Tuning game: musical ear, frequencies and cents
A music game to train your ear. Three instruments play the same note and one is out of tune: listen to them, find which one it is and, on the higher levels, say whether it is sharp or flat and tune it by moving a peg until it sounds like the reference. When it is marked you see the frequencies in hertz and how many cents it was out, so the game links what you hear with the physics of sound.
Music · Primary, Secondary
A sound is higher the faster it vibrates. The tuning A vibrates 440 times a second (440 Hz); if an instrument plays 452 Hz, it is sharp. Seeing the numbers after hearing it connects the theory of pitch with experience.
A hundred cents make a semitone, and the frequency is multiplied by 2 to the power of cents/1200. That explains why 20 cents on a high A is more hertz than on a low one, and why tuners talk in cents rather than hertz.
Playing two almost identical notes together makes a wobble, called beats, which slows down as they get closer and disappears when they are in tune. It is what orchestral players listen for before a concert, and here you practise it with the peg.
"The flute, the trumpet and the violin play an A. The student listens to each one and notices the trumpet is slightly high. They choose “sharp” and get it right: the flute and violin play 440.0 Hz and the trumpet 450.3 Hz, +40 cents."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
With a phone tuner, play the same note on two instruments (or two voices) and note how many cents each one shows.
Work out the frequency of each note of the A scale from 440 Hz by multiplying by 2^(1/12) for each semitone.
Play two almost identical notes together and count the beats per second: that is the difference in frequency.
Tune a string instrument by ear and then check it with the tuner.
If you like Who’s Out of Tune?, these activities work similar skills:
Ten rounds with the same mechanics and sound, untimed and marked.
The same instruments: their families and how they make their sound.
Intervals, scales and chords on a keyboard that plays.
More practice on · Music
Sound: pitch and tuning
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