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In musical notation, the different vertical positions of notes indicate different pitches. Play top: Play bottom: Pitch is a perceptual property that allows sounds to be ordered on a frequency-related scale, [1] or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies. [2]
A jump from the lowest semitone to the highest semitone in one octave doubles the frequency (for example, the fifth A is 440 Hz and the sixth A is 880 Hz). The frequency of a pitch is derived by multiplying (ascending) or dividing (descending) the frequency of the previous pitch by the twelfth root of two (approximately 1.059463).
Logarithmic plot of frequency in hertz versus pitch of a chromatic scale starting on middle C. Each subsequent note has a pitch equal to the frequency of the prior note's pitch multiplied by 12 √ 2. The base-2 logarithm of the above frequency–pitch relation conveniently results in a linear relationship with or :
where f is the frequency, L is the length, F is the force and μ is the mass per length. Similar laws were not developed for pipes and wind instruments at the same time since Mersenne's laws predate the conception of wind instrument pitch being dependent on longitudinal waves rather than "percussion". [3]
The octave of any pitch refers to a frequency exactly twice that of the given pitch. Succeeding superoctaves are pitches found at frequencies four, eight, sixteen times, and so on, of the fundamental frequency. Pitches at frequencies of half, a quarter, an eighth and so on of the fundamental are called suboctaves.
Ratios have an inverse relationship to string length, for example stopping a string at two-thirds (2:3) its length produces a pitch one and one-half (3:2) that of the open string (not to be confused with inversion). Intervals may be ranked by relative consonance and dissonance. As such ratios with lower integers are generally more consonant ...
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental (abbreviated as f 0 or f 1), is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. [1] In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present.
The reference point between this scale and normal frequency measurement is defined by assigning a perceptual pitch of 1000 mels to a 1000 Hz tone, 40 dB above the listener's threshold. Above about 500 Hz, increasingly large intervals are judged by listeners to produce equal pitch increments.