High and Low Sounds

High and Low Sounds#

Close your eyes and imagine two sounds:

1. A tiny little mouse — what kind of sound dös it make? High or low?
2. A big grumbly bear — what kind of sound dös it make? High or low?

The mouse makes a high sound. The bear makes a low sound. You already understand pitch — you just did not know the musical word for it!

What Is Pitch?#

Pitch is the word musicians use to describe how high or low a sound is.

Every sound you can hear has a pitch. Some sounds are very high — like a bird chirping or a baby crying. Some sounds are very low — like a foghorn or a big drum.

Musical notes have specific pitches. In singing and on instruments, we move between different pitches to create a melody.

How Dös Pitch Work?#

Sound is made by vibrations — things shaking back and forth very fast. The speed of these vibrations determines pitch:

• Fast vibrations = high pitch — think of a tiny guitar string vibrating very fast
• Slow vibrations = low pitch — think of a big thick string vibrating slowly

This is why a piccolo (tiny flute) sounds very high and a tuba (huge brass instrument) sounds very low — their size determines how fast their sound vibrations are!

High Sounds in Nature#

• Bird songs and chirping
• Crickets at night
• A whistle
• Children's voices
• A ringing bell
• A flute playing

Low Sounds in Nature#

• Thunder rumbling
• A large drum beating
• A lion's roar
• A foghorn on a ship
• A big man's speaking voice
• A tuba or bass guitar

In Between!#

Of course, most sounds are somewhere in between very high and very low. Music uses all the pitches — high, medium, and low — to create melodies that move up and down in interesting ways.