User:Grady/Harmonic similarity: Difference between revisions

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If one string is 3/2 the length of the other, this requires folding the shorter string in half and folding the longer string into thirds. This is arguably more challenging, as folding something into thirds requires a fair bit more futzing than folding it in half. However, it's still massively easier than folding something into fifths or sevenths, so it isn't a huge challenge to fold these two strings to be the same length. Thus, two pitches a [[3/2|perfect fifth]] apart are also fairly harmonically similar.

This analogy may even be deeper than it appears, as it may in fact provide some insight into what the brain is doing when comparing two pitches. It may be very easy for the brain to subconsciously slide pitches around by octaves for the same reason it's easy to fold something in half repeatedly, and the same logic may extend to other harmonically similar pairs of pitches.

== Explanation of octave equivalence ==

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 If one string is 3/2 the length of the other, this requires folding the shorter string in half and folding the longer string into thirds. This is arguably more challenging, as folding something into thirds requires a fair bit more futzing than folding it in half. However, it's still massively easier than folding something into fifths or sevenths, so it isn't a huge challenge to fold these two strings to be the same length. Thus, two pitches a [[3/2|perfect fifth]] apart are also fairly harmonically similar.
+This analogy may even be deeper than it appears, as it may in fact provide some insight into what the brain is doing when comparing two pitches. It may be very easy for the brain to subconsciously slide pitches around by octaves for the same reason it's easy to fold something in half repeatedly, and the same logic may extend to other harmonically similar pairs of pitches.
 == Explanation of octave equivalence ==