PSYB51H3 Lecture 11: Chapter 11
Document Summary
Sounds from musical instruments and human vocal tracts obey the same laws of physical acoustics as all other sounds. Music and speech serve to communicate, and both can convey emotion and deeper meanings. One of the most important characteristic of any acoustic signal is frequency. Brain structures for processing sounds are tonotopically organized to correspond to frequency. Pitch: the psychological aspec of sound related mainly to perceived frequency. Musical pitch is one of the characteristics of musical notes, the sound that constitute melodies. A cery important concept in understanding musical pitch is the octave. Octave: interval between 2 sound frequencies having a ratio of 2:1: just intonation - frequencies of sounds are in simple ratios with one another. Because of octave relations, musical pitch is typically described as having 2 dimensions: tone height: sound quality corresponding to the level of pitch.
