Why Does Music Only Use 12 Different Notes?

Really look up Harry Partch... He tuned his world in 43 tones per octave. Great work. thanks ... well done... keep it up.

Is this why many classical orchestra pieces called for wind and brass instruments in specific keys? Like horns in D vs F? Would this result in purer sounding intervals?

I have tried to understand music theory for years and at 84 I am still baffled about the terminology. Thanks for the video, it was interesting as much as I could understand.

Do the D-A-N-C-E
One, two, three, four, fight!
Stick to the B-E-A-T
Get ready to ignite
Long distance runner, what you standin there for?
Get up, get out, get out of the door
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,

Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Toward the Moon or to the Sun." celtic angels

"i was running far away would i run off the world someday nobody knows" Aurora
"go long go long right over the edge of the earth " joanna newsom

An amazingly clear and logical presentation of music theory. I will get my kids to see this asap.

I find it much easier and understandable using the following note names: A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# You can say that A# is the same as Bb, C# = Db, D# = Eb, F# = Gb, and G# = Ab.

Bravo Maestro!
I have read and heard that physical properties of our hearing system ("vibrating fibers" refer to the hair cells located within the cochlea of the inner ear) determined the 12 tones' frequencies rather than western or eastern meridians. Please comment, as I know you can pair your extensive knowledge of music with a colleague who is a medical/biological expert.
Many Thanks!

the thumbnail having only one flat and every other accidental is a sharp triggers me

You mean western music only uses 12 notes.

There is actually certain notes the human ear likes to hear. As well as the three and four rhythm beat

Now explain”temper”.

He never actually answers the question in the title, he just reverberates a lot of music theory. I would really love it if someone actually answered the question, because I would like to know.

maybe the question is why are their 12 and not 10?

Also, I've found that our hearing is works as a sort of color-spectrum. Our HEARING is spectral, beginning with the robust, fiery C as red. D is orange, happy, hungry (orange makes you hungry). E is Yellow, consciousness, the Light of Christ. F# is grass green, and very cool but also teetering and wobbly texture. Ab is cold blue (Stings famous stalker-song, "Every Breath You Take".) B is violet or purplish (Prince and the Revolution's "Purple Rain" is is Bb). B, a hot-pink or magenta merges or transitions back into a higher or lower C. It is also a very spiritual key because it is transition outside of the visible spectrum (the invisible infra-red, or ultra violet). Ray Parker Jr's "Ghostbusters" theme was written I the ghostly key of B natural.
Some of my work on this topic here is here, or look me up ant my main channel, The Acoustic Rabbit Hole

No mention that 2^8 ≅ 1.5^8?

No, you are wrong. Pretty .uch all folk music of central and eastern Europe, turkey etc uses more that 12 pitches. Of course by western music you oly mean american music 😂😂😂😂😂

I got lost at 'interval'. Teachers often forget that they are using jargon

fun fact, in indian music they bend the note when they switch note from one to other

Seriously fascinating. Answered every question about music scales that I have been asking for 30 years. No hyperbole. Love the mathematical explanations - really helped me to understand. I am new so David Bennett- you are brilliant. Thank you for doing this obvious labor-of-love video. I feel fortunate to have found it.

Excellent presentation. Thank you

Such a clear and interesting lesson. Thank you !

✋️😢🤚 absolute cinema

Hi.David Bennet.a very interesting lesson, clearly explained.Thanks n Best Wishes...

tbh i think the concept for Fb/E# and Cb/B# is the following frequencies: 169.7 Hz (Fb/E#) and 127.15 Hz (Cb/B#)

I got a bit confused with the names for the different types of tempering. Am I right that the modern approach is tempering that, in effect, leads to equal spacing of the frequencies when represented logarithmically? If so, has that come in due to electronic instruments? It would be something a traditional mechanical piano tuner would have difficulty emulating.

Really should insert “Western” after “Does” and before “Music”. You say that at the start of your discussion, but your title is flat out wrong.

The notes in between the western twelve sound like crap aside from transition movements like slides and bends and pitch shifts where you're only on those pitches for a nanosecond. If microtones were good we probably wouldn't mind too much when our instruments fall slightly out of tune because that's what microtonal music sounds like.

An engineer's explanation without all the obscure musical terminology: Given an octave divided into 12 equal increments (notes), each adjacent frequency must increase or decrease by a ratio that is the 12th root of 2. 12 notes were chosen because that number is evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6. This gives the greatest number of two-frequency combinations that do not produce heterodynes (beat frequencies).

In what Mozart supposedly said, Too many notes.

Never knew any of this. Yeah I was clueless.

Does it really just come down to math then? Because assuming we use 12 TET, this means multiplying our fundamental frequency by some number of the 12 root of 2 gives us close approximations to our intervals. If we were to use, say, 15 TET and we multiplied our fundamental frequency by some number of the 15th root of 2, would our approximations to our common intervals (perfect fifth, perfect fourth, major sixth, etc) be less accurate?

nicely done! in classical music, just intonation is preferred even when working with tempered instruments. i will share this video with my students.

Do modern day electronic keyboard instruments allow you to switch between intonation conventions...?

I was going to ask this: "Stupid question: Can the human ear notice if one waveform has been phase shifted compared to the same waveform played simultaneously?"
Then I realized that it would just sound like the volume decreasing to zero and back. (destructive interference)
Then I asked myself: "Then HOW is it that when playing octaves on a piano together, the volume is predictable????" (why is there not a random phase shift)
I THINK the answer to this question is the fact that vibrating systems tend to synchronize. There is a Steve Mould video were he puts random metronomes on a movable surface (all set to the same time, but started at different times) and they end up synchronizing with each other.
BUT the time it takes for that to happen is not instantaneous... which means that when playing octaves together there would be measurable swell in volume (very quick, and very small.... but measurable non the less.)

PUT WESTERN IN THE TITLE TOO NOT JUST IN THE DESCRIPTION

How did you know all about this

Do electronic instruments use perfect tuning for all keys?

Very interesting. Almost gobsmacking but it's probaly one of the reasons I gave up the piano and became a drummer -- and, yes -- there are a lot of jokes about drummers not being musicians.

AI has the potential to make some insane music with tones of frequencies (that is, notes) we're not accustomed to hearing.

AI has the potential to make some insane music with tones of frequencies (that is, notes) we're not accustomed to hearing.

Teşekkürler.

The short answer to this question is 'Bach'.

He is the only musician I can understand !... Every STEM person wanting to understand music needs him !