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katch wreck | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @b4c50e1b worth mentioning that perceptually, we hear this 3/2 interval as halfway between the root and its double one register higher (the octave). i.e., a "perfect fifth" in music theory is the "perceptual midpoint" between a note having frequency f and a note one octave higher, having frequency 2f.
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John Carlos Baez | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @61df5b23 - has someone done experiments to show that?   I'd be interested.

I'm constantly torn, when improvising on the piano, between feeling like the perfect fifth is halfway between the tonic and an octave up, and seeing that it's not on the chromatic scale.   (I actually use tritones a fair amount, treating that as the midpoint.)