Musical tone

A musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or quality).^[1] The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients, vibrato, and envelope modulation.

A simple tone, or pure tone, has a sinusoidal waveform. A compound tone is any musical tone that is not sinusoidal, but is periodic, such that it can be described as a sum of simple tones with harmonically related frequencies.^[2]

See also

• Signal tone
• Mathematics of musical scales

References

1. ^ Juan G. Roederer (2008). The Physics and Psychophysics of Music: An Introduction (fourth ed.). Springer. p. 4. ISBN 9780387094700. http://books.google.com/books?id=rYfqoc1dDmYC&pg=PA4&dq=%22musical+tone%22+pitch+duration+timbre&hl=en&ei=EUuUTJ6MBoHQsAP24cjACg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22musical%20tone%22%20pitch%20duration%20timbre&f=false. 
2. ^ Hermann von Helmholtz and Alexander John Ellis (1885). On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music (second ed.). Longmans, Green. p. 23. http://books.google.com/books?id=GwE6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23&dq=%22musical+tone%22+simple+compound&hl=en&ei=2EmUTKfxJpKasAP-gqDACg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22musical%20tone%22%20simple%20compound&f=false. 

This music theory article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Music theory stubs Music theory Musical notation Tone, EQ and filter Waves Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР Musical system of ancient greece Musicality (album) Look at other dictionaries: musical sound — Introduction       any tone with characteristics such as controlled pitch and timbre. The sounds are produced by instruments in which the periodic vibrations can be controlled by the performer.       That some sounds are intrinsically musical,… …   Universalium Musical syntax — When analysing the regularities and structure of music as well as the processing of music in the brain, certain findings lead to the question, if music is based on a syntax which could be compared with linguistic syntax. To get closer to this… …   Wikipedia tone — toneless, adj. tonelessly, adv. tonelessness, n. /tohn/, n., v., toned, toning. n. 1. any sound considered with reference to its quality, pitch, strength, source, etc.: shrill tones. 2. quality or character of sound. 3. vocal sound; the sound… …   Universalium Tone variator — German psychologist William Stern invented the tone variator in 1897 to study human sensitivity to changes in pitch, going beyond the traditional psychophysical research of studying the sensitivity to differences in discrete tones. The instrument …   Wikipedia musical flame — noun : a flame that produces a musical note by setting in vibration the air in an open tube held over it * * * musical flame noun A flame that gives a musical tone when surrounded by an open tube • • • Main Entry: ↑music …   Useful english dictionary tone-beginning — noun a decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase • Syn: ↑attack • Hypernyms: ↑beginning, ↑start, ↑commencement …   Useful english dictionary Tone deafness — is the lack of relative pitch, or the inability to distinguish between musical notes that is not due to the lack of musical training or education. Tone deafness is also known variously as amusia, tune deafness, tin ear , dysmelodia and dysmusia.… …   Wikipedia Musical aptitude — (i.e. having a fine ear for music) is the ability to intuitively learn or appreciate music, and especially to distinguish off key and off pitch music. Music is ancient and one of the most special characteristics of humans[citation needed]. Some… …   Wikipedia tone — [tōn] n. [ME < OFr & L: OFr ton < L tonus, a sound < Gr tonos, a stretching, tone < teinein, to stretch: see THIN] 1. a) a vocal or musical sound b) its quality 2. an intonation, pitch, modulation, etc. of the voice that expresses a… …   English World dictionary Tone — may refer to: MusicTheory* Pitch (music), the perceived frequency of a note or sound (see also pure tone) * Note, the name of a pitch * Whole tone, or major second, a commonly occurring musical interval * Timbre, the quality of a musical note or… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2025 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”