What are the string frequencies?
Adam Blaise Polito
tuning, but other tunings would be nice if anybody knows the numbers.
Appreciate it,
Adam
Paul Hitchcock
: I need to know the frequency of each open string, mainly for standard
: Appreciate it,
: Adam
The frequency of the open A string (and the 5th fretted top E-string) in
standard tuning is 110 Hz. To get the next/previous fretted pitch,
multiply/divide the current pitch frequency by the 12th root of 2 (approx.
1.059463).
There _will_ be a quiz later. <g>
Dave Dudas
>The frequency of the open A string (and the 5th fretted top E-string) in
>standard tuning is 110 Hz. To get the next/previous fretted pitch,
>multiply/divide the current pitch frequency by the 12th root of 2 (approx.
>1.059463).
>
What is the basis of this formula?
Mark Garvin
>I need to know the frequency of each open string, mainly for standard
>tuning, but other tunings would be nice if anybody knows the numbers.
>Appreciate it,
>Adam
Sorry for the length. Posted for the technically-minded.
E = 41.20 hz <- E string on bass
F = 43.65 hz
F# = 46.25 hz
G = 49.00 hz
G# = 51.91 hz
A = 55.00 hz <- A string on bass
A# = 58.27 hz
B = 61.74 hz
C = 65.41 hz
C# = 69.30 hz
D = 73.42 hz <- D string on bass
D# = 77.78 hz
E = 82.41 hz <- low E string on guitar
F = 87.31 hz
F# = 92.50 hz
G = 98.00 hz <- G string on bass
G# = 103.83 hz
A = 110.00 hz <- A string on guitar
A# = 116.54 hz
B = 123.47 hz
C = 130.81 hz
C# = 138.59 hz
D = 146.83 hz <- D string on guitar
D# = 155.56 hz
E = 164.81 hz
F = 174.61 hz
F# = 185.00 hz
G = 196.00 hz <- G string on guitar
G# = 207.65 hz
A = 220.00 hz
A# = 233.08 hz
B = 246.94 hz <- B string on guitar
C = 261.63 hz
C# = 277.18 hz
D = 293.66 hz
D# = 311.13 hz
E = 329.63 hz <- high E string on guitar
F = 349.23 hz
F# = 369.99 hz
G = 392.00 hz
G# = 415.30 hz
A = 440.00 hz
A# = 466.16 hz
B = 493.88 hz
C = 523.25 hz
C# = 554.37 hz
D = 587.33 hz
D# = 622.25 hz
E = 659.26 hz <- high E string at 12th fret
F = 698.46 hz
F# = 739.99 hz
G = 783.99 hz
G# = 830.61 hz
A = 880.00 hz
A# = 932.33 hz
B = 987.77 hz
C = 1046.50 hz
C# = 1108.73 hz <- that's it for 21-fret guitars
D = 1174.66 hz
D# = 1244.51 hz
E = 1318.51 hz <- unless you have a 24-fret guitar <g>
Regards,
Mark Garvin
ke...@austin.ibm.com
musical enclaves used A's close to 440, and so everyone just got together and
decided to use 440. (It was actually more complicated than that, but that is
the essence.)
The 12th root of two comes out of the derivation of even tempered intonation.
Pythagoras' work identified that octaves are 2:1 frequency ratio, and that
the 3rd, 5th, and other musically significant intervals are frequencies in
the ratio of small whole numbers, like 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, etc. When you do this
on, for instance an A440 base, you come up with the major scale, or at least
one version of it. The scale is in just intonation, meaning that the 3rd,
5th, etc. intervals are accurately small-whole-numbers ratios of frequencies.
If you do the small-whole-numbers (SWN) trick starting at B, or C, etc, you
get scales that have frequencies that are very close, but not quite the same
as one another. Thus an instrument that sounds perfectly in tune in, say,
Bb will not play in tune with an instrument that has perfect just intonation
in another key. This problem led to a number of approaches to "tempering"
intonation to get instruments to play in tune. As a historical note, this
is about the time Bach wrote "The Well-tempered Clavier", that being one
that could play in tune in all keys, not just one or a few.
The "tempering" eventually resulted in the realization that with some
compromise, a tempering scheme that distributed the notes "evenly" by ear was
one that could be mathematically described as placing them in a geometrical
progression based on the twelfth root of two, each note being a constant
percentage higher in frequency than the last. This is called even tempering.
Even tempering makes an instrument play acceptably in tune in all keys,
although the intervals other than the octave are NEVER exact. There are people
who, even though they have been conditioned by a lifetime of hearing modern
even tempered music, can hear the difference in the intervals without a
concurrent just intonation comparison.
