The Math of Music (part 3)

In the previous post, I derived the frequencies for the notes in all of the scales from Gb up to F#. In many cases, the pitches were close enough to call the same note but not quite correct. So which pitch do we choose?  We come up with a compromise called the "Equal Tempered Scale".

We know that between C and high C we need to jump from a pitch of 1 to a pitch of 2. From counting the notes in between C and high C we can see that we have 12 distinct notes.  Let's come up with a multiplier x that we can use to calculate the frequency of each of those notes.  Here's what we know:

  C = 1
  C# = 1 * x
  D = 1 * x * x
  D# = 1 * x * x * x
  ...
  C = 1 * x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x

But we know that high C = 2 so:
  x^12 = 2
  x is the 12th root of 2.

How can you calculate 12th roots?  Lets try to calculate the 4th root of 100,000,000.  Notice that there are 8 zeros.  We call 8 the log of 100,000,000 because 10 ^ 8 is 100,000,000.  If we divide 8 by 4, we get 2.  10^2 = 100 so 100 is the 4th root of 100,000,000.

We can do the same thing to calculate the 12th root of 2 by taking the log of 2 (0.30103) dividing it by 12 (0.025086) then raising 10 to that power (1.059463).  You can do the same thing with ln and exp if you're familiar with those.

So, by taking the frequency for C as 1, you can keep multiplying by 1.059463 to get each successive note until you get to high C.

C	1
C#/Db	1.059463094
D	1.122462048
D#/Eb	1.189207115
E	1.25992105
F	1.334839854
F#/Gb	1.414213562
G	1.498307077
G#/Ab	1.587401052
A	1.681792831
A#/Bb	1.781797436
B	1.887748625
C	2

Each of these pitches is close to the right note but not quite.  In the case of the black notes that could be used as sharps or flats, the pitch we calculated this way is between the sharp pitch and the flat pitch so it makes a good compromise.

All that remains is to set the actual frequencies.  By international convention, the note A is exactly 440Hz.  Given that frequency and the multiplier of 1.059463, you can calculate the pitches of every note on the piano keyboard.

The Math of Music (part 2)

In part 1, we derived the ratios of frequencies in a major scale. This gives us all the white notes on a piano but, as it turns out, they are tuned slightly differently than a piano is tuned.  The scale we derived is a "pure" scale where the tuning of all the notes is perfect and the notes make perfect harmonies.  Pianos aren't tuned to pure scales.  Each note is slightly out of tune. To discover why, we have to answer another question - why does a piano have black notes?

There are 7 notes in the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) then the scale repeats starting back at C.  The ratios of those notes (as explained in the previous post) are shown in the table below. I've provided the fractions as well as the decimal values. Remember that we'll always divide or multiply by 2 until the answer lies in the range 1 .. 2.

Note	Fraction	Decimal
C	1	1
D	9 / 8	1.125
E	5 / 4	1.25
F	4 / 3	1.3333
G	3 / 2	1.5
A	5 / 3	1.6666
B	15 / 8	1.875

This works well for playing tunes in the key of C but sometimes you want to make the pitch higher or lower. Let's choose a higher pitch.  The simplest fraction in the scale is for G (1.5 = 3/2). To create a scale in the key of G, we need to multiply all the frequencies by 1.5 like this:

Note	Calculation	Pitch
G	1 * 1.5	1.5
A	1.125 * 1.5	1.6875
B	1.25 * 1.5	1.875
C	1.3333 * 1.5 / 2	1
D	1.5 * 1.5 / 2	1.125
E	1.6666 * 1.5 / 2	1.25
F#	1.875 * 1.5 / 2	1.40625

Note that there are two pitches that don't match the C scale.  Our value for A is 1.6875 in the G scale but it's 1.6666 in the C scale.  It's close but still off.  The value for F, however, is really off.  In the C scale we have 1.3333 but in the G scale we're up to 1.40625. This is such a dramatic difference that you can definitely hear it and, in fact is close to halfway between the F and G in the C scale.  We'll call this note F# since it's  higher than an F but we'd like to use the letter F to have all the letters in our scale.

Now we do the same thing again.  We pick the note halfway between G (1.5) and the next G (3.0) which is D (2.25) then divide by two to get it into the 1..2 range to give D (1.125).  We multiply all the frequencies in the G scale by 1.5 (or 3/2) to create the D scale:

Note	Calculation	Pitch
D	1.5 * 1.5 / 2	1.125
E	1.6875 * 1.5 / 2	1.2656
F#	1.875 * 1.5 / 2	1.40625
G	1 * 1.5	1.5
A	1.125 * 1.5	1.6875
B	1.25 * 1.5 / 2	1.875
C#	1.40625 * 1.5 / 2	1.0547

Once again, our note for E is a little off from the C scale but the note for C is way off - it's about halfway between a C and a D.  We'll call it C#.

The note halfway between D and high D is A so the next key to generate is A.  I'll save you the calculations and just give the results for the remaining keys.

