

Am I out of tune? A little fast or a little slow? It’s original female song. I need more objective opinions from different people, not from someone know me well. Thank you!!!
3 votes
1 answer
63 views

Viol Tuning lowest note

Are there any instruments of the viol family that can reach C1 in pitch? I have tried searching it up online but I can't find any results.
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1 vote
1 answer
96 views

Learning to sing: Some songs i can sing straightforwardly other i really cant is this normal?

I've been learning to sing for a year. And I noticed some great improvements but there is one thing that happens to me that is totally strange: When I listen to songs, there are songs that I can "...
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1 vote
0 answers
50 views

Notes underneath the bar line [duplicate]

I am new to sheet music and.I get the notes in the lines and on the lines. But when the notes go above or below the line I have a hard time with reading it and identify were the notes corresponded to ...
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2 votes
0 answers
42 views

Apparent upward drift in pitch of "Mellow Piano" keytones on Roland HP 704

When I strike and hold any one of keys E4-G4 on my new Roland HP 704 in "Mellow Piano" setting, I hear an apparent upward drift in pitch of a semitone. When two adjacent keys are struck &...
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3 votes
1 answer
193 views

Portamento in the Scream Tracker

I am designing the implementation of the Scream Tracker 2 using Midi math. Everything matched perfect so far, until I considered "portamento". In the sci-pop articles there's no much ...
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2 votes
4 answers
126 views

The relation between making a note from "pitch & duration" and "name & octave"

This question might need some computer science information as well, but I'm stuck in the music theory side of it: I'm trying to use a library in Python (the programming language) called Mingus that ...
2 votes
3 answers
209 views

How is learning Fixed DO Solfege any different than learning Absolute Pitch?

In Fixed DO Solfege, you are essentially memorizing the pitch in association with the pitch's name. From what I can understand, you can hear any note without establishing a tonal center as in you can ...
6 votes
1 answer
84 views

How is the starting pitch chosen/remembered for music sung in Abenaki culture?

I'm learning to sing and teach to children several Abenaki songs. I was careful to be authentic in sourcing them, and am working through a book and audio recordings prepared by a Penobscot elder and ...
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1 vote
0 answers
146 views

How to route midi to mauto pitch to control notes in audio

I want to add mauto pitch to an audio sample and then route midi information to mauto pitch for it to adjust the notes in the audio to, like in this video: but with fl ...
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5 votes
2 answers
191 views

When could humans first measure pitch accurately?

This article suggests that accurate measurement of pitch wasn't possible until around 1870. Another source suggested that is was possible around the time of J.S. Bach. Does anyone have more info on ...
2 votes
3 answers
417 views

is there an instrument that plays all notes for the same volume profile (over time) regardless of pitch

So you know how when playing a stringed instrument a low note will always play longer than a high note. Here is a good question about it - When we press a piano key, why does a high pitch note not run ...
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4 votes
3 answers
710 views

What is the importance of the accompaniments for singers?

Why singing teachers says you must sing or practice a song with accompaniments or backing track (karaoke) ? I don't understand what is the point of singing with accompaniments, when i asked my teacher ...
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0 votes
1 answer
140 views

Singing in electronic music

In most of electronic and synth-pop music the accompaniments are played in very high or very low octaves that the voice couldn't match, so how the singers in this genres sing in tune without any ...
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4 votes
5 answers
743 views

How do I make sure I'm hitting the right notes when I sing?

I'm a beginner. I think I will get a new vocal coach since my current vocal coach is ineffective and doesn't help me at all. I asked my question on reddit and asked a singer I know, my question is: ...
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8 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the point of notes lower than human hearing

(Scientific pitch notation) For example: Organs can go down to C-1 Hyperbass Flute goes down to C0 And these notes have neglegible overtones on these instruments! Do they modulate other notes? They ...
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2 votes
4 answers
301 views

If a whole tone is a 9:8 ratio, and a major third is a 5:4 ratio, and a major third is two whole tones, then why (9/8)^2 != 5/4?

If a whole tone is a 9:8 ratio between frequencies, and a major third is a 5:4 ratio between frequencies, and a major third is two whole tones, then to replicate two whole tones, wouldn't one just ...
1 vote
1 answer
280 views

Help understanding frequency ratios and string length

This music book I'm reading taught me about frequency ratios as the basis for scales, but it doesn't explain it well enough for me, so I'm trying to learn more about it on my own. I want to know how ...
1 vote
0 answers
98 views

Why can I remember this pitch? [duplicate]

I don't have perfect pitch, first of all. However I've realized that for some reason the first note of the song linked below ("Brite Boy" by Alex G) has taken root in my memory such that ...
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7 votes
2 answers
202 views

Understanding terminology relating to the formula for the relationship between length of a string and its pitch

I am teaching mathematics, and I don't have any background in music. There is a cool example in the textbook that is related to the violin. There are a couple of technical words in that problem that I ...
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4 votes
1 answer
392 views

How to sort for pitch similarity?

