Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [hearing]

Coherent distinguishing of aural sensations. See also "ear-training"

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Why does music seem to transpose when I yawn?

You might have experienced this a few times : when you listen to music and yawn, what you hear seems to transpose slightly. Why does this happen? I'm thinking it could be the tension of the eardrum that changes and leads to different vibrations.
user13550
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How do professional electronic musicians/sound engineers combat listening fatigue?

As an amateur bedroom composer working in a DAW on my song, I might have a general idea of how something ought to sound, but through endless 'random walking through knob space' - i.e. tweaking different values on the synth while listening to the…
Ingolifs
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Do ear plugs have a big effect on ability to hear the music?

Ear plugs are likely a good idea for anybody performing amplified music (or even enjoying amplified music). But what is the effect on the ability to hear your fellow musicians when playing in a collaborative setting (i.e. a rock band)? Has anybody…
Ryan Kinal
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Why can't wearing both ear muffs (whether passive or active) and earplugs simultaneously yield more than 36 dB noise reduction ratio (NRR)?

I read on Wikipedia: Using both ear muffs (whether passive or active) and earplugs simultaneously results in maximum protection, but the efficacy of such combined protection relative to preventing permanent ear damage is inconclusive, with evidence…
Franck Dernoncourt
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Is the ear really phase insensitive?

According to Ohm’s Law of Acoustics, the ear is phase insensitive due to its resonant structure. For example, changing the phase angle of the 3rd harmonic of a note drastically changes the shape of a waveform - but the ear cannot detect it. If I…
Brian F
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Dissonant notes extremely panned - what is that I hear?

I was studying the musical theory and an idea came to me - what happens if I play dissonant chords at the same time, but one of them being panned to the extreme left and the other one - to the extreme right? I tried that in my DAW, setting one piano…
noncom
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How can we sing in tune, given a perfect ear for music, if we always hear ourselves lower than we actually sound?

According to this BBC article, we hear ourselves bassy compared to how we sound to others. What makes a recording of our voice sound so different... and awful? It’s because when you speak you hear your own voice in two different ways. Greg Foot…
V-R
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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 same note" (Sound or pitch? wise), is it because music…
Dilshan
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How to develop a musical ear when even singing poses great difficulty?

I love music and would love to develop a musical ear. My problem is that I can't get started. All tutorials that I find start at a more advanced point compared to where I am at. I can't carry a tune. When I think that I'm singing a melody, people…
Wynne
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Am I the only one to hear Cb instead of B here?

This comes from BWV 847 (the C minor fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier). Look at the third beat from measure 28. I can't help but hear an A flat minor chord here, that is Eb, Cb, Ab. Especially when playing with an "organ" sound on a synthesizer…
Alexandre C.
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Are theremin's pitch hand positions unique?

I don't know much about theremins, and wondered about this: given a constant volume, I would like to know if I can produce the same note with different hand positions or if all notes have a specific/unique combination of hand positions. In other…
beppe9000
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Does hearing fatigue?

Sometimes everything sounds terrible to my ears. Lacking of high end or ear piercing (or both a same time). After few days after stopping practicing everything goes back to normal. Does my hearing fatigue or it is something wrong with my ears?
teodozjan
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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 certainly can not be heard, as C-1 is ~8Hz, max…
Feliks_WR
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Can a note be heard in wrong pitch?

Just like Optical illusion happens to our eyes, can this happen to our ears? Consider a well tuned piano. Can we make hearing illusion with music? I show an example with steps: Play a note (or specially chord) on high octaves Play a note or chord…
M.kazem Akhgary
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Are the highest pitches always the easiest to hear in a musical texture?

Are the highest pitches always the easiest to hear in a musical texture (all other factors, such as dynamic, timbre, articulation, etc. being equal)? Is this why melodic parts tend to be the highest part within a musical texture (or certainly…
Bob Broadley
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