American Idol: Your Pitchy

Each season "American Idol" fans hear the judges tell the contestants several hundred times that they were pitchy. But few people who watch the show, including some people involved with the show, actually know what the means.

In simple terms being in pitch or in tune mean hitting each not at the correct level or proper frequency.

A basic science lesion - each sound in nature whether it be musical notes or the traffic outside relays sound via wave lengths or frequencies. If the wave length corresponds to musical notes then the sound is of a particular pitch. When a singer matches that sound frequency then the singer (or instrument) is said to be in pitch. Being pitchy means the singer did not quite match the correct frequency. A person who can match every note perfectly with no effort is said to have perfect pitch - but this is a rarity.

However; the trouble begins when the frequencies are rated by a machine instead of by the human ear.

For example; most modern piano tuners use a machine to tune pianos. The machine determines whether or not a note is in tune or in pitch by comparing the wave lengths of the sound waves. Tuning a piano this way will put each note in perfect pitch scientifically. Longtime piano tuners and those who tuned pianos before the tuning machine came along used what is known as a tuning fork and their ear. A piano can be perfectly tuned in this manner as well; but there is a big difference between a machine tuned piano and an ear tuned piano. The machine tuned piano is tuned by the sound waves while a human tuned piano is tuned to what sounds right to the ear. A machine tuned piano may be in perfect pitch but it does not sound quite right to the human ear; while the piano tuned with a tuning fork sound right but is considered out of tune to the machine and science.

So; when Randy Jackson frequently tells a singer that he or she is out of tune or pitchy is Randy basing his remarks on his ears or some machine? Jackson is a guitar player who at least in the beginning tuned his guitar like many players - by ear. When speakers are turned up loud the excessive sound can also be distorted and not sound right.

Pitchy or out of tune would much better describe many of the hopefuls who are aired during audition week instead of the top contestants on the Idol stage.