In a question at Mathoverflow, I asked about how to measure the similarity of two musical notes: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/404259/how-to-measure-perceived-note-similarity-in-music-simplicity-...
2 votes
1 answer
152 views

How do unpitched instruments work on a technical aspect? [duplicate]

I dont know a lot about how sound waves work, so this question might sound stupid, but as far as I know the frequency determines the pitch and the amplitude determines the volume. What confuses me is ...
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3 votes
3 answers
291 views

Is there a word for being able to sing a song in a different key/pitch without practice?

Example: Say you randomly want to sing Toxic by Britney Spears out loud, but you sing it in a lower key or pitch(idk the terminology) you've never practiced the song this way, heck you're not even a ...
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2 votes
1 answer
569 views

Lyrical Contralto vs Dramatic Mezzo-soprano

I'm a self-taught singer who would like to ask about lyrical contralto vs dramatic mezzo-soprano. The range of my voice is from F3 - F5. On the upper end, I can sing up to C5 quite comfortably. (I've ...
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2 votes
0 answers
38 views

Effect of octave on consonance [duplicate]

Was playing around on a keyboard (Casio WK-245, default St.GrPno tone) and I'm noticing that the same chord moved up an octave feels quite different. When I play Cmaj7(no inversions: C,E,G,B in that ...
3 votes
1 answer
858 views

How do I pitch shift a song so that sounds in tune with instruments tuned to 440 Hz?

I have an MP3 file of a specific song where the instruments are not tuned to 440 Hz. When you play along to this song with a 440-Hz-tuned instrument your playing will sound out of tune. There is a way ...
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3 votes
1 answer
145 views

Subjective perception of pitch

I read that the human ear perceives pitch as the logarithm of frequency, so the ear should sense that each note on the scale rises by the same amount. However, to me the higher notes in an octave seem ...
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2 votes
2 answers
247 views

I have been struggling at achieving pitch accuracy since forever. How can I prevent singing off-pitch?

An audio of myself singing to Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy": my bad guy cover I have been singing for a year and 4 months now. When I started I had no knowledge of pitch, tone and dynamics. I ...
3 votes
2 answers
536 views

How to find out the pitch of a melody in Ableton live 10?

I have a sample that plays 4 chords. I have no idea what their key/pitch is. I've tried using the tuner audio effect but it doesn't say anything at all. Does anyone know an alternate way to find the ...
3 votes
1 answer
106 views

Visualization of Tones being played together

Recently I found this video showing the "visual representation" of sound waves. I was trying to figure out how these shapes were being generated. I am interested in the parts where there is ...
4 votes
5 answers
1k views

Why do "in tune" bass lines sometimes seem sharp to me?

I've noticed that certain bass and baritone register sounds often seem sharp to me, even when they are ostensibly in tune- the notes are checked with a tuner or generated by a digital synth that won't ...
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2 votes
3 answers
518 views

How does it feel (or where) to change the pitch while singing?

I unfortunately use my larynx while I change my pitch, and I really don't know where or what or how to feel while I change my pitch without using my larynx. How do I even control my vocal cords ...
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3 votes
0 answers
192 views

Why do the bass lines of some songs sound sharp to me? [closed]

I'm listening to the radio. Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" came on and I was reminded that every time I hear this song the bass guitar, on the lowest note of the backing lick (or whatever ...
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10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why are drums considered non pitched instruments?

Aren't the different parts of it having a different pitch? Can't this be used to play a melody?
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2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why does Garageband play my recorded audio at the wrong pitch?

I was recording my bass in Garageband. After some recording, I created a new track, and the new regions in the track started playing in the wrong pitch (but at the correct tempo). I was able to make ...
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Octaves start on C with guitar?

I am learning scientific pitch in order to understand the guitar fretboard better, in terms of absolute pitch. What I was taught, was that A to G, and then back to A up an octave. When I look at the ...
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1 vote
1 answer
148 views

What are the pitches in this donso ngoni tuning? [closed]

Please see the image below depicting the donso ngoni. I'm bad at identifying notes from clefs. But if I'm giving a try to guess the notes I think in the key of A: it is A - B - D - E - G - A. Is that ...
2 votes
2 answers
258 views

Unlearned Perfect Pitch / never had it?

Cheers, I'm 25 and I have some perfect pitch issues... Questions about this get asked a lot but I haven't found something similar yet! So, playing piano for most of my life, music teachers told me I ...
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8 votes
1 answer
333 views

Do all fundamental frequencies have 1 anti-node and 2 nodes

Given any musical instrument, when a note is played on the instrument, does the fundamental have only one node and 2 antinodes (Theoretically fundamental frequencies should have half wavelength)? If ...
1 vote
0 answers
43 views

Improving perfect pitch? [duplicate]

I've always had good pitch hearing but never perfect. Things like 1/32 tone change is hard to notice. I was wondering whether it can be improved (if you have some to begin with) to achieve "...
5 votes
1 answer
437 views

How to deal with voice change?

I am a 14 year old boy and I think my voice is changing. Last year I used to nail notes from D4-G5 in my chest voice and I was always taking the high octave (even with the girls singing) but over the ...
0 votes
1 answer
188 views

Why are notes created the way they are today? [duplicate]

The main question I have is admittedly broad. I'd like to know why the notes we use today are the way they are. By that I mean how is it that we have converged upon the specific discrete set of ...
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