4 ms·

Perception of musical pitch varies across cultures (2019)

12 points by benbreen 6y ago

dehrmann 6y ago
> The findings suggest that although there is a natural mathematical relationship between the frequencies of every “C,” no matter what octave it’s played in, the brain only becomes attuned to those similarities after hearing music based on octaves, says Josh McDermott, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. I have doubts about this. For one, it's a physical relationship more than just a mathematical one, and we know that there will be sympathetic resonance when the frequency is doubled. There are also overtones to sound, so there's a C5 ringing when you play a C4. A lot of the same hair cells are firing, so I'm surprised the brain wouldn't naturally find some similarity.
- galkk 6y ago
  I can easily relate to this. The method of tuning of a guitar to itself is "5 fret on 6 string (low E) should sound like 5 string (A), 5 fret on A should sound like D etc". When I started, I couldn't figure it out at all. The tone of strings was very distinct to me, although this is literally the same note. And my anekdata tells that this is common among beginners, even given that we're all were listening to music in western/european tradition. I'd be more interested to see how the study was reviewed and explained by some folks like Adam Neely. From what I read/saw on educational videos, the 12 notes system of western music is very "mathematically natural" (like 19 notes and 50-something), as well as pentatonic scale (that can often can be seen in many cultures), and I won't surprised that somebody with extensive music theory knowledge will provide parallels with western tradidion
  - dehrmann 6y ago
    > And my anekdata tells that this is common among beginners Not doubting, I just hadn't heard that before. It's interesting that timbre, even between a a low E string an and A string, is enough to do that. > 12 notes system of western music is very "mathematically natural" It's mathematically coincidental, or maybe log12 is just the base where several notes happen to approximate small fractions like 3/4 and 2/3 This is an interesting visualization of ratios compared to equal temperament scales with different numbers of notes: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Equal_Temper_w_limits.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Equal_Te... This is a decently interesting watch on equal vs just temperaments, and alternatives to scales with 12 notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R9DX_-2JH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R9DX_-2JH0

12 points by benbreen 6y ago

> The findings suggest that although there is a natural mathematical relationship between the frequencies of every “C,” no matter what octave it’s played in, the brain only becomes attuned to those similarities after hearing music based on octaves, says Josh McDermott, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. I have doubts about this. For one, it's a physical relationship more than just a mathematical one, and we know that there will be sympathetic resonance when the frequency is doubled. There are also overtones to sound, so there's a C5 ringing when you play a C4. A lot of the same hair cells are firing, so I'm surprised the brain wouldn't naturally find some similarity.

galkk 6y ago
I can easily relate to this. The method of tuning of a guitar to itself is "5 fret on 6 string (low E) should sound like 5 string (A), 5 fret on A should sound like D etc". When I started, I couldn't figure it out at all. The tone of strings was very distinct to me, although this is literally the same note. And my anekdata tells that this is common among beginners, even given that we're all were listening to music in western/european tradition. I'd be more interested to see how the study was reviewed and explained by some folks like Adam Neely. From what I read/saw on educational videos, the 12 notes system of western music is very "mathematically natural" (like 19 notes and 50-something), as well as pentatonic scale (that can often can be seen in many cultures), and I won't surprised that somebody with extensive music theory knowledge will provide parallels with western tradidion
- dehrmann 6y ago
  > And my anekdata tells that this is common among beginners Not doubting, I just hadn't heard that before. It's interesting that timbre, even between a a low E string an and A string, is enough to do that. > 12 notes system of western music is very "mathematically natural" It's mathematically coincidental, or maybe log12 is just the base where several notes happen to approximate small fractions like 3/4 and 2/3 This is an interesting visualization of ratios compared to equal temperament scales with different numbers of notes: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Equal_Temper_w_limits.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Equal_Te... This is a decently interesting watch on equal vs just temperaments, and alternatives to scales with 12 notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R9DX_-2JH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R9DX_-2JH0