eli5: why do we know a note is off key even when we’ve never heard the piece of music before?

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Whenever I hear someone play an instrument, I can always tell when they’ve played the wrong note even if it’s my first time hearing it, why is that?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

How does the audience in [this clip](https://youtu.be/ne6tB2KiZuk?si=f-KerXUwbww4JI4o) know the next note to sing when they were never given the whole scale?

He started with only two notes that he demonstrated for the audience, and yet they are able to intuitively grasp which pitch to sing for each successive note higher or lower in the scale. Basically he gave them the ratio between the first two notes. Once the audience understood that ratio, they can use the same ratio to generate each successive note up or down.

A similar thing is happening when we hear a “wrong note” in a piece of music. Basically, the wrong note doesn’t follow the pattern that has been established by the song (ratio between notes in a scale or key), and we can hear that it doesn’t fit.

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