Thirty-Two Octaves Below C-Sharp

What is the “frequency” or the “pitch” of one year?

I really struggled with the wording of this, and I would like to take a moment to explain why. Factoid aside, this is a post about teaching. Maybe it’s a question more than it is an answer. “Frequency” is the wrong word. “Period” is the precise term. But the word “frequency” captures the imaginations of those of you who don’t yet know or care about the distinction. I think this speaks to a larger question than whatever is the cool metaphysical one. It’s about teaching. I find that sometimes, as a teacher, you have to pull your punches. You must choose to be imprecise. Sometimes you even need to speak an “untruth” in order to meet the student where they are at. A video teacher or even worse, an AI teacher doesn’t know how to do that. They don’t know how to anticipate the questions that you didn’t know to ask. They cannot provide you a placeholder piece of information to start your brain working on a concept that you know you must later update with a larger picture.

I use analogies when I teach. I find them helpful because every time you can look at something from a new angle, you’re able to start making new connections. But it’s important to remember that eventually, every analogy breaks down. You can understand electricity by comparing it to water. But electricity is not water. You can visualize stereo imaging using props on a chessboard… up to a point. You can “lie” and tell someone there are only two cadences in music. But the real answer is that there are only two “for now”.

To be frank, I’m not actually sure my math is right. I failed pretty much every math class I ever took. As it turns out, I actually really like math. I’m just rubbish at counting. But I think I got the calculation right. Either way, if this gets you thinking about scale and octaves, that’s good enough for me.