Talk:Tone

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We need to clear up usage of this word in music:

1. the interval of a major second, 2 semitones, etc
2. the nature and quality of a music sound: what distinguishes different types of musical instruments and what makes a good instrument (eg Steinways tend to have a very good tone -- well, mine does ;) )
3. used (in AmEng, I think) to mean a musical note: eg "each key of the piano produces a seperate tone"

personally, I would like to see #3 changed to "note" or "musical note", or "pitch" if speaking scientifically.

There's a difference between "note" and "pitch"... the plot thickens ;) -- Tarquin

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My thoughts:

1. is the most "proper" use of the word. There isn't really an alternative word for this in music.
2. is tricky - when talking about the characteristics of a pitched sound, the word "timbre" is more usual, but then again nobody talks about a piano having a "good timbre" (at least I don't).
3. here "tone" means the actual sound of the note, not the letter name (G, B flat, F sharp, whatever), so a reference to "pitch" is more appropriate than one to "musical note." But I'm English, and I don't know what NAmericans mean here. --Camembert

usually, tone means something scientific and isn't used by itself. ie, a sine wave is referred to as a pure tone, the sound we here on the phone is the dial tone, etc. JFQ

"pitch" is the actual frequency of the sound. The note "E" can be at very different pitches, depending on the tuning scheme, whether the instrument is in tune or not, which pitch has been chosen as A (conert pitch etc) -- and then other considerations such as the ambient temperature. -- Tarquin

Hm, you're right. Maybe what's needed here are quick references to "note", "pitch" and "timbre" (although how we get an article out of the latter I'm not sure) and then either an article here about the interval of a major second or else a reference across to an article "whole tone" (where you can talk about the major second, the whole tone scale, etc). --Camembert

I figured we can use a little bit of natural disambiguation: the interval "tone" can be explained on semitone. pitch is a huge disambiguation list with a pitch (music) link which isnt written yet.

I have to say, I don't like having the idea of a whole tone being subjugated to the semitone entry. It seems like it and the whole tone scale deserve their own entry.JFQ

Whole tone scale is needed, yes. What I meant is that the page tone already has a long disambiguation list. "tone (music)" would pretty much be a stub article, same as semitone. It seemed a good idea to gather them together on an article page with an unambiguous name.

Thinking about it a little more, and all of this discussion, along with microtonality, probably belongs in the tuning entry. I haven't even looked at that one yet, I'm a little scared.JFQ

Yup, the tuning entry is scary. Part of the problem is that writers disagree on a) the names of a particular scheme, and b) what is meant by a particular name. It'a tangle. I suggested that we merge all the pages named for tuning schemes onto a single page as a temporary measure, until we resolve it all, so we can see at a glance the state of play. bon courage! -- Tarquin

Agreed. The current mess is almost completely unmanagable from the looks of it.JFQ