About Pitch
Pitch is about how high or low a note is.
The most important component of music is sound.
Without the notes of different pitches, we couldn't have music.
When you hear two different sounds produced by a musical instrument, let's say a piano, then you'll hear one of the sounds as being higher or lower than the other.
Now sounds are not high or low in the sense that we're speaking about different heights but rather sounds that give a feeling of highness and lowness in relationship to each other.
When children hit two sticks together, like a drum, they do not hear a pitch that matches a certain note.
They can create very interesting patterns and cool rhythms with drums but kids can't play a tune like "The Farmer and the Dell" or any other song.
Wind instruments come in different sizes with each playing at a different pitch.
To make it easier for players to change from one to another, each written note is played with the same fingering on each instrument but sounds a different pitch.
To understand more about pitch, let's begin with the names of notes.
Musicians use seven letters of the alphabet to name pitches: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, but there are many more pitches than just seven.
There are low Cs and some very high Cs.
So this depends on the octave where they are located.
As you play all the Cs on the piano ascending to the right, each note becomes higher and higher in pitch.
When you play the black keys on the piano, they will have different pitches, too.
Some folks can immediately name the notes they hear.
We call this perfect pitch.
When folks with the gift of perfect pitch look at written sheet music, they can hear in their mind what the pitches of the notes are.
Mozart was one who had perfect pitch.
He could listen to a performance of a rather long work and then later right down every note.
He could immediately name any note played on the piano without looking at the keys.
I am a huge fan of ear training.
Test yourself by having someone play a note, perhaps a major or minor chord and guess what the name of the note is without looking.
Pitch will always vary according to the frequency of vibration.
The Notation of Pitch (The way music is written down.
) Five parallel horizontal lines with intervening spaces are used to notate the pitch tones.
We call this a staff.
So the staff is used to notate the property of sound called pitch.
Written on the staff, with notes fitting in on the lines and spaces, you read the notes from left to right.
As the notes go toward the top of the staff their pitch gets higher.
Our system of notation originated many centuries ago in Europe when tonal materials were much simpler than now.
Modern notation is an imperfect, but nevertheless effective, visual representation of the "high" and "low" effects produced by tones of different pitch.
Rewriting music at a different pitch is called transposing.
Many songs are made up of notes of different pitches.
You can tell the pitch of the note by the way its written.
Others that have perfect pitch can see the written note and hear its pitch in their head perfectly.
The most important component of music is sound.
Without the notes of different pitches, we couldn't have music.
When you hear two different sounds produced by a musical instrument, let's say a piano, then you'll hear one of the sounds as being higher or lower than the other.
Now sounds are not high or low in the sense that we're speaking about different heights but rather sounds that give a feeling of highness and lowness in relationship to each other.
When children hit two sticks together, like a drum, they do not hear a pitch that matches a certain note.
They can create very interesting patterns and cool rhythms with drums but kids can't play a tune like "The Farmer and the Dell" or any other song.
Wind instruments come in different sizes with each playing at a different pitch.
To make it easier for players to change from one to another, each written note is played with the same fingering on each instrument but sounds a different pitch.
To understand more about pitch, let's begin with the names of notes.
Musicians use seven letters of the alphabet to name pitches: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, but there are many more pitches than just seven.
There are low Cs and some very high Cs.
So this depends on the octave where they are located.
As you play all the Cs on the piano ascending to the right, each note becomes higher and higher in pitch.
When you play the black keys on the piano, they will have different pitches, too.
Some folks can immediately name the notes they hear.
We call this perfect pitch.
When folks with the gift of perfect pitch look at written sheet music, they can hear in their mind what the pitches of the notes are.
Mozart was one who had perfect pitch.
He could listen to a performance of a rather long work and then later right down every note.
He could immediately name any note played on the piano without looking at the keys.
I am a huge fan of ear training.
Test yourself by having someone play a note, perhaps a major or minor chord and guess what the name of the note is without looking.
Pitch will always vary according to the frequency of vibration.
The Notation of Pitch (The way music is written down.
) Five parallel horizontal lines with intervening spaces are used to notate the pitch tones.
We call this a staff.
So the staff is used to notate the property of sound called pitch.
Written on the staff, with notes fitting in on the lines and spaces, you read the notes from left to right.
As the notes go toward the top of the staff their pitch gets higher.
Our system of notation originated many centuries ago in Europe when tonal materials were much simpler than now.
Modern notation is an imperfect, but nevertheless effective, visual representation of the "high" and "low" effects produced by tones of different pitch.
Rewriting music at a different pitch is called transposing.
Many songs are made up of notes of different pitches.
You can tell the pitch of the note by the way its written.
Others that have perfect pitch can see the written note and hear its pitch in their head perfectly.
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