Notice that by the time we reach the scale of F#, we've introduced a new note called E# (1.3348) but this is so close to F (1.3333) that the notes would be virtually indistinguishable.  If we did keep going more, we'd introduce new notes that are repeats of previous notes, so we'll stop at the scale of F#.

What notes do we have?  Lets collect them up in order:

  C

  C#

  D

  D#

  E

  F

  F#

  G

  G#

  A

  A#

  B

Putting the sharp notes on black keys, you get 5 black keys and 7 white keys in every octave before it repeats.

We can run the same pattern in reverse.  Starting at the scale of C (at the right side of the table below), we can divide each pitch by 1.5 (going right to left). Now, we create new notes that we'll call Flats.  If you check the frequencies, though, the flats are almost the same frequencies as the corresponding sharps - Bb (1.7777) is the same as almost A# (1.7797), Eb (1.1852) is almost the same as D# (1.1865). 

We're left with a problem.  If we want to play in any scale with perfect tuning, we need an infinite number of keys.  Fortunately, some of the pitches end up being close enough to other notes that we can use the other note instead.

So how do we come up with a compromise?  That's the subject of part 3 in this series.

The Math of Music (Part 1)

I've always been interested in the mathematical theory behind music.  When I started programming computers in 1977, I wrote programs to play music so I needed to calculate the note frequencies.  I was never able to understand, however, why the piano keys are the way they are.  Why is there no E# or Fb note? Why no B# or Cb?  Why is the same key sometimes called F# and sometimes called Gb?

I've since learned how this works and it's all simple math.  In this post, I'll try to explain it.

Let's start with Middle C on the piano keyboard.  I really don't care what frequency it is.  Musical notes are all about ratios, so let's just call the frequency c.  What notes sound good when you play them at the same time as the middle C note?  Well, a note that's twice the frequency sounds good.  For every cycle of the C note, the note at 2c makes two cycles. This blends nicely with the C and makes a nice sound.  This note is high C - the next C up on the keyboard.

Another note that sounds good along with middle C is at 1/2 c. This is the next C down on the keyboard. To go up and down by octaves, we double (to go up) or half (to go down) the frequency of a note.  From a scale perspective, I'm going to consider all C notes equivalent.

Ok, what note is halfway between c and 2c?  Obviously it's 1.5c. (Later we'll call this G but we'll get to that.) This note makes three cycles for every two cycles of the C note.  It sounds very nice played along with a C so we'll include it.

The next note that sounds good is halfway between 1c and 1.5c.  That's 1.25c. (Later we'll call this E.) This note makes 5 cycles for every 4 cycles of the C note.

If you play these three notes all at once you get what is called a major chord.

       1c    1.25c   1.5c          2c     Major Chord
       |------|-------|------------|

Major chords sound very nice.  Let's then build a major chord starting at the 1.5c note.  The frequencies would be (I'll drop the "c" notation for simplicity):

    1.5 * 1 = 1.5
    1.5 * 1.25 = 1.875
    1.5 * 1.5 = 2.25

       1     1.25    1.5           2     C Major Chord
       |------|-------|------------|
                     1.5   1.875     2.25
                      |-------|-------|  G Major Chord

We'll later call these notes G, B and D but we'll get to that.

The note at 2.25 is musically equivalent to the same note an octave down so let's divide the frequency by 2 to put it into the range 1..2


    1.5 * 1 = 1.5
    1.5 * 1.25 = 1.875
    1.5 * 1.5 / 2 = 1.125

       1     1.25     1.5          2     C Major Chord
       |------|-------|------------|
         1.125        1.5   1.875
           |-----------|-------|         G Major Chord

To make this major chord, we picked the middle note (1.5) and made a scale from it.  Let's do the opposite - let's make a chord where the C note is the middle note.  That means we get these frequencies:

    1 / 1.5 = 0.6666...
    1 / 1.25 = 0.8333...
    1


                 1     1.25    1.5           2     C Major Chord
                 |------|-------|------------|
 0.6666  0.8333  1        1.3333
     |-----|-----|----------|

We'll later label these notes as F, A and C.

We've structured this so that the C note at 1 is halfway between 1.3333 and 0.6666.

Since 0.666 and 0.833 are less than 1, we can double them to make equivalent notes in the range 1..2:


    1 / 1.5 * 2 = 1.3333...
    1 / 1.25 * 2 = 1.6666...
    1


        1     1.25    1.5           2     C Major Chord
        |------|-------|------------|
        1       1.3333  1.6666
        |---------|-------|

Ok, now let's take all the notes we have between 1 and 2 and arrange them by increasing frequency:

   1

   1.125

   1.25

   1.3333

   1.5

   1.6666

   1.875

   2

Now, we can finally give these all names based on sequential letters:

   C 1

   D 1.125

   E 1.25

   F 1.3333

   G 1.5

   A 1.6666

   B 1.875

   C 2

The notes C E G form one major chord (C), the notes G B D form another major chord (G) and finally the notes F A C form a third major chord (F).  All combined together, we'll call this the scale of C.

In the next article, I'll start talking about sharps and flats.