Pitch

Pitch is a word that means how high or low a sound is. A tiny bird's chirp has a high pitch. A big truck horn has a low pitch. Singers use high and low pitches to make songs. Pitch helps us tell different sounds apart.

What Makes Pitch

Pitch comes from how fast something vibrates. Fast vibrations make high sounds. Slow vibrations make low sounds. A thin guitar string vibrates fast and sounds high. A thick string vibrates slowly and sounds low. Your ears can tell the difference very quickly.

Pitch in Music

Musicians use pitch to make tunes. A piano has 88 keys, each with its own pitch. Low keys are on the left and high keys are on the right. Singers train their voices to hit many pitches. When pitches sound good together, they make a chord.

Fun Facts

• Dogs can hear higher pitches than humans can.
• Opera singers can sing very high pitches without microphones.
• Whales make some of the lowest pitches on Earth.

Did You Know?

A tuning fork makes one special pitch that musicians use to tune their instruments.