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However, even smaller pitch differences can be perceived through other means. For example, the interference of two pitches can often be heard as a repetitive variation in the volume of the tone. This amplitude modulation occurs with a frequency equal to the difference in frequencies of the two tones and is known as beating.
Place theory is a theory of hearing that states that our perception of sound depends on where each component frequency produces vibrations along the basilar membrane.By this theory, the pitch of a sound, such as a human voice or a musical tone, is determined by the places where the membrane vibrates, based on frequencies corresponding to the tonotopic organization of the primary auditory neurons.
A pure tone's pressure waveform versus time looks like this; its frequency determines the x axis scale; its amplitude determines the y axis scale; and its phase determines the x origin. In psychoacoustics, a pure tone is a sound with a sinusoidal waveform; that is, a sine wave of constant frequency, phase-shift, and amplitude. [1]
The temporal theory of hearing, also called frequency theory or timing theory, states that human perception of sound depends on temporal patterns with which neurons respond to sound in the cochlea. Therefore, in this theory, the pitch of a pure tone is determined by the period of neuron firing patterns—either of single neurons, or groups as ...
An example is the phenomenon of tapping to the beat, where the listener anticipates the rhythmic accents in a piece of music. Another example is the effect of music on movement disorders: rhythmic auditory stimuli have been shown to improve walking ability in Parkinson's disease and stroke patients. [41] [42]
In atonal, twelve tone, or musical set theory, a "pitch" is a specific frequency while a pitch class is all the octaves of a frequency. In many analytic discussions of atonal and post-tonal music, pitches are named with integers because of octave and enharmonic equivalency (for example, in a serial system, C ♯ and D ♭ are considered the ...
Today, it is widely believed that hearing follows the rules of the frequency theory, including volley theory, at frequencies below 1000 Hz and place theory at frequencies above 5000 Hz. For sounds with frequencies between 1000 and 5000 Hz, both theories come into play so the brain can utilize the basilar membrane location and the rate of the ...
Musical acoustics or music acoustics is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from physics, [1] [2] [3] psychophysics, [4] organology [5] (classification of the instruments), physiology, [6] music theory, [7] ethnomusicology, [8] signal processing and instrument building, [9] among other disciplines.