Link Resources Introduction to Shepard Scales Shepard Scales are a phenomenon of musical perception that take advantage of the illusions of pitch. The result is an endlessly ascending or descending musical scale that supports his theory that pitch should be represented in a multidimensional manner. Frequency vs Pitch Distinctions between frequency and pitch must be made if the response or musical perception of a given listener is to be understood.
Frequency is a physical attribute of sound whereas pitch is a psychological attribute of sound.
The frequency range of the human auditory system has a range from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Because the mechanisms of the inner ear for each person is unique, everyone's perceptual detection of pitch is not the same. Contrastingly, noise is random and therefore it is not described in terms of pitch. Pure tones consist of a single sinusoidal component. Pitch of a pure tone is proportional to the logarithm of frequency.