Pitch (Music)

Pitch is the property of a sound that allows the construction of melodies; pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower", and are quantified as frequencies (cycles per second, or hertz), corresponding very nearly to the repetition rate of sound waves. Pitch is not an objective physical property, but a subjective psychophysical attribute of sound. The perceived pitch of a sine wave is primarily related to its frequency, though the sound pressure of... more

Pitch is the property of a sound that allows the construction of melodies; pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower", and are quantified as frequencies (cycles per second, or hertz), corresponding very nearly to the repetition rate of sound waves. Pitch is not an objective physical property, but a subjective psychophysical attribute of sound. The perceived pitch of a sine wave is primarily related to its frequency, though the sound pressure of the tone can have a minor effect. Sounds more complex than a pure sine wave also have pitch, notably speech and musical notes. Many such sounds are approximately periodic, and the perceived pitch is directly related to the period. They also have a spectrum that is (approximately) a stack of harmonics, and the perceived pitch is related to the harmonic spacing. The lowest harmonic in the stack is called the fundamental frequency, and its frequency is also strongly correlated with the pitch, though a strong pitch may be perceived even when the... less