Sound and Hearing

Why does a minor chord sound dark? Why does one note sound like a violin and another like a flute at the same pitch? This is the pillar where the answers are physics and habit rather than rules, and every page here is a demo you trigger yourself.

Start here

The harmonic series.

Almost everything else on this page follows from it. Add the harmonics one at a time and hear a plain sine turn into an instrument.

Jump straight inPress the triangle to hear it, the name to read it

How sound works

Sound and Vibration
Harmonic Series
Waveforms and Timbre
Resonance and Formants
Tuning and Temperament

How hearing works

Pitch Perception
Psychoacoustics
Consonance and Dissonance
Music and Emotion
Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head

The building blocks

Note System
What Is an Interval
Tension and Expectation

How sound works

the physics, made audible

Sound and VibrationSound is moving pressure. Play a tone, slide its frequency, and hear pitch and loudness change while you watch the wave that causes them.
The Harmonic SeriesOne note is a stack of tones. Hear the first sixteen harmonics one by one, then hear them together, and find out why a trumpet is not a violin.
Waveforms and TimbreSwitch between sine, triangle, square, and saw on the same note. Hear what each spectrum does, then shape an attack and hear a piano appear.
Resonance and FormantsSource and filter are two separate things. Move a formant while the note stays put, and hear an instrument turn into a vowel and back.
Tuning and TemperamentSwitch the same chord between just intonation and equal temperament and hear the beating appear. Then hear a wolf fifth and why it was hidden.

How hearing works

what your ear does with it

Pitch PerceptionFrequency is measured, pitch is concluded. Strip the fundamental from a tone and hear the bass stay, then find the edges of your own hearing.
PsychoacousticsYour hearing edits what reaches you. Hear masking swallow an instrument, compare the same mix at two volumes, and test where your limits are.
Consonance and DissonanceMove one of two tones by hand and hear the throb speed up, turn into a buzz, and let go. Roughness is not taste, and this is where you hear why.
Music and EmotionRecognizing sadness and feeling it are two different things. Compare examples, hear each mechanism at work, and see how strong the evidence is.
Why Songs Get Stuck in Your HeadEarworms are involuntary musical imagery. Hear which shapes loop and which do not, and check every claim against the size of its study.

The building blocks

names for what you are hearing

The Note SystemA note is a frequency with a name on it. Hear what hertz sounds like, why the letters repeat every octave, and why one pitch has two names.
What Is an IntervalAn interval is the distance between two notes. Count the keys yourself, press the one you land on, and hear why a third stays a third when you flatten it.
Tension and ExpectationMusic sets you up and then delays. Hear a resolution arrive, then hear it withheld, and feel where the tension actually sits in the timing.

Keep going

Intervals
Chords
Scales

The other sections

Everything on this site sits in one of these, in the order they are meant to be learned.

The building blocks

Chords
Scales
Intervals
Rhythm
Reading Music

How music works

Harmony
Chord Progressions
Melody and Form

In practice

Songwriting
Styles
Playing and Improvising
Production and Arranging