What are Pitches?

Now we know how much a wide variety of pitches can help the sound of music. But what exactly is pitch? We know that musicians can produce both high and low notes, but how exactly does it work? Well, remember what we discussed in Lesson 1? Sound is simply vibrations of air. We've established that there is an infinite variety of vibration possible, creating an infinite variety of sound. But that still doesn't answer our question of "What are Pitches?".

Well, consider this: the main chamber music instruments all have strings, right? Well, a string instrument player can raise the pitch of his/her instrument by moving his/her fingers to shorten the string! A pianist can raise the pitch of his/her instrument by playing a key connected to a shorter string! So, a shorter string must cause a higher pitch, and a longer string must cause a lower pitch! Maybe you've tried this with a rubber band before: if you pinch off the rubber band and pluck it, it will vibrate; causing a high pitch to occur. If you don't pinch the rubber band and just pluck the entire band, it will vibrate and cause a lower pitch to occur. This works in the same principle as the chamber music instruments

Great! Now we know how to create a higher or lower pitch. But what exactly is happening? Well, every time a musician plays a note, his or her string is vibrated very rapidly. In other words, the string moves back and forth almost inconceivably fast (the violin's A string vibrates at 440 times per second!). A longer string will vibrate more slowly than a shorter string. Perhaps you've experienced this with a jump rope. A single person jumping rope can get his/her rope to go very quickly. This is similar to the vibration of a short string. A jump rope held by two people standing far away will not travel nearly as quickly as the single person's jump rope. This is similar to the vibration of a long string. So, fast vibrations must correspond to higher pitches, and slow vibrations must correspond to lower pitches.

MUSIC

What is Sound?

So what exactly is sound? Well, let's look at the properties of sound. We can hear it, but we can't see, taste, smell, or feel it, right? Now, wait a minute, we CAN feel sound. Have you ever stood next to a large speaker? Or maybe you've felt the rumbling of heavy bass music through a table or a floor. These effects prove that sound is some kind of physical phenomenon. Sound must somehow be "hitting" you, letting you "feel the beat". But how can that be happening? We don't see anything when we "feel" sound...nothing but air! So we must be feeling the air when we feel sound!

OK, so how exactly are we "feeling" the air? Well, to answer this question, we need you to complete a little demonstration. Ready? Gently, take one of your hands and find your windpipe (at the base of your neck). The windpipe is the tube through which air passes when we breathe or talk. Now, keep your fingers touching your windpipe and sing a note (any note!) for a few seconds. If you're not the singing type, you can also hum or talk instead of singing. So, what did you notice? Your windpipe probably vibrated; if not, you may need to try again while singing a little louder.

Hmm, now we have the results of an experiment on sound, but what do these results mean? Let's think about this logically. Your windpipe vibrated when you made a sound. So, this means your windpipe caused the air to vibrate. Great, now we've figured out that sound is just vibrating air. But that still doesn't explain the rich variety of sounds that we can hear.

Well, the answer to this one is simple. We've established that sound is simply vibrations in the air. In fact, the reason we can hear sounds is that these vibrations trigger tiny sensors in our ears that send the messages to our brains. Back to the question: why is there such a wide variety of sound? Well the answer is that there is an almost infinitely wide variety of vibrations in the air. For example, the air can vibrate at different speeds and intensities. Each of these slight variations can produce a different sound. Everyone has experienced a wide variety of sound, from the lyrical singing of a violin to the chirping of a bird.

Instruments and Sound

Another question: how do all the musical instruments produce sound? Well, in all cases, the instruments produce a vibration (usually through the vibration of a string). This vibration is in turn transferred to the air, and eventually reaches our ears. Again, a wide variety of vibration is possible from the many different instruments. Of course, one violin may sound drastically different from another violin due to a slightly different type of vibration produced. This applies to any instrument, not just violins.

Yet another point to think about is acoustics. You've probably realized that an instrument sounds different in a small room than in a huge concert hall. At least, you've experienced an echo, which is just the vibration of the air being reflected by something so that it is heard multiple times. The acoustics of a room work the same way: the various surfaces can slightly alter the type of vibration and change the sound slightly. The surfaces can also direct the sound to travel in a certain direction. For example, in a concert hall, the sounds made on the stage travel out towards the audience because of the design and shaping of the hall. In some places, the concert hall is so well designed that a musician cannot even clearly hear the musician sitting next to him/her because all the sound is being directed outwards!

What is a BLOG?

• A blog is an online journal (a shortened form of Web log). Blogging is writing in one's blog.

• A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life

• A blog is a web-based self-publication made up of periodic articles. Blogs use post-based entries cataloged by time and date.

• The word blog is a short form for the term web log. A blog has traditionally been a journal or diary with dated entries.
• Short for weblog, a blog is similar to diary online, that can be edited using a simple content management system (CMS).

• A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.