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

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.

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.

141 questions
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11 answers

Why do people with perfect pitch perceive tunes not in 440 Hz out of tune?

I do not have perfect pitch, but I heard that people who have it might have difficulty when a piece of music is not tuned to the usual 440 Hz pitch standard; it sounds out of tune for them. But this makes no sense to me. As long everything is in the…
StefanH
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Why does the octave number change between B and C?

I noticed that everywhere I read about music in scientific pitch notation, I see the notes in ascending pitch as in: A2 B2 C3 D3 E3 F3 G3 A3 B3 C4 Instead of what I expected, which was A2 B2 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 A3 B3 C3 So why does the octave number…
Délisson Junio
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14 answers

If you don't use Solfège, how do you read & memorize music-- what goes through your mind?

I learned solfège as a child, long before I started to learn the musical notes on 5 lines. So I'm used to matching every notes to its solfege equivalent in order to know which piano key to press and how to sing. In the U.S. musicians use C D E F G…
GrandAdagio
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17
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8 answers

Trumpet - Should I think in concert pitch or not?

Should I think in terms of concert pitch playing the Bb Trumpet? Like if I play C,E,G should I actually think Bb,D,F? I'm having trouble seeing the advantage of thinking a note is something it is not, but all trumpet music is written a whole step…
Kellen Stuart
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17
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7 answers

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 represented with an oscillating wave, and the wider the peaks…
Ryan Griffith
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16
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2 answers

Why is the clarinet able to play lower notes than the soprano sax?

The clarinet and the soprano sax are similar in size, but the clarinet is able to play much lower notes than the soprano sax. Why is this the case? I understand that when the clarinet is overblown the pitch goes up by a 12th, not an octave, which…
JJH
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15
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11 answers

Do out of tune singers hear that they're off?

Is it the song "in your head" that is out of tune or is it your vocalisation of that ideal song that is off, and if so why/how? I guess what I'm asking is how is it possible to sing consistently out of tune having to fight your brain "automatically"…
Emanuel Landeholm
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14
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6 answers

Why don't tuning forks produce overtones?

I want to know how a tuning fork can produce a pure tone. I do not understand the process because I know, although not sure, the presence of air inside an instrument introduces the harmonics of the fundamental frequency (e.g. guitar or violin…
Oguz
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12
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5 answers

Accurately recalling the key - can everyone do it?

I'm wondering if it is common for people to accurately recall not only the melody of a song they know, but also the key. I've recently done a small experiment where I asked a few of my friends to hum the beginning of some popular tunes, like the…
Tomasz Kasperczyk
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1 answer

What is `Roland's pitch` and `Yamaha's pitch`? and How to convert notes to them?

I have an assign that convert this sheet to 'Roland's pitch' and 'Yamaha's pitch'. I have no idea about what is Roland's pitch and Yamaha's pitch, neither how to do it. Please let me know. using this image.
Aiden
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10
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5 answers

Perfect pitch on only one instrument?

So I was wondering if, theoretically, it would be possible to have perfect pitch only on one instrument. For a bit of background, I grew up as a Suzuki cello student and thus have been playing the cello for quite a long time now. When I'm listening…
Jackalope
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10
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7 answers

How can I develop relative pitch if I have perfect pitch?

As someone with perfect pitch, I can do the usual things associated with perfect pitch such as name a note instantly without a reference note, name the key, and name a chord. Sight-singing comes pretty naturally too, but that's because I end up…
DiscreteElite_
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2 answers

Is the pitch-producing mechanism for singing and humming the same or entirely different?

The sound-producing mechanisms in string instruments and the flute are entirely different. Are the pitch-producing mechanisms used while singing a song and humming a song (humming with closed lips and no tongue movement) the same, or entirely…
user48608
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"∞-TET": Is there music that doesn't use discretely pitched notes?

Is there music that doesn't use notes with discrete* pitches, but rather has instruments playing continuously changing frequencies? I know there are microtonal tunings as high as 72-TET, but is there music composed in what might be called…
Geremia
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10
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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?
randomlad
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