PITCH
Olivia McConney
WHAT IS PITCH?

Pitch is the sound a note makes. It is how high
or low a note goes. It is measured in hertz. To
find out the pitch of a note you look for where it is
located on the staff. There are many pitches but
we do not play all of them. Since we only play a
certain number of pitches they are given names
such as an “a” note. We do not play all pitches in
music because a lot of them are what we would
consider out of tune. They are still a pitch of a
note but it is not pleasant for our ears to listen to.
HOW ARE PITCHES ORGANIZED?

The “pitches” or notes are organized into what
are known as scales. For example, there is the c
major scale. A scale is an ascending or
descending group of notes. In the c major scale
the notes are “c, d, e, f, g, a, b, c”.
MORE ON SCALES!

There are a number of scales in the music world
such as the chromatic, major and minor scales.
The chromatic scale is one which uses all the
notes including whole steps and half steps. A
major scale goes up in the pattern whole step,
whole step, half step, whole step, whole step,
whole step, half step. It usually sounds happy
and cheerful when you listen to it. The minor
scale sounds depressing and sad when you listen
to it. Sometimes it can even sound mysterious.
Minor scales are a semi-tone lower on the 3rd note
then in a major scale.
PITCH RANGE IN PEOPLE
Human voices have different pitches. In singing
for example, men have 4 voice ranges:
countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass, a
countertenor being the highest of all 4 and the
bass being the lowest. With women there are 3
voice ranges: soprano, mezzo-soprano and
contralto. The soprano is the highest of all 4 and
the contralto is the lowest. Humans usually tend
to have a voice range between 20 and 14,000
hertz. The most common ones are between 300
and 4000 hertz.
 Countertenor singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiAWvbLAlg
&feature=related

PITCH RANGE IN INSTRUMENTS

Different instruments also have different pitch
ranges. On the piano, for example, the pitches
range between 27.5 Hz and 4186 Hz. The piano
has 88 keys starting at A (27.5 Hz) going all the
way to C (4186 Hz). On the flute the pitch range
is between 262 and 3349 hertz. The highest note
is an F and the lowest note is a b.
REFERENCES
http://library.thinkquest.org/27110/noframes/theo
ry/lesson2.html
 http://ababasoft.com/music/teory03.html
 http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/majorscale.html
 http://www.your-personal-singingguide.com/vocal-range-1.html
 http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/music/pianof.html
 http://www.paranormalghost.com/evp_frequency_
ranges.htm
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