So - the derivation is, it's close to perfect for everything, and met a need
in the music industry for broad application.
R.G.
John Sheehy
>pau...@netcom.com (Paul Hitchcock) wrote:
>>The frequency of the open A string (and the 5th fretted top E-string) in
>>standard tuning is 110 Hz. To get the next/previous fretted pitch,
>>multiply/divide the current pitch frequency by the 12th root of 2 (approx.
>>1.059463).
>>
>
>What is the basis of this formula?
2 conventions:
1) The A above middle C = 440Hz. This is nothing more than a modern
standard. It has been other values in the past, and usually less
standardized at any given time than it is now.
2) 12 tone equal temperament is the standard way of breaking down an
octave. We perceive pitch logarithmically, i.e., multiplying a frequency
by a certain amount has the subjective effect of adding to the height of
the pitch. For example, the difference in pitch between an A at 110 Hz and
an A at 220 Hz is perceived as "going up" a certain amount (an octave in
this case). "Going up" that same amount from A 220, we arrive at A 440,
*not* 330 (which would actually be an E). So "going up" an octave involves
multiplying the frequency by 2, not by adding a fixed number of Hertz. All
intervals are defined with such ratios. Since we conventionally break down
the octave into 12 equal steps, what we need is a ratio that when used 12
times in a row gives 2:1 to complete the octave. By definition, the 12th
root of 2 is that number (1.059463 multiplied by itself 12 times is 2).
That's all there is to it. This way of dividing the octave, and
establishing a pitch for A are just conventions. "A" could be 441 Hz; you
could divide the octave into 13 unequal steps, etc. You should just assume
that 440 and 12 equal steps are meant unless something non-standard is
explicitely intended.
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John P Sheehy <jsh...@ix.netcom.com>
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Jeff Mielke
>pau...@netcom.com (Paul Hitchcock) wrote:
>>The frequency of the open A string (and the 5th fretted top E-string) in
>>standard tuning is 110 Hz. To get the next/previous fretted pitch,
>>multiply/divide the current pitch frequency by the 12th root of 2 (approx.
>>1.059463).
>>
>
>What is the basis of this formula?
>
The frequency doubles when you go up an octave, and going up an
octave means going up twelve frets. So when you go up twelve frets, you
multiply the frequency by two. If you go up one fret at a time, you
double the frequency in twelve steps.
Any time you go up twelve frets, you double the frequency.
Likewise, any time you go up one fret, the new note is a certain multiple
(a number smaller than 2) of the previous one. Going up twelve frets
(multiplying by 2) means multiplying by this number (call it "n") twelve
times.
So n^12 = 2.
Taking the 12th root of both sides gives:
n = the 12th root of 2
Hope this makes sense.
Jeff
Thomas F Brown
>
>Even tempering makes an instrument play acceptably in tune in all keys,
>although the intervals other than the octave are NEVER exact. There are people
>who, even though they have been conditioned by a lifetime of hearing modern
>even tempered music, can hear the difference in the intervals without a
>concurrent just intonation comparison.
Yeah, this is easy. Just listen for the beating. Anyone should
be able to hear it if they listen closely.
John Sheehy
>Pythagoras' work identified that octaves are 2:1 frequency ratio, and that
>the 3rd, 5th, and other musically significant intervals are frequencies in
>the ratio of small whole numbers, like 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, etc. When you do this
>on, for instance an A440 base, you come up with the major scale, or at least
>one version of it. The scale is in just intonation, meaning that the 3rd,
>5th, etc. intervals are accurately small-whole-numbers ratios of frequencies.
You can come up with a major scale like this but you can also come up with
almost any scale like this. You can start at any frequency and use it as a
reference for one of these simple ratios, and then create the third note by
making a ratio to one of those two, etc, until you have a scale. The major
scale *is* the first scale to appear if you just go through a a strict
cycle of fifths, which is a series of 3:2 ratios. If you start with F, you
get F-C-G-D-A-E-B, which are the notes of the C major scale and it's modes.
What kind of scale you wind up with depends on what just intervals you
choose to apply. The resulting structure maintains simple integral
relations between the notes used for construction, but the remnant
intervals get what's left, which, though integral in ratio are too
high-ordered to be appreciated as consonances. In early musics, this was
acceptable, but as music began to branch out, the ugly intervals became
unbearable. When experimenting with just tunings on my TX81Z, I found that
a just major scale based on the 1:1, 3:2, and 5:4 of the root,
dominant(3:2), and subdominant(4:3) gave great major triads, but the other
chords where very tense. This is, of course, without even leaving the key.
