What is pitch?

Music

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by Kate Simmons >> more about the author

Think of the last time you sang a song. Can you hear the sounds of the notes in your head? Were some of the notes higher than others, the way a squeak sounds higher than a roar? The sound of a musical note is called pitch. Many people think of pitch as how high or low the note is.

You may hear people talk about sounds that are high-pitched and low-pitched. Your ears can sense a variety of pitches. Think about the high-pitched sound of a whistle blowing compared to the low-pitched noise of a bowling ball rolling down the lane. You can think of sound as traveling in waves caused by vibrating air. The number of vibrations per second is called the frequency. The higher the frequency (the faster the vibrations), the higher the pitch!

Musicians who use instruments to play songs often read the musical notes from paper called sheet music. On this sheet music are a series of musical staffs. Each staff is a group of five horizontal (sideways) lines. You can tell the pitch of a note by its place on the musical staff. The higher the note on the staff, the higher the pitch!

Some people are able to recognize or sing any note without hearing it first! These people are said to have absolute pitch, or perfect pitch!