How Music Works

Music

Sound which has been organized to stimulate someone or something

A musical note consists of

Loudness, duration, timbre, pitch

Pitch

The rate of the repeating vibration of a note

Names of notes

A B C D E F G

A meeting in London, 1939, occurred to…

Determine the standard tuning for western instruments

It is rather difficult to learn perfect pitch after the age of

6

Perfect pitch is more common in countries with languages that

Rely heavily on tone

Because western instruments had “local” tunings for most of history, music from famous musicians, like Mozart, we often hear ____ of classical music

Slightly altered

Sound

Pressure change in the air caused by ripples and disturbances

Musical notes

Ripple patterns that repeat themselves continuously 20-20,000 times a second

Frequency

The number of times a string (or other musical factor) vibrates back and forth

Hertz

Used to measure frequency

Fundamental frequency

The lowest of frequencies within a note, of which other frequencies are whole ratios of this number

Short strings vibrate at ____ than long strings

Higher frequencies

Timbre

The distinctive sound of a an instrument

Notes can have the same name but different timbres because

The fundamental frequency remains the same

Harmonic

A note that is a whole multiple of the fundamental frequency

Instruments have different timbres because

They produce notes which contain different mixes of harmonics

Formant

The connection of favored frequencies of an instrument

The fundamental frequency of a plucked string is determined by its

Material, landed, & how tightly it’s stretched

Chords

Several related notes played at the same time

Vibrato

Wiggling a string to make the pitch of a note go up and down

Pizzicato

Plucking strings that create more of a “thunk”

Orchestration

The prices of composers balancing the timbres and loudness of instruments in an arrangement