Pop Music Theory


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +
50: Pitch & Frequency

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody +
Songwriting Steps +
Science -
50: Pitch & Frequency
Games & Tools +
Song Examples: Crazy +
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +

Detailed Contents

Lesson 50: Pitch & Frequency

This lesson explains what musical pitch "actually is", i.e. what happens in the physical world to make a pitch, and how we measure pitch.

First, a brief definition of sound: Sound is what happens when an object vibrates or "shakes"; the shaking object makes the air shake; and the shaking air makes your ear shake. Note that these "sound shakes" are too weak, and too fast, for your body to feel them, which is why we have ears that can feel them, as sound.

However, not all sounds have pitch. When the air shakes back and forth ("vibrates"), over and over, at a constant speed, long enough for your ear to "measure" the speed, that's when you hear a pitch. Slow vibrations make "low" pitches; fast vibrations make "high" pitches.

A pitch is measured by its frequency, which just means its "speed" in vibrations per second. Vibrations-per-second is also called Hertz; the abbreviation for Hertz is Hz. For example, the pitch "A above middle C" has a frequency of 440 Hz; that means that it's vibrating back and forth 440 times in a second.


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +
50: Pitch & Frequency

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody +
Songwriting Steps +
Science -
50: Pitch & Frequency
Games & Tools +
Song Examples: Crazy +
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +

Detailed Contents

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