A Modern Introduction to Music – 8

By Anjum Altaf

When I discovered ‘frequency’ I felt empowered and reacted much as Archimedes did by letting out a high-pitched shriek – Eureka (“I have found it”). At least for me it was an empowering feeling to finally figure out what I had been talking about.

Let us get two things out of the way before we forge ahead. First, the term ‘high-pitched shriek’ is really a tautology: a shriek, by definition, is high-pitched. If you don’t believe me, try and emit a low-pitched shriek. What you might succeed in emitting would be a low-volume shriek but the shriek itself would retain a high pitch. This is a useful exercise because it would help you distinguish clearly between the two attributes of sound we have learnt so far – volume and frequency.

A Modern Introduction to Music – 7

By Anjum Altaf

We are almost there, within striking distance of our primary goal. If you would bear with me just a little longer and not get psyched out by the reference to physics, you would find yourself the proud owner of a number of important insights and you would wonder why you had not been aware of them all along. Believe me, this is a short tunnel and there is a searchlight at the end of it.

We had concluded the last part knowing how sound is created and how it travels from the source to the human ear. We also described the shape of an ideal sound wave and I would urge you to take a look at the graphic if you have not done so already (just observe the shape, ignore everything else).