Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Musical intervals in speech.

Deborah Ross1, Jonathan Choi, Dale Purves

  • 1Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|May 26, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle-Mediated Reprogramming and Standard Sendai Virus Reprogramming: Generation of iPSCs and iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

International journal of molecular sciences·2026
Same author

Derivation of an induced pluripotent stem cell line from a long QT syndrome type 1 patient with a pathogenic KCNQ1 c.1552C > T (p.Arg518Ter) variant.

Stem cell research·2026
Same author

Characterization of an induced pluripotent stem cell line from a long QT syndrome type 1 patient possessing the KCNQ1 c.691C > T (p.Arg231Cys) variant.

Stem cell research·2026
Same author

Understanding Visual Perception.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2025
Same author

Measuring <sup>15</sup>N and <sup>13</sup>C Enrichment Levels in Sparsely Labeled Proteins Using High-Resolution and Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry·2024
Same author

The Effects of Metformin on Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity in Diabetic Patients.

Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery·2024
Same journal

The TaMYB55-TaSnRK1α1-TabZIP9 module confers heat stress tolerance in wheat.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Superstatistics approach to turbulent circulation fluctuations.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

A molecular timescale for evolution of cobamide biosynthesis.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Pierre Chambon, a pioneer of molecular biology and gene regulation in eukaryotes.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Granulosa cell glycogen fuels the avascular corpus luteum.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Synthetic essentiality of TRAIL/TNFSF10 in VHL-deficient renal cell carcinoma.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
See all related articles

Human music preference for 12 chromatic scale intervals may stem from speech. Vowel sound formants in spoken language naturally produce these musical relationships.

Area of Science:

  • Psychoacoustics
  • Speech Science
  • Music Theory

Background:

  • Humans universally use 12-tone chromatic scales in music.
  • The origin of this preference for specific musical intervals remains unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the hypothesis that musical intervals originate from formant relationships in speech sounds.
  • To explore the connection between vowel perception and the 12 tones of the chromatic scale.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of a database of spoken English vowel phonemes.
  • Examination of the frequency ratios of the first two formants in vowel sounds.
  • Comparison of formant ratios to the intervals of the chromatic scale.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • The frequency relationships of the first two formants in vowel phones correspond to all 12 intervals of the chromatic scale.
  • Deviations in formant ranges outside the human voice produce less complete interval representations.
  • The human voice's formant structure inherently generates the chromatic scale intervals.

Conclusions:

  • The human preference for chromatic scale intervals likely arises from auditory experiences with speech.
  • Speech formants modulate laryngeal harmonics, creating distinct phonemes and establishing preferred musical intervals.