What is pitch?

• In music the pitch of a sound means how high or low a note is.

• Musical pitches are relative, any note is higher or lower than another.

• It is the degree of relative highness or lowness of a sound

Frequency affects PITCH

• It is measured in a unit called Hertz and is determined by the sound’s frequency of vibration.

▫ The greater the frequency the higher pitched the sound will be.

▫ 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.

Pitch Notation

•Staff

•Cleff

•Notes

Vocal Pitch

• It mostly depends on the length and thickness of the vocal cords.

▫ Women tend to have higher voices than men because they have shorter vocal cords.

▫ Men tend to have lower voices than women because their vocal cords are longer and thicker.

Vocal Pitch• The pitch of someone's voice can also be

affected by emotions, and moods.

▫ For example, being frightened or excited can make the pitch higher because the muscles around the larynx unconsciously contract. 

Definite pitched Instruments• A definite pitched instrument produces

sounds at fixed frequencies.

▫ Example: when you press Middle C on the Keyboard of a piano the same tone occurs every time.

Definite pitched Instruments

• Other indefinite pitched instrument have no specific separation between notes.

▫ Example: the slide of trombones allows to play an infinite numbers of tones between Middle C and C sharp.

Definite pitched Instruments• As it occurred with vocal cords:

▫ The shorter the strings or the air tunnels of the instruments, the higher pitch these instruments will play at.

▫ The longer the strings or the air tunnels of the instrument, the lower pitch these instruments will play at.

Indefinite Pitch Instruments

• Not all musical instruments give notes of a particular pitch. Many percussion instruments like drums, triangles and cymbals are instruments used for rhythms.

▫ This class of percussion instruments are named: unpitched percussion instruments

Specific Vocabulary

• Pitch: altura• Frequency: frecuencia• Vibration: vibración• Hertz: hercios • High: agudo• Low: grave• Definite pitch: altura determinada• Indefinite pitch: altura indeterminada• String: cuerda

Useful structures• High pitch, very high pitch:

• The violin plays at a high pitch, the violin is very high pitched and the viola is medium-high pitched…

• Which is higher in pitch the violin or the viola? = Which is higher pitched the violin or the viola? • The violin is the highest in pitch string instrument• The violin is higher pitched than the viola• The viola is not as high pitched as the violin

• Low pitch, very low pitch:

• The double bass plays at a low pitch, the double bass is low pitched and the cello is medium-low pitched…

• Which is lower in pitch the violin or the viola? = Which is lower pitched the violin or the viola? • The double bass is the lowest in pitch string instrument• The double bass is lower pitched than the cello• The cello is not as low pitched as the double bass