Pitch (music)
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In music the pitch of a note means how high or low a note is.
The pitch of a note can be measured in a unit called Hertz. A note that is vibrating at 256 Hz will be caused by sound waves that vibrate at 256 times a second. This will be Middle C on the piano.
Not all musical instruments give notes of a particular pitch. Many percussion instruments like drums, triangles and cymbals are instruments used for rhythms. They do not play tunes because they have no definite pitch (although if you listen very carefully they often do suggest a pitch).
Some musicians have a sense of absolute pitch or perfect pitch. This means that they always know what note is being played, even without comparing it to another note. Having a sense of absolute pitch does not necessarily make someone a good musician, although it can be very useful.
See also:
- note (music)
- musical notation
- scale (music)
- wave (physics)
- tuning systems (music)
Categories: Sound | Music