Pitch refers to the relative highness and lowness of sounds. Important aspects include high, low, higher and lower pitches, direction of pitch movement, melody, harmony, indefinite and definite pitch.
Students should be able to discuss the following aspects of pitch as relevant to the music studied:
• high/low: pitches can be comparatively high or low
• direction of pitch movement: up, down, same level
• melody: a horizontal succession of pitches
• harmony: two or more pitches sounding together
• indefinite pitch: untuned sounds, for example, the speaking voice
• definite pitch: tuned sounds, for example, the singing voice.
Students should understand and apply the following (where appropriate to the musical context):
• definite and indefinite pitch
• pitch direction and contour
• pitch patterns
• pitch range and register
• harmony
• methods of notating pitch, both traditional and graphic
• various scales, modes and other ways of organising pitch.