So I don’t know a ton about music theory, but I’m curious about how this works. Why do our brains like to hear chords that are in tune? And how do we explain why something is tuned properly?
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Music and chords can be thought of as combinations of sounds. And sounds are simply vibrating air molecules. The speed at which they vibrate determines the pitch (high or low) that we experience, and we measure that as frequency (in units of Hertz or Hz), or how many times it vibrates in 1 second.
As the frequency increases, so does the pitch, but this relationship is not linear. In fact, when we double the frequency, we will hear the same “note” but one octave higher. E.g. 440Hz is an A, and 880Hz is the next higher A, and 1760Hz would be another A. Since they are doubles of the same frequency, the wavelengths of the notes will easily match up and therefore sync together. The same can be said of other multiples of the base frequency, 440×3, 440×5, 440×6 etc. which is why when you hear these notes together, they sound in tune. The oscillations would line up fairly often.
On the other hand, frequencies that are “out of tune” are often the most noticeable, because their frequency is ever so slightly higher or lower than the multiple they’re supposed to match up to, so the wavelength oscillations never quite line up happily.
As we try to tune to increasingly complex intervals (distances between the notes), it becomes harder to tell, however tuning by an octave is usually the easiest, as it is simply double or half the frequency. With practice, we are able to identify different intervals with ease.
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