Ever wondered what makes music sound so sweet (or not)? It depends on whether the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not, say researchers.
A new study has found that musical chords sound good or bad mostly depending on whether the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not. But, beating don’t turn out to be as important.
The researchers have based their findings on an analysis of the preferences of more than 250 college students from Minnesota to a variety of musical and non-musical sounds. They independently manipulated both the harmonic frequency relations of the sounds and another quality known as beating. “Harmonic frequencies are all multiples of the same fundamental frequency,” said lead resea-rcher Josh McDermott at University of Minnesota.
For example, notes at frequencies of 200, 300, and 400 hertz are all multiples of 100. Beating occurs when two sounds are close but not identical in frequency. And, over time, the frequencies shift in and out of phase with each other, causing the sound to wax and wane in amplitude and producing an audible “wobbling” quality.
The results revealed that the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not. Surprisingly, the preference for harmonic frequencies was stronger in people with experience playing musical instruments.
“In other words, learning plays a role — perhaps even a primary one,” McDermott argues. “Whether you would get the same result in people from other parts of the world remains to be seen, but the effect of musical experience on results suggests otherwise. It suggests that Westerners learn to like the sound of harmonic frequencies because of their importance in Western music.”