The document discusses the concept of pitch in music. It defines pitch as the highness or lowness of a musical note, which is determined by the frequency of vibration, measured in Hertz. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. For example, Middle C on a piano vibrates at 256 Hz. It also explains that women tend to have higher pitched voices than men due to shorter vocal cords, and emotions can affect pitch. Musical instruments produce pitches either definitely at fixed frequencies like a piano, or indefinitely between notes like a trombone slide.

2. What is pitch?
• In music the pitch of a sound
means how high or low a note is.
• Musical pitches are relative, any
note is higher or lower than
another.
• It is the degree of relative
highness or lowness of a sound

3. Frequency affects PITCH
• It is measured in
a unit called Hertz and is
determined by the sound’s
frequency of vibration.
▫ The greater the frequency the
higher pitched the sound will be.
▫ A note that is vibrating at 256 Hz
will be caused by sound
waves that vibrate at 256 times
a second. This will be Middle C on
the piano.

4. Pitch Notation
• Staff
• Cleff
• Notes

5. Vocal Pitch
• It mostly depends on the length
and thickness of the vocal
cords.
▫ Women tend to have higher voices
than men because they have shorter
vocal cords.
▫ Men tend to have lower voices than
women because their vocal cords are
longer and thicker.

6. Vocal Pitch
• The pitch of someone's voice can also be affected by
emotions, and moods.
▫ For example, being frightened or excited can make the
pitch higher because the muscles around the larynx
unconsciously contract.

7. Definite pitched Instruments
• A definite pitched instrument produces sounds at
fixed frequencies.
▫ Example: when you press Middle C on the Keyboard
of a piano the same tone occurs every time.

8. Definite pitched Instruments
• Other indefinite pitched
instrument have no specific
separation between notes.
▫ Example: the slide of
trombones allows to play an
infinite numbers of tones
between Middle C and C sharp.

9. Definite pitched Instruments
• As it occurred with vocal cords:
▫ The shorter the strings or the air tunnels of the
instruments, the higher pitch these instruments will play at.
▫ The longer the strings or the air tunnels of the instrument,
the lower pitch these instruments will play at.

10. Indefinite Pitch Instruments
• Not all musical instruments give notes of a particular pitch. Many
percussion instruments like drums, triangles and cymbals are
instruments used for rhythms.
▫ This class of percussion instruments are named: unpitched
percussion instruments

11. Specific Vocabulary
• Pitch: altura
• Frequency: frecuencia
• Vibration: vibración
• Hertz: hercios
• High: agudo
• Low: grave
• Definite pitch: altura determinada
• Indefinite pitch: altura indeterminada
• String: cuerda

12. Useful structures
• High pitch, very high pitch:
• The violin plays at a high pitch, the violin is very high pitched and the viola is medium-high pitched…
• Which is higher in pitch the violin or the viola? = Which is higher pitched the violin or the viola?
• The violin is the highest in pitch string instrument
• The violin is higher pitched than the viola
• The viola is not as high pitched as the violin
• Low pitch, very low pitch:
• The double bass plays at a low pitch, the double bass is low pitched and the cello is
medium-low pitched…
• Which is lower in pitch the violin or the viola? = Which is lower pitched the violin or the
viola?
• The double bass is the lowest in pitch string instrument
• The double bass is lower pitched than the cello
• The cello is not as low pitched as the double bass