What is the Difference Between a Noise and a Note?

In this music animated tutorial made by Walk That Bass, you are going to learn the difference between a noise and a note. A very interesting tutorial for everyone !

Noise VS Note Summary

Both noise and notes are mixtures of sound waves at different frequencies. A note is made up of a ripple pattern which repeats itself over and over again in an ‘ordered’ way. While a noise is made up of individual ripples which have no relationship to each other and do not repeat – and so are ‘disordered’.

If an object moves, it causes a disturbance in the surrounding air which ripples out as soundwaves. If the object vibrates with a fast and repeating pattern, like a string, then the sound waves will be evenly-spaced and regular; that is, the air particles are squeezed together into evenly-spaced waves.

These evenly-spaced, regular sound waves are heard as notes with distinct pitches. But, if you drop a vase or slam a door shut, you hear a noise which is made up of a lot of unrelated frequencies with no repeating pattern – and so will be a heard as noise with no defined pitch. To be a note, it doesn’t really matter how complicated the individual ripples are, as long as the pattern repeats itself.