what makes the pitch of a guitar? If you use a rubber band there’s also different pitches but they don’t have frets
In: Physics
Sound is (essentially) vibrations in the air. The pitch produced by a string instrument, be it a guitar or a rubber band, is determined by the speed at which the string vibrates, which causes vibrations in the air. This is impacted by length of the vibrating portion of the string, and how taught the string is. When you stretch a rubber band you change it’s pitch, and when you press down on a guitar string you do the same thing. When you press down on a guitar string you change the length of the vibrating portion, changing the speed at which it vibrates, changing the pitch.
In music you are generally trying to play specific pitches, which require the string to vibrate at particular speed, which requires pressing down the string in a particular location. If you are in the wrong location you will play the wrong note. On a guitar the frets, the bits of metal on the neck, are in (approximately) the proper spot for each fret to result in the desired frequency being played. You press down the string and the string makes contact with the fret, and the fret is what determines how long the vibrating portion is, which makes playing much easier. There are a number of string instruments without frets, such as violins, violas, cellos, and even fretless basses and guitars. On a fretless instrument like a violin playing the right notes requires you to be very precise; if you miss the spot by just the slightest amount the note you play will be very slightly wrong. However on a fretted instrument, because the string is actually cut off at the fret, being in the very slightly wrong spot doesn’t result in a wrong note.
TL;DR: Frets make it much easier to play the right note, requiring less precision than instruments like a violin or a cello.
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