If you take an instrument without predefined notes, such as a trombone or a violin, you can produce an infinite amount of notes between Do and Re for example (applies with out of tunes instruments as well). With that logic, you could have an infinite set of 7 notes that are as evenly « spaced » as our current standard. Im sure im missing something obvious.
In: Physics
Then do re mi…..is relatively “new” from like the 11th century
They refer to the 6 notes of a hex-chord and not any one specific chord (usually a c chord is used)
The way the average person with no musical training would sing them is called a major scale. The reason it’s such a standard is because 1. It sounds really pleasing to the brain, and 2. It starts and ends on the same “note.”
You could certainly hit 8 microtones between an A and a C, but they wouldn’t end back on an A. The major scale is a very musically satisfying and self-resolving way to get from a certain note back to itself, either one octave higher or lower.
This is very much not a physics question and very much a cultural one. Both in that a) the names do re mi are very specifically English. Other languages use different words and more over 2) the major scale as defined by traditional music theory is also cultural. It’s from the cultural of western European musicians from a few hundred years ago. In other cultures, they define their musical building blocks in completely different ways. Different steps, different rhythmic concepts, etc
It has to do with mathematical ratios of the frequencies of the notes, notably determined by Pythagoras, I believe (but it could pre-date him), so they’re at least 2,600 years old.
Imagine a basic wave on a graph, that goes above the X-axis and then down below, over and over. You could add another wave to it that fit perfectly into it twice, crossing the x-axis at the same points and also halfway between. That would make the frequency of the wave twice the original one – we call that an “octave” and say they’re the same note, just an octave higher or lower, a 2:1 ratio of wavelengths.
Now we add a wave that has a 3:2 ratio – that means that for every 2 waves of the base note we end up with 3 waves of the new note. This new tone is very consonant (i.e. pleasant to hear). Unlike the octave, it’s definitely not the same note, but they still sound nice together.
So now we take *that* note, and find the note that has a 3:2 ratio to it. Then we take that third note, etc. etc. After some time (12 iterations), you end up getting to a note that is the same as the first note, but 6 octaves higher. Those 12 notes are all of the notes used in traditional western music (basically everything you’ve ever listened to, unless you listen to a lot of indian/chinese traditional music). This is known as the “circle of fifths”, and you can find a number of different images of it.
“But,” I hear you say “do re mi is only 7 notes!”. That’s true – from those 12 notes, we pick 7 *not* equally spaced notes to build a scale out of called a “diatonic” scale. Those notes are chosen for again, more complicated mathematical ratio reasons (mostly dealing with thirds instead of fifths). But it’s basically all math, all the way down.
One theory is that it’s derived from something called the Harmonic series. Hopefully I’m allowed to link to another source in this subreddit, because Leonard Bernstein does a great job of demonstrating and ELI5 here. He walks through how you can arrive at major chords. If you continue extending it, you end up with a major scale, which are that the notes Do Re Mi Fa Sol La To Do represent.
Oh boy, you’re diving deep into music theory! The Do Re Mi scale (also known as the solfège) is just a way to make things simpler and standardize things. It’s based on a diatonic scale, which divides an octave into 7 notes that are close enough for our ears to perceive distinct steps. Sure, there’s microtonal music and stuff that goes beyond this, but for most Western music, sticking to these 7 notes works pretty well for harmonies, melodies, and keeping compositions manageable for both musicians and listeners. Think of it as a musical “default setting.”
Although what people said here about the harmonic series is true and that’s mostly why the major scale sounds the way it does, some cultures in the world do use notes between “do” and “re”. This is called microtonal music, you can find it very often in Arabic music. The microtonal theory is very complex and musicians learn how to use their instruments to get different microtones to hit different scales.
For more information about this you can look up Makam theory ( the Arabic version of scales, but very different approach)
Also, in many cultures they actually say Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti and not end with Si. I believe it’s mainly the romantic languages that end in Si. Ti is adopted almost everywhere else. I think so that every note starts with a different letter.
Also because Ti is a drink with jam and bread.
the notes are partly historic precedent and partly math.
a musical scale is defined within the range of frequencies between a base frequency ω and its second harmonic harmonic 2ω – doubling the frequency of a note is defined as giving you the same note. this frequency range is then subdivided into 12 in western music. 12 was chosen specifically because it [has many divisors ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number)that ratio neatly with each other, but that’s also historical precedent. [different musical theories ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QN_DG-OJ_4)have different systems for subdividing the octave.
The Do Re Mi system actually comes from a 10th-century hymn to St. John the Baptist where each phrase started one step higher on a musical scale. It’s just a way to help singers learn and remember pitch relationships. You’re right that in theory there are infinite pitches, but our brains and instruments do better with structured intervals. Standardizing makes it easier for musicians to communicate and perform together.
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