We use the term “higher” to describe notes of smaller wavelengths, and this term seems strangely fitting in a way that I don’t quite understand. For example, when a band is playing heavy bass notes and then a singer comes in with treble notes, it seems like the vocal notes are actually physically *higher* (like, in the room or in my ears) than the bass notes.
Is this a real thing? Or am I just imagining it? Or is it just subconscious association with the words “high” and “low” which we use to describe these notes? Or maybe I’m just noticing that speakers and venues usually put the woofers on the bottom and the tweeters on the top?
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See the book *[Metaphors We Live By](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors_We_Live_By)*, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.
Language is full of directional or orientational metaphors such as up/down, in/out, and front/back, that *are not literal*.
Musical notes being higher or lower is one of these very many nonliteral metaphors.
*Edited to add*: In [an older thread on the subject](https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/s/BdNNwPdi39), Redditors weigh in on different languages.
In Danish, they say light and deep musical notes, where English says high and low. In Norwegian, it’s light and dark. In another language, it’s thin and thick.
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