It’s a sudden sharp sound – unexpected but no less unwanted. You wince, trying to hide yourself from it, trying to remove the echoes it’s leaving in your mind. But it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t wilt. It instead continues on, filtering in from the hall and offering a trail of terrible noises. You’re forced to follow, wanting to see what could create such an impossibility. You finally reach a door, where it seems this… thing has spawned. And, as you open it, you are prepared for any scenario: all the little nightmares and tragedies, the chimerical creations.
They do not appear.
It is instead merely your child, practicing his instrument and forcing you closer to madness.
The shrieks you heard, the unidentifiable songs, were exercises in pitch. And, while they may have failed to impress, they did still succeed in proving their importance.
Pitch, defined simply, is the highs or lows sounds can reach (and those can sometimes seem like tortures rather than melodies). When applied properly – and with classical training – it can be used to guide an instrument to greatness. When misunderstood, though, it can be a too loud, too cringe worthy creature.
And this is why it therefore must be mastered.
Pitch is classified by the amount of frequencies that are offered per second. These frequencies are knows as a hertz. It calculates such elements as speed, vibration and tonality. The faster a cycle spines, the more hertz that appear; and this increases the sound and forms a higher pitch. Understanding this is essential when creating classical music. The orchestra sounds must not only be aligned but they must be used to their greatest advantages: too shrill or too low frequencies can lead to auditory discomfort.
Learning this, of course, requires diligence – which may force you to endure the mistakes and fumbling of your child as he tries to find perfection. He’ll eventually succeed, however; and the right pitch will be used again and again.
