What’s the least division of frequency that human’s ear hear? Is it okay to further divide what we hear in a chromatic scale? I’m not so sure, but then if the frequency between two adjacent notes is almost or smaller than the ‘theoretical least division’, it’ll sound very smooth. But, not every instrument will be able to play it. This is because for any instrument, if the frequency is divided into a very small division, it causes the main characteristic of each instrument to break down, since every instrument’s frequency is combined by countless types of frequencies.
Or maybe we should say that human ear will not be sensitive enough to differentiate these small parts. Any instrument that plays it will sound almost the same. And, we won’t like it very much, because it’s not arpeggio, nor octave.
The question comes back to how we judge an instrument? A good violin should sound a bit ‘rough (woody) but smooth’. This kind of characteristic is mainly caused by the characteristic of materials (wood) used. We can say that this is actually a slight ‘out of tune’ frequency that blend together with the correct frequencies. It means that there is a lowest possible limit, if we don’t want to get a pure waveform in the violin. To carve a good violin, you need maple at the back end, and spruce at the top. Good guitar needs a spruce top as well, and an Indiana rosewood body.
Pure wave = the whole orchestra will sound like computer generated sine waves..
There is also a limit in musical tuning. For every frequency division on every adjacent note, they cannot be perfectly divided. Hence, some says that B flat is the weakest key. This shows that it’s meaningless to further separate the note into a smaller portion, since we can’t even notice the non linear division of notes, most people can’t get a perfect major key scale, what if we say about chromatics and higher division than chromatics?
Some argue also that maybe there will be a better material to build a better sensitivity instruments, (no sine waves orchestra, but slight different superimposed waves). In this case, like i say before, we will need a whole new theory. Just like how Einstein broke Newton’s law, not easy!
Or maybe we should say that human ear will not be sensitive enough to differentiate these small parts. Any instrument that plays it will sound almost the same. And, we won’t like it very much, because it’s not arpeggio, nor octave.
The question comes back to how we judge an instrument? A good violin should sound a bit ‘rough (woody) but smooth’. This kind of characteristic is mainly caused by the characteristic of materials (wood) used. We can say that this is actually a slight ‘out of tune’ frequency that blend together with the correct frequencies. It means that there is a lowest possible limit, if we don’t want to get a pure waveform in the violin. To carve a good violin, you need maple at the back end, and spruce at the top. Good guitar needs a spruce top as well, and an Indiana rosewood body.
Pure wave = the whole orchestra will sound like computer generated sine waves..
There is also a limit in musical tuning. For every frequency division on every adjacent note, they cannot be perfectly divided. Hence, some says that B flat is the weakest key. This shows that it’s meaningless to further separate the note into a smaller portion, since we can’t even notice the non linear division of notes, most people can’t get a perfect major key scale, what if we say about chromatics and higher division than chromatics?
Some argue also that maybe there will be a better material to build a better sensitivity instruments, (no sine waves orchestra, but slight different superimposed waves). In this case, like i say before, we will need a whole new theory. Just like how Einstein broke Newton’s law, not easy!
2 comments:
very chim, tak faham,,,
Never mind, coz my opinion on this is a little bit messy.
It's just my thought, and wanted to share it!
Post a Comment