1. SOUND, NOISE, AND SILENCE
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| Image 1. Noise and sound. |
Essentially, music is sound. SOUND is produced when an object vibrates, creating SOUND WAVES that travel through a physical medium such as the air, water, wood, iron...
When these sound waves reach our ears, they are transformed into a signal that our brain translates as sound.
So, we could say that sound is a sensation we experience when sound waves reach our ears.
Sound propagates at high speeds. The waves travel through the air at 340 meters per second.
NOISE is usually an annoying auditory experience but this is quite subjective (for instance, most of the percussion instruments produce noises when they are played). Anyway, the physical difference between sound and noise is the sort of waves: sound waves are regular and noise waves are irregular (look at image 1).
