Intonation and Mother Nature

Mother Nature provides us with many ways to learn to play in tune, and also ways to mercilessly annoy our friends and neighbors.  This is because we all have a very good sense of pitch.
vibrations
For example, we can wiggle our 3d finger on the A string around a D# and produce a sound that anybody could mistake for a mosquito.  That note vibrates the air around it at about 600 times per second, the same frequency as the beating wings of a mosquito.

This means that everybody is able to recall and match pitches that they have heard many times.  Of course, it is also just plain fun to know how to imitate a mosquito — or a bumblebee or a housefly (wiggle the first finger right at the nut on the G string — this is close to 200 vibrations per seconbeed, same as the bee and fly).  Below is a chart of how some natural sounds match up with musical instruments, in case you’re interested in other annoying sounds.

Those who think they have a bad sense of pitch, I find, are usually focusing their attention on their muscles and not their ears.  Often, singers who can’t match a pitch are indulging their vocal cord muscles, allowing them to stay in one familiar position rather than using their ears to listen and actively match pitches; if they slide their voice around, they can usually match a pitch perfectly.  Not everybody can listen to two sounds and tell which one is higher, but just about everyone can tell the moment when two pitches match after sliding toward each other.

This is why, when tuning the violin by ear, we smoothly turn the pegs to hear the pitch slide up to where we want it — but we always have to be comparing the moving sound with the correct pitch we are aiming to match.

The easiest match is the unison — two identical sounds, with the same frequencies.  The next easiest match is the octave which is double the lower frequency, next is the fifth — an octave plus a fifth is triple the lower frequency.  The simple fifths between open strings of the violin are just five notes apart pretty well, which is an octave below the note that is triple the frequency of the lower note — got that?  (Now say that sentence fast three times.)

Professionals tune by ear using the open strings in fifths, but anybody can match a single string to a single note using a pitchpipe or tuning fork, or similar tone producer.  Professionals always come from below, tuning a string up to match the pitch, and note this:  they often take 5 or 6 or 7 tries to get it right, usually using a bow to hear the sounds continuously.  But tuning can also be done by plucking the string and tuning up to match; with each attempt, you get about 3 seconds of plucked sound to try to match the pitch.

Tuning is not the whole story, of course.  Just playing in tune is helped by awareness of pitches and how they compare to each other.  When you play 3d finger on the D, A, or E strings, you can check it by matching it against the open string one lower, which is an octave below.  When your 3d finger is in tune, the lower open string will ring sympathetically and make the violin ring more.  When out of tune, the sound will die quickly.

Double stops (see the technique video) beg our ears to hear dissonance or consonance by comparing them.  When a doublestop is in tune, the two notes being played create a third vibration between them by reinforcing certain frequencies so if you play a double stop in tune you can hear a lower pitch, almost like a buzz that is either in tune, or just awful (for a brief moment anyway)…practicing doublestops builds character, patience, and other virtues but is also a great way to gain a better sense of the relationships between fingers across strings.

Without further ado, below is the comparison of natural sounds and musical notes. Enjoy!

BPS (beats per second) — Sound
1046 Highest human voice note
988 Highest note in 1st position of violin (B)
600 Mosquito
523 Lowest note on piccolo
440 A for orchestral tuning
261 Middle C
250 Honeybee
196 Lowest violin note (G)
190 Housefly
165 Lowest note on clarinet and guitar
130 Bumblebee and lowest note on viola (C)
100 Hornet
96 Horsefly
85 Moth
65 Lowest cello note (C)
38 Dragonfly
33 Lowest C on piano
20 Fundamental (lowest note) on trombone
12 Butterfly
8 Lowest organ note

© Ed Pearlman 2015

One thought on “Intonation and Mother Nature”

  1. Wonderful! A mosquito–youch! I was just reading your post on the study in which people were taught to identify tones using names like ‘Fred,’ which makes a lot of sense because it removes any tension associated with the idea of A(n Official) Term. But a mosquito is viscerally memorable. Fun.

    Thank you.

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