Lesson 11: The Science Behind Sound

Reading sheet music is like reading a foreign language. There are rules and patterns that must be followed for the music to sound pleasing to the ear and so the musician can interpret the music correctly in order to perform it.

Before we get to the music, we must first know how to write it correctly, understand the notes, and know how to organize it.

To learn about how to correctly label a note, head to: http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-is-c4.html

To learn about clefs, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2012/12/lesson-2-staffs-clefs-and-lines-oh-my.html

To learn about the major scale and whole and half steps, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-3-major-and-minor-scale.html

To learn about key signatures, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-4-key-signatures.html

To learn about notes and their rhythms in simple meter, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-5-notes-and-rhythm-part-i.html

To learn about simple time signatures, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-6-simple-time-signatures.html

To learn about rests in simple time, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-7-rests.html

To learn about ties and slurs, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-8-ties-and-slurs.html

To learn about dotted notes and rests: head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-9-dotty-good-time.html

To learn about compound time, head to:
http://nomusicbflat.blogspot.com/2013/01/lesson-10-notes-and-rhythms-part-ii.html

Its all well and good to learn about music and how to write it, but without knowing how music really works, you don't know much. This is the (basic) science behind sound.

Sound is vibration, which is made up of waves. If you have ever been near a booming amp or a drumline while they are playing, the movement you were feeling is sound. Vibrations can be transmitted through any medium, however it cannot be transmitted through vacuum. This means that all of those fantastic sound effects in the space battles from a galaxy far, far away are as fake as singing and cleaning your way through life until your prince charming comes and rescues you being a productive pass time in today's modern world. The vibrations have two important qualities, wavelength and amplitude.

The wavelength, or distance between the waves determines the frequency, or pitch of a sound. A long wavelength produces a low-pitched sound. A short wavelength produces a high-pitched sound. The frequency increases for every note according to a set equation. An octave jump up produces a sound that is twice the frequency (measured in Hertz). 

The amplitude, or height of the wave, determines the volume of a sound. A tall amplitude produces a loud sound. A short amplitude produces a soft sound.

There are many other aspects of sound, however these are the most important to our need in these lessons.

Our ears are busy collecting sound with the outer ear. You know, the cartilage on the outside of your head that gets pierced, surgically fixed or changed, and is pointy if you are a member of the elven or Vulcan species??? Yeah, that part.

As the sound is funneled into our ear, the sound waves vibrate little hair-like cells in our inner ear, and the hair cells transmit electrical impulses that our brain interprets as sound.

Cool, huh???