Music & Sound

4 breaks

Vibrations, harmony and why some sounds feel right.

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Why two almost-equal notes make a wobble: beats and the piano tuner's trick Play two almost-equal notes together and you hear one pitch that swells and fades. Those swells are beats, and their rate is simply the difference in… Music & Sound4 min read Why a piano can never be perfectly in tune: twelve fifths overshoot seven octaves Climb twelve perfect fifths and you should land back on your starting note, seven octaves up. You don't: you overshoot by 23.46 cents, nearly a quarter of a… Music & Sound4 min read Why two almost-in-tune notes throb, and how tuners use the wobble Play two notes that are almost in tune and you hear one note that swells and fades: wah-wah-wah. Neither string is wobbling. The throb, called a beat, appears… Music & Sound5 min read Why a piano has 12 notes: the circle of fifths that never quite closes Stack pure 3:2 fifths, the most consonant interval after the octave, and you'd expect to eventually land back on your starting note. You never do. After twelve… Music & Sound5 min read