Music Calculators

Name: Overview
Author: Jürgen Kummer

Some helpful calculators for notes and tones. Here you can perform simple calculations for the music. The following calculators are available:

Tuning calculates the height of tones, when the instrument is tuned to a certain frequency.

Note Length shows the length of notes (whole, half, quarter, ...) at a given tempo.

Interval finds out the distance of two notes or the note, which has a distance of a given interval to another note.

Note Ratio calculates the ratio of the tone pitches of two notes at an equal temperament.

Frequency of a String calculates the fundamental frequency and the overtones from the physical properties of a string.

Wavelength determines that one from frequency and speed of sound.

A further calculator, which is more extensive and also can play sound, is the Note Calculator.

Mathematics can be a help in understanding music. Like everything else in the world, musical properties can be described mathematically and sometimes even explained, or at least a mathematical property can contribute to an explanation. However, it is not possible to calculate when music will sound good or when certain notes should be heard. Unpredictability and originality, among many other factors, contribute to the appeal of a piece of music. With these calculators, some very basic principles of music and sounds in general can be mathematically processed. This can lead to useful results that contribute to musical understanding and can be useful for further purposes. The calculators here are not mathematically demanding and mostly work with basic arithmetic. To calculate the frequency of a string, the square root is used. If you would like an insight into more mathematically complex calculations related to music, you can take a look at Fourier analysis, for example.