Someone nearby is playing the flute amidst the traffic crowd. Is this a musical sound or an irritating one? However, it ultimately depends upon the listener to categorise between a pleasant sound, that is, music and an unpleasant sound, that is, noise. Around us, some sounds occur that are more musical than the rest.
Like the sounds produced by musical instruments such as piano, flute, Casio, guitar, sitar, etc., because the sound waves produced by these instruments are regular and as well as ordered, the human brain process these sounds as pleasing and thus considered as music. In this article, we will study in detail how noise differs from music.
Noise vs Music
The main difference between noise and music is that noise are those types of sounds that appear unpleasant to hear. In contrast, music appears pleasant to hear. Listening to noise for a long time can irritate and frustrate people, and they would not prefer to hear such sounds. However, even after listening to music for hours, people enjoy it.
Noise is a type of sound that has a continuous structure. The composition of sounds in the noise ranges from very low frequency to very high frequency in the range within which people can hear, and the intensity doesn’t need to be equal. Noise is categorised as a distribution of spectral power or power spectrum, and it resembles the distribution of kinetic molecular theory statistically.
Music is a kind of sound that has a discrete structure. The composition of sounds in the music has fundamental overtones and frequency. Mathematically, music is categorised as the infinite addition of cosines and sines multiplied by some coefficients. Music is ordered. Music appears pleasant to hear. Music is constituted of harmonious wavelength, waveform and frequency.
Comparison Table Between Noise and Music
| Parameters of Comparison | Noise | Music |
| Nature | Noise is random. | Music is ordered. |
| Definition | Noise is those types of sounds that appear unpleasant to hear. | Music appears pleasant to hear. |
| Structure | Noise is a type of sound that has a continuous structure. | Music is a kind of sound that has a discrete structure. |
| Composition | The composition of sounds in the noise ranges from very low frequency to very high frequency in the range within which people can hear. | The composition of sounds in the music has fundamental overtones and frequency. |
| Categorisation | Noise is categorised as a distribution of spectral power or power spectrum and it resembles the distribution of kinetic molecular theory statistically. | Mathematically, music is categorised as the infinite addition of cosines and sines multiplied by some coefficients. |
| Reaction | Listening to noise for a long time can irritate and frustrate people and they would not prefer to hear such sounds. | Even after listening to music for hours, people enjoy it. |
| Constitution | Noise is constituted of low frequency, irregular wavelength and waveform. | Music is constituted of harmonious wavelength, waveform and frequency. |
| Example | Examples of noise is the sound produced by vehicles and crackers. | Examples of music are the sounds produced by flute, piano, guitar. |
What is Noise?
Noise is a sound that is most unwanted, disruptive, loud to hear. From the desired sound, physically, the noise is indistinguishable as the vibrations reached through different vibrations such as water and air. Cacophony, crash, buzz, commotion, cry, roar, explosion, turbulence are also used extensively in place of noise.
Noise is random. Noise is those types of sounds that appear unpleasant to hear. Listening to noise for a long time can irritate and frustrate people, and they would not prefer to hear such sounds. Examples of noise is the sound produced by vehicles and crackers. Noise is constituted of low frequency, irregular wavelength and waveform.
What is Music?
Even after listening to music for hours, people enjoy it. Examples of music are the sounds produced by flute, piano, guitar and other musical instruments. Music is constituted of harmonious wavelength, waveform and frequency. Music is an art. In music, the sounds are arranged so that beautiful composition can be produced like rhythm, melody, timbre, harmony.
The word music has its origin from a Greek word which means art. Music generally inculcates a wide variety of vocal techniques and instruments. Singing and rapping are two of many instrumental pieces. Mathematically, music is categorised as the infinite addition of cosines and sines multiplied by some coefficients.
Main Differences Between Noise and Music
- Noise is a type of sound that has a continuous structure. Whereas music is a kind of sound that has a discrete structure.
- The composition of sounds in the noise ranges from very low frequency to very high frequency in the range within which people can hear, and the intensity doesn’t need to be equal. However, the composition of sounds in the music has fundamental overtones and frequency.
- Noise is categorised as a distribution of spectral power or power spectrum, and it resembles the distribution of kinetic molecular theory statistically. Whereas, mathematically, music is categorised as the infinite addition of cosines and sines multiplied by some coefficients.
- Noise is random. On the other hand, music is ordered.
- Noise is those types of sounds that appear unpleasant to hear. Whereas music appears pleasant to hear.
- Listening to noise for a long time can irritate and frustrate people, and they would not prefer to hear such sounds. However, even after listening to music for hours, people enjoy it.
- Examples of noise is the sound produced by vehicles and crackers. Whereas examples of music are the sounds produced by flute, piano, guitar.
- Noise is constituted of low frequency, irregular wavelength and waveform. On the other hand, music is constituted of harmonious wavelength, waveform and frequency.
Conclusion
Both varieties of sounds, noise and music, are the mixtures of different frequencies of sound waves. But still, noise is considered as a disordered sound and music is considered as an ordered sound. In music, some dominant frequency of sound waves are present, and they can be even separated individually into different frequencies, which are not possible in the case of noise as there is no dominant frequency available.
There is a very blurry line present between noise and sound. The very simple difference being noise are those types of sounds which appears unpleasant to hear. In comparison, music appears pleasant to hear.
References
- https://escholarship.org/content/qt04t64495/qt04t64495.pdf
- https://content.iospress.com/articles/occupational-ergonomics/oer00144