Talk:Pitch (music)

Music theory Mid‑importance

	Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Music theory, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of music theory, theory terminology, music theorists, and musical analysis on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Music theoryWikipedia:WikiProject Music theoryTemplate:WikiProject Music theoryMusic theory articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Percussion Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Percussion, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Percussion on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PercussionWikipedia:WikiProject PercussionTemplate:WikiProject PercussionPercussion articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

South Africa: PSP SA

	South Africa portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject South Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of South Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.South AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject South AfricaTemplate:WikiProject South AfricaSouth Africa articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Wikipedia Primary School project.

Archives

/Archive 1: Aug 2002 - Aug 2008
/Archive 2: Dec 2010 - May 2011
/Archive 3 May 2011 -

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by when more than 4 sections are present.

Tip: Anchors are case-sensitive in most browsers.

This article links to one or more target anchors that no longer exist.

[[Helmholtz pitch notation#Staff representation|"German method" of octave nomenclature]] The anchor (#Staff representation) is no longer available because it was deleted by a user before.

Please help fix the broken anchors. You can remove this template after fixing the problems. | Reporting errors

Pitch and noise are not antonyms

The lede contains this sentence: "Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise." Perhaps this is quoted from the referenced source, but "noise" is a problematic term: music often incorporates unpitched percussion, for example, which isn't really noise. The page noise defines it as unwanted sounds, like weeds in a garden, which is a value judgment more than a perceptual phenomenon. —Wahoofive (talk) 23:27, 22 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How about this: "Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from unwanted noise." Is that better? ➧datumizer ☎ 06:18, 4 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It has nothing to do with "unwanted". Noise is a recognised technical term for non-periodic signals. It fits perfectly with unpitched percussion, which is certainly not unwanted. −Woodstone (talk) 07:38, 4 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That whole sentence is nonsense (though it's cobbled, roughly, from a reliable source that's equally nonsensical). What does it mean for a sound to "have a frequency that is clear and stable..."? We're not talking about sinusoids here. Dicklyon (talk) 04:59, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

While it may be closer to "physics for poets" than some might prefer, it is far from nonsense. "Clear" can be construed as closer to the "tuning fork" end of a spectrum whose other end is "sack of dented pots and pans rolling down a steep hill."

"Stable" can be taken to mean "holding still long enough for a pitch to be identifiable," say, longer than several dozen milliseconds. Just plain Bill (talk) 17:11, 14 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

History

I was hoping to find out when it became possible to associate a frequency with a pitch. The idea that sound is vibrations of air has been around for a very long time, but when did it become possible to associate an actual number of cycles per second to a pitch? BruceThomson (talk) 03:41, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

According to Beyer 1999 it was Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Dicklyon (talk) 04:56, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

About

pitch is a perpetual property of sound That allows their ording on an a frequency-related scale 102.89.34.202 (talk) 18:09, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Pitch is not the same as frequency?

Rather than pitch being a synonym to frequency, it is instead a perceptual phenomenon? And each "pitch" (i.e. each perception of a sound) has an assosciated frequency? I am so vastly confused. How am I supposed to understand pitch if it's not objective? Qsimanelix (talk) 19:15, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's a real problem, isn't it? Some other people have been troubled by such discrepancies throughout history. Remsense诉 19:35, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm trying to learn the basics of music right now, and this is not helpful. I need an explanation of music, for newbies like me. Qsimanelix (talk) 19:45, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article is not as good as it could be, but this is a real distinction that is important to make. I am not sure how it should be best presented, but remember that articles are meant for a general audience and not tailored how-to guides. I don't think we have an Introduction to music theory article, sadly. Remsense诉 19:50, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]