Frequency and Pitch
Mabuhay! I’m Norman Vincent Baguisa, 30 years old, from the beautiful islands of the Philippines!
(Not intending for it to sound like a beauty pageant introduction, but anyways…)
I’m a non-linear video editor for the syndication company of one of the largest TV networks in my country. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro for several years now, after I partially abandoned Adobe Premiere Pro. I love to sing, which doesn’t necessarily make me a musical person. I’d like to think that I have an ear for “music”, and I surely want to expand my knowledge in digital production be it video or audio that’s why I signed up for this course.
In choosing my topic, I relied on my instinct. The instinct that said, “better pick a topic coz you only have 1 hour and 1 min before the deadline!”
So I chose “Frequency and Pitch”. Coincidentally, these are the titles of two of my most loved movies. Frequency (Jim Caviezel) and Pitch Perfect (Anna Kendrick and THE Rebel Wilson).
From my notes based on Loudon’s lecture, frequency is how fast the sound is vibrating through the air. Now that doesn’t sound very clear (no pun intended). So I researched some more.
Sound is produced by a vibrating object through medium. Using the spring device, Loudon showed that the sound moves through the medium in a vibrating motion, from one point to another, back and forth at a certain rate or regularity. That rate is what frequency is. Through my favorite website, Google, I found more information about frequency.
According to physicsclassroom.com, “the frequency of a wave is measured as the number of complete back-and-forth vibrations of a particle of the medium per unit of time.” This aspect though wasn’t clear during the lecture (no offense, Sir Loudon!), probably because the visual representation of the sound waves through the Oscilloscope does not exactly “move” back-and-forth. Being a video editor who works with a “timeline”, I only perceive edits of audio and video to be moving from left to right and never back-and-forth.
However, my research showed me that I need to get out of the “timeline viewpoint” because frequency is a cycle (Indiana.edu). For example, 1000 longitudinal vibrations in 2 seconds mean that the frequency of the wave would be 500 vibrations per second, expressed as Hertz (Hz).
Before I get drowned in all the scientific aspect of it, I’d like to go back to how frequency is perceived as an “art form” through music.
Frequency is the measurable one, but the perceived version of it, or the “sensation” is known as the pitch of the sound. High pitch sounds have high frequency, and low pitch sounds have low frequency. (That’s an easy one!)
So I can imagine Pavarotti ‘s voice having low frequency, and understandably why high pitched singers can break a glass with their voices because the sound vibrations are stronger.
There are talented singers gifted with ears that can detect the difference in pitch. (Lucky bastards.) One anecdote I heard from a friend is that of Tony award winner Lea Salonga of Miss Saigon (a fellow Filipino). In one of her rehearsals with a philharmonic orchestra, she asked them to stop because she was sure she heard an instrument that was off pitch. (Pitch slap moment!) To which the philharmonic got slightly offended because they were the best in our country. When they listened to the recording, true enough, one instrument was off. Bravo.
Contemplating on frequency and pitch brings me to my own personal (ehem) talent, doing second voice. I’m thinking now, how frequency and pitch figures in blending of voices, or of instruments. It probably isn’t a simple matter of going one octave higher or lower, but an artistic way of controlling the frequency and in effect, the pitch of a voice. There’s probably an exact science to it, but observation and experience tells me that it’s more of an art. It would be hard to be forever attached to an oscilloscope just to measure your voice’s frequency and know that it blends well with other frequencies. I guess that’s why there’s the saying “play it by ear”. I have friends who do nice solos, but really suck at doing second voices (peace!) Training, as with any other talent probably is the key. So for now, I can only envy and look up to gifted people like Lea Salonga.
To show my gratitude, to you who took pains in reading my assignment, I leave you with this trailer. I love Rebel Wilson! Thank you!
abNORMANities 