What is Pitch? - Seattle Voice Lab?

Pitch is how high or low a sound feels, like when you sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and go up or down in your voice.

Imagine you're playing with a toy xylophone. Each bar makes a different sound: the short ones are higher pitch, like a bird chirping; the long ones are lower pitch, like a deep, rumbling lion. When you hit them one after another, it's like going up or down a staircase, that’s how pitch changes.

Your ears work like little detectives. They catch the sound waves and send messages to your brain. If the sound waves are tight and quick, your brain says, “That’s high pitch!” If they’re loose and slow, it thinks, “That’s low pitch!”

You can even feel pitch in music, when a song goes from soft and gentle to loud and exciting, that change in how the notes feel is also about pitch.

Next time you're singing or listening to your favorite song, notice if the voice or music feels like it's going up or down, that’s pitch at work! Pitch is how high or low a sound feels, like when you sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and go up or down in your voice.

Imagine you're playing with a toy xylophone. Each bar makes a different sound: the short ones are higher pitch, like a bird chirping; the long ones are lower pitch, like a deep, rumbling lion. When you hit them one after another, it's like going up or down a staircase, that’s how pitch changes.