World 1 · Foundations · 5 minWhat is pitch?
High, low, and frequency
Teaching this? Open projector mode
Music is organised sound, and sound is vibration. When something vibrates — a string, a vocal cord, a speaker cone — it pushes the air back and forth. The speed of that vibration is its frequency, measured in hertz (Hz), the number of pushes per second.
Pitch is how high or low we hear that frequency. Faster vibration → higher pitch; slower vibration → lower pitch. The note A above middle C vibrates at 440 Hz in this lab — a common modern tuning reference; performers may use others.
Check yourself
What physical quantity determines a note’s pitch?
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