66
votes
Accepted
A (440 Hz) and A (880 Hz) are completely different sounds to me. Does this mean I'm tone deaf?
Note: For the physics and neurophysiology covered in this answer I am going to be oversimplifying for brevity.
They are not the "same" but they have the same pitch class. Notes that sound similar are ...
- 995
44
votes
Accepted
Does an accidental apply to all octaves?
Wikipedia has it right. An accidental that is written in, as shown in the example above, only applies to the note in that octave until the end of the measure.
You may be confusing it with the sharps ...
Dom♦
- 47.3k
31
votes
How do you refer to a note that is more than one octave above or below middle C?
This is an issue of what we call octave designation.
There is actually an international standard here: called International Pitch Notation (IPN), it labels Middle C as C4. An octave above Middle C is ...
- 83.3k
30
votes
Does octave not matter when tuning?
Why does it not matter what octave you're tuning to?
If you want to set a string to a certain pitch, of course it does matter what octave you adjust the string to.
Setting a string to A3 (220Hz) is ...
- 45.7k
25
votes
A (440 Hz) and A (880 Hz) are completely different sounds to me. Does this mean I'm tone deaf?
They're not the same sound, and depending on how specific you're being, they're not the same note (though they're both 'A', 440Hz is A4, 880 is A5).
In most contexts, they'll be the same degree of ...
- 45.7k
24
votes
How many notes are in an octave in Indian classical music? Is it 7, 12, or 22?
To use Indian musical terminology, there are 7 swara, 12 swara-prakaar, and 22 shruti in an octave.
The seven swara in Indian music are the equivalents of the Western do re mi fa so la ti. In Indian ...
- 908
19
votes
Why don't two Boomwhackers with a one-octave pitch difference have a 2:1 length ratio?
Elementary acoustical theory is based on the 'ideal string' with zero mass and no stiffness and the 'ideal tube' with zero diameter.
Real strings and tubes behave slightly differently.
The discrepancy ...
- 87.3k
18
votes
Accepted
Is doubling the root when converting guitar chords to piano wrong?
It is not necessary to double the root when converting guitar chords to piano chords but it could be done if fits better with the music. But there are important distinctions between the guitar and ...
- 27k
17
votes
Why do octaves sound equivalent?
It is, I think, a perfectly clear observation that one note an octave
above another note sounds as if it were the same in a certain sense.
It's certainly common for people to perceive things that ...
- 45.7k
16
votes
A (440 Hz) and A (880 Hz) are completely different sounds to me. Does this mean I'm tone deaf?
They are both the same note, if note means letter name. They're both A, but 880 is an octave higher than 440. The 440 A has harmonics on most instruments, one of which being the second harmonic ...
- 186k
15
votes
Accepted
How come we squish everything into one octave?
Our music did not originate from the harmonic
series to which you are referring. People played what
sounded good and what was within their ability to play well. Subsequently, it was discovered that ...
- 6,773
15
votes
Was the term "octave" coined after the development of early music theory?
Was the term “octave” coined after the development of early music theory?
No. As shown below, it was already in use by the 11th century to denote the musical interval (although the principal name ...
- 18k
14
votes
Accepted
Why do octaves sound equivalent?
There are indications of an underlying neurological (and arguably evolutionary) basis for perceiving octaves as equivalent, see for example this discussion. This phenomenon is pretty fundamental in ...
- 17.8k
12
votes
Does octave not matter when tuning?
True enough, sonically. You'll also probably end up with two different guitar parts too. 'Why does it not matter?' - it does.
I think you may be referring to tuning an A string (for example) to an A ...
- 186k
11
votes
What is an octave?
There are two words that we use to describe how 'high' (or 'low') a musical note is in absolute terms - frequency and pitch. Frequency refers to the measurable number of cycles per second (Hz) in the ...
- 45.7k
11
votes
Speed of playing notes in different octaves
The first thing I suggest you think about is the fact that a musical note is not a single frequency. Depending on the timbre of the instrument, there can be hundreds of frequencies present in a sound ...
- 55k
11
votes
What determines a Note?
Historically, two pitches whose frequencies are in a 2:1 ratio (or 4:1, or 8:1, etc.) are considered "the same". This is known as octave equivalence, and it based on how well frequencies in ...
- 75.5k
10
votes
A (440 Hz) and A (880 Hz) are completely different sounds to me. Does this mean I'm tone deaf?
I have been following guitar lessons in a small group for over a year. Recently, we've begun specific training to recognize intervals in scales (such as major third, perfect fifth, and evidently also ...
- 201
10
votes
Why do octaves sound equivalent?
The frequency of a pitch is n. the frequency of a pitch an octave higher is 2n. So, yes the harmonics are going to be very similar, but the first harmonic of the original pitch IS the second pitch in ...
- 186k
9
votes
Accepted
Are parallel octaves okay in other styles of music?
The rules about parallal octaves only apply when writing Bach chorale-type harmony where the aim is rich harmony with no one part "sticking out" disproportionately. Because this is often the first ...
- 87.3k
9
votes
Is it possible to tune guitar down an octave?(or to f#?)
Tuning a guitar lower than standard will certainly impart a darker, heavier sound. That's the reason many metal bands seem to employ various type drop tunings.
A standard scale 6 string guitar (25-...
- 27k
9
votes
Does an accidental apply to all octaves?
The book "Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation", by Elaine Gould (Published Faber Music, 2011) states:
An accidental holds good for the duration of a bar. It applies only to the ...
9
votes
Speed of playing notes in different octaves
It is true that low instruments don't 'speak' as easily or as clearly and high instruments, and therefore have to work harder to achieve that clarity. Double basses can sound behind because of this, ...
- 5,035
9
votes
Accepted
How many octaves can be heard?
"How many octaves are there in the human range of hearing?"
From http://www.penguinproducer.com/Blog/2011/09/did-you-know-octave-frequency-facts/:
The human ear can hear a maximum of 10 octaves: ...
- 45.7k
9
votes
Accepted
How is this octave jump achieved on electric guitar?
Pinch harmonics
In the example video, she is using a type of artificial harmonic known as a pinch harmonic, which involves simultaneously hitting the string with the pick (plectrum) and (usually the) ...
- 547
9
votes
Accepted
8 below note played as octave or singular note?
This notation is incorrect, but it does save space here (better would be "col 8" or "col 8vb" but "+8vb" or "col 8vb" are often used): the E should be played in ...
- 17.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible