Why Is Music Tuned the Way It Is? The Physics and History of Music

Why is music tuned the way it is? Almost every piano and guitar is tuned with a tiny, deliberate error in almost every interval. This video follows that choice from Pythagoras and the string ratios 2:1, 3:2 and 4:3, through harmonics and why simple ratios blend, the Pythagorean comma, Pythagorean, just, meantone and well temperament, to equal temperament, the A440 standard, the 432 Hz claim, and how strings, frets, pipes, bells and stretched piano tuning are designed around the physics. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:47 Pythagoras and the ratios 1:54 Why simple ratios sound good 3:26 The problem with perfect fifths 4:19 Pythagorean, just and meantone tuning 5:36 Well temperament 6:19 Equal temperament 7:23 Where does A440 come from? 8:41 How strings and frets are designed 9:34 Pipes and bells 10:22 Why pianos are stretched 11:04 So why is music tuned the way it is? Could you hear the difference between a just tuned chord and an equal tempered one? Tell us in the comments. Related Shorts: Is 432 Hz Really Better Than 440?    • Is 432 Hz Really Better Than 440?   | Why Do Simple Ratios Sound Good Together?    • Why Do Simple Ratios Sound Good Together?   | Why Do Some Notes Sound Good Together?    • Why Do Some Notes Sound Good Together? Mus...   Sources (selected) Plomp and Levelt (1965), Tonal consonance and critical bandwidth, JASA, doi 10.1121/1.1909741 McDermott, Lehr and Oxenham (2010), Individual differences reveal the basis of consonance, Current Biology, doi 10.1016/j.cub.2010.04.019 McDermott, Schultz, Undurraga and Godoy (2016), Indifference to dissonance in native Amazonians, Nature, doi 10.1038/nature18635 Nature (1939), Standard musical pitch, doi 10.1038/143905a0 ISO 16:1975, Acoustics, standard tuning frequency: https://www.iso.org/standard/3601.html Calamassi and Pomponi (2019), Explore 15(4), doi 10.1016/j.explore.2019.04.001 O. L. Railsback (1938), JASA 9, 274 HyperPhysics, music and vibrating strings: https://hyperphysics.gsu.edu/hbase/Mu... Overviews: Equal temperament, Pythagorean comma, Meantone temperament, Well temperament, Mersenne's laws, Strike tone, Pythagorean hammers, Concert pitch, Piano acoustics and Stretched tuning (Wikipedia) The 432 Hz idea is presented as a claim. Small pilot studies do not establish health effects, and this video makes no health claims. Plots marked typical or illustrative show the shape of a result, not exact data. All visuals are original animations made for this video.