3 ms·
That's far more arbitrary, and there are plenty of other scales that don't conform to this.
by smilespray 6y ago
That's far more arbitrary, and there are plenty of other scales that don't conform to this.
- chrisseaton 6y agoI don't understand - so they are arbitrary? And so arbitrary that people don't even agree on it?
- ben_w 6y agoAn octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency, which isn’t arbitrary; however the number of notes within an octave (and, I think, their exact tuning) is arbitrary.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sideshowb 6y agoThe harmonic series (of which the first three intervals are octaves, fifths, fourths in pythagorean tuning) is not arbitrary. How you construct a more useful set of notes from the harmonic series is arbitrary. The 1.5^12 ~= 2^7 coincidence I note above allows you to construct a scale using octaves and fifths. You can just as easily do it with other similar coincidences, use fifths and fourths instead, etc etc. Check the smoothness/roughness functions in my blog link - the reason you think e.g. a 3rd sounds as 'right' as a 7th is likely purely cultural. Other cultures have other scales. One of the Indian ragas has over 100 notes. (I'm aware OP claims it's ALL learned, including the octave, but even if true I don't think that means it's all cultural).
- divbzero 6y agoTo elaborate, intervals in the harmonic series are not arbitrary because the frequencies of the two notes forms a ratio: 2:1 octave [1] 3:2 perfect fifth [2] 4:3 perfect fourth [3] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fourth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fourth