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?
In: Other
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.
You know how the deeper you go into the ocean the bluer things seem? That’s because blue light penetrates things like water and glass better than red light. The frequency/color of the light has slightly different properties.
Same with sound frequencies. Higher sound frequencies tend to bounce better than lower sound frequencies. Lower sound frequencies are a bit more “bendy” than higher ones which is why you will often hear lower frequencies that are far away than higher ones.
You know how bats use echolocation to know where they are? They use the higher frequency sounds because they tend to reflect more accurately instead of bending around objects.
The difference in the properties of these frequencies are what we perceive as “higher”. They are more directional so you will be able to pinpoint where they are in space a little bit better.
However the frequency difference between a human voice and a cello is not that different. If you are perceiving higher toned things as physically separate in a location and not just coming directly from a particular speaker driver/tweeter/woofer, it is more likely that the audio system you are listening to has a good soundstage that comes from well-synced recording reproduction. Google ‘speaker soundstage’ for the psychoacoustics of that.
More rapid vibrations= higher. I think in general words that are similar to “higher” (brighter, faster, hotter, etc.) all indicate more energy, and more energy in most contexts just comes down to more vibration at some level (potential energy is a little different, but will eventually lead to more vibration in most contexts).
Ear drums vibrate when we hear sound.
Their frequency is higher – literally, the number of cycles per second is higher for a higher note. We’re used to referring to number relationships as higher or lower than others.
Also, in sheet music, higher pitched notes are higher on the staff (the lines notes are placed on).
A lot of this is due to personal perspective so there likely isn’t a completely objective answer, but once possible reason is how different sounds wavelengths affect the body.
Lower frequencies tend to vibrate hollow objects more, and our lungs/chest cavity is a big hollow space that is more easily vibrated by low frequencies. Therefore, we’re a lot more likely to feel lower frequencies in our chest, giving that physical sensation that it’s “lower,” while higher frequencies we only hear in our ears/head, giving the sensation that they’re “higher.”
I think it might have to do with the larynx too. Feel your throat as you vocalize – your voice box physically goes up or down alongside the pitch of your voice
A literal view, while possible to think about, is missing the point a bit. This is one of those things that is not *actually true*. It’s just a learned association that begins to ‘make sense’. Other cultures may use different terms, like bright/dark in Danish, or light/deep in Norwegian.
From David Cohen’s chapter in The Cambridge History of Music Theory, p. 315:
>… this familiar spatial image or metaphor, which we take for granted, seems to have been absent or merely inchoate in the conceptualization of music until about this time. The technical terms in ancient Greek and Roman music-theoretical writings for what we call “high” and “low” pitch were, instead, “acute,” that is, “sharp” or “pointed” (Gr. oxeia, Lat. actua), and “grave,” that is, “heavy” (Gr. bareia, Lat. gravis).
I know what you mean, though I do not know the answer as to why. It seems most replies here are failing to understand what you mean and are not answering the question at all. It might be one of those things where certain people simply perceive things differently than others. Like some people can taste colours. But in this case we “see” musical notes relative to each other in space, but with our ears, lol. I also hear notes as if they are physically stacked according to their “height”. They also feel as though they vary in thickness and density. Low notes are, well, low, and wider. More loosely held together. Super high notes are up there, thin and very tight. I also perceive them as moving at different speeds, in a line. lower is slower, higher is faster. I’m sure that’s my brain’s interpretation of the notes’ frequency. The human brain and it’s varying perceptual abilities is crazy.
But I don’t know the answer to your question.
The frequency is higher. Frequency = pitch. The frequency of a higher note is higher. Higher is just the term we used to say a note’s frequency is a larger value than another.
Would love some of what you’re smoking, but I just hear notes in my ears, they’re always at the same level because my ears don’t change position.
Our ears are better at locating sound locations with higher frequencies than with lower frequencies. But this is typically more noticeable with larger gaps in frequency response. In a home theater or high end audio system it may have only one subwoofer and placement of this is not very critical since bass is harder for us to pinpoint a location from. Whereas higher frequency speakers need to have proper placement and elevation to create a proper Soundstage or for surround sound to work properly.
As far as a single instrument climbing scales and seeming like it’s elevation is rising with each higher note it’s 100% mental. Unless we tilt our head both ears are at the same level yet our brain is able to decipher if a sound is coming from a source that is at a higher or lower elevation based on tiny nuances in sound bouncing off of surfaces. That fact our brain can do this is nothing short of amazing. This evolved to give us an advantage both for hunting and for detecting danger. One theory is that outside with no roof over our head the ground is going to be the largest object for sound to bounce off of and lower frequencies will bounce off that surface better. So our brain figured out if it hears more lows it is a sound it is hearing from the ground and the opposite is true for highs. Our brain then exaggerates that perceived elevation because our brain is trying to compare and contrast two different sounds against each other. It creates an auditory illusion. This is similar to how our eyes will see a color as lighter or darker based on the background color. Our brain is more concerned with pointing out what is different rather than giving us 100% accurate info.
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