>If you do the small-whole-numbers (SWN) trick starting at B, or C, etc, you
>get scales that have frequencies that are very close, but not quite the same
>as one another. Thus an instrument that sounds perfectly in tune in, say,
>Bb will not play in tune with an instrument that has perfect just intonation
>in another key. This problem led to a number of approaches to "tempering"
>intonation to get instruments to play in tune. As a historical note, this
>is about the time Bach wrote "The Well-tempered Clavier", that being one
>that could play in tune in all keys, not just one or a few.
One of Bach's sons (C.P.E. I believe) was a big fan of true equal
temperament, and used it on a regular basis. I read some quotes of his in
a book I borrowed from the library a few months ago, and he spoke of the
issues of trying to get his string players to tune their strings with a
small beating between them to get them in equally tempered fifths, as well
as other performance issues.
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John P Sheehy <jsh...@ix.netcom.com>
><<> <>>< <>>< ><<> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>><
Mark Garvin
>Last I heard, open "A" was 440 Hz.
The open A string is 110hz. It's two octaves lower than the concert
'A440' standard.
Mark Garvin
Mark Matson
"A-440" refers to a note above middle C on the piano,or a
tuning fork of the same pitch. The open A string on a guitar
is about 110 Hertz,and on a bass it's about 55 Hertz.
The frequency doubles for every octave going up in pitch,and
is divided in half going down in pitch.
Pitches for open strings:
"E"- 80 Hz
"A"- 110 Hz
"D"- 146 Hz
"G"- 196 Hz
"B"- 246 Hz
"E"- 329 Hz
Bass strings are one octave below guitar strings
, Hope I was some help.Welcome
james chaykowski
|> Last I heard, open "A" was 440 Hz.
|>
|>
here they all are, low to high:
e-330
a-440
d-587
g-784
b-988
e-1319
all in Hz (cycles per second)
jamie
Billy Joe Donnelly
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
Mark Matson
John Sheehy
the following 9 times:
"I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress, I
repeat..."
These numbers are a bit off. The low E value of 80 is about a half a fret
flat, for example. Mark Garvin's post has the correct values.
A note on string frequencies: I assume people are asking about them so
that they can write their own guitar tuning programs. If anyone is
planning to use the PC speaker for tuning purposes, think again. You must
feed an integer to the speaker, and integers are useless for creating
accurate pitches. Actually, the system timer is fed a *period* which is
calculated with integer division from the frequency integer that most
functions are fed. Consider using MIDI instead, as the pitch of MIDI
instruments is very accurate.
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John P Sheehy <jsh...@ix.netcom.com>
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mok...@gmail.com
> I need to know the frequency of each open string, mainly for standard
> tuning, but other tunings would be nice if anybody knows the numbers.
>
> Appreciate it,
> Adam
If a piano tuner today tunes from the A-440 note and goes up and down octaves from that, and each note and octave is tuned relative to the previous notes for harmonic purposes, the shorter the piano, the shorter the octaves are. So, an upright spinet piano will have short octaves, and a 9' grand piano will have larger octaves (closer to theoretical perfect). If you use a computer and tune a spinet upright piano and stretch out the octaves to theoretical perfection, it will have strange reverbs and overtones. It has something to do with the real-world adjustment of a wave length that is shortened by the thickness of a piano string.
Some guitar players like to tune their guitar down 1/2 step to A-415.3 claiming it sounds better, and matches with vocals better. The effective communication for band members playing together, is that if you are playing a song in C (tuned down 1/2 step, otherwise G#/ Ab) then you would communicate that you are playing in that scale. Your G would be F#/Gb for them, etc. By the way, I just got a Snark Super Tight H.Z. clip-on guitar tuner, that has a function with the notes in Hz, and a triangle flat button on the back which lowers the scale 1/2 scale every time you push it, thus reading your first E string as an E note tuning, but at 311.13 Hz which is D#, etc with all the strings down 1/2 step, but reading EADGBE as you are tuning it.
mok...@gmail.com
> I need to know the frequency of each open string, mainly for standard
> tuning, but other tunings would be nice if anybody knows the numbers.
>
> Appreciate it,
> Adam
D# – 77.78
E = 82.41 hz <- low E string on guitar, open
G# = 103.83 hz
A = 110.00 hz <- A string on guitar, open
C# = 138.59 hz
D = 146.83 hz <- D string on guitar, open
F# = 185.00 hz
G = 196.00 hz <- G string on guitar, open
A# = 233.08 hz
B = 246.94 hz <- B string on guitar, open
D# = 311.13 hz
E = 329.63 hz <- high E string on guitar, open