Pitch, strings & the physics of sound

Music and Acoustics

An instrument is a physics experiment you can hold. This area starts with the everyday problem — is this string in tune — and shows the working: pitch found from how long a waveform takes to repeat, target frequencies from equal temperament, and the reasons a guitar is never quite in tune with itself whatever the tuner says.

Guitar Tuner

Listen through the microphone and read the pitch to a fraction of a cent — or ignore the microphone entirely and read the exact frequency every string should be at.

McLeod pitch method · equal temperament · A415–466

Open

More is coming here. String tension and gauge, fret positions for any scale length, and a metronome — none of which need a microphone.

Twelve-tone equal temperament, and a microphone you control. Target frequencies come from the reference pitch you set, not from a fixed table. The tuner asks for the microphone only when you press start, analyses the audio in the page, and never records or transmits any of it.