Äänenkorkeus

Äänenkorkeus, or pitch, is the perceived attribute of a sound that allows us to judge how high or low it seems. Physically, pitch is closely tied to the sound’s fundamental frequency: higher frequencies are heard as higher pitches. Most sounds are complex, containing multiple harmonics; in many cases the perceived pitch corresponds to the fundamental frequency, though timbre and spectral content can influence it.

Psychoacoustically, pitch is a perceptual construct that encompasses pitch height (how high the note sounds) and pitch class (the note within an octave). The ear encodes pitch through a combination of place coding along the cochlea and temporal patterns of neural firing; the concept of octave equivalence means the same pitch class repeats across octaves.

In music, equal temperament divides the octave into 12 semitones, making pitch a discrete, culturally defined scale. The standard reference in tuning is A4 = 440 Hz. Pitch can be measured in hertz or described with musical notation; real-world perception often blends both.

In speech, pitch conveys prosody, intonation, emphasis, and emotion. Basic gender differences exist in average fundamental frequencies, and age or vocal training can shift an individual’s pitch range.

Applications include music performance, vocal training, audio production, and speech processing, where pitch detection, shifting, or stabilization are common tasks.