Pocket Acoustics Laboratory No. 03

The Tooth Tuning Fork

Could your own skull carry a reliable reference pitch? Conduct Jon’s delightfully low-tech experiment, test it twice, and turn one tiny tck into middle C.

Begin the experiment
Mid-century cutaway illustration of a head with resonance travelling from the teeth to the inner ear
01

Find your hidden note

Make two recordings. The lab listens only for the brightest little click in each sample and estimates its nearest musical pitch.

Live experiment
  1. Move somewhere reasonably quiet.
  2. Press record, then gently tap your front teeth together once. No heroic biting.
  3. Repeat for a second reading.

Microphone audio is analysed in this browser and is never uploaded or saved.

?
AWAITING RESONANCE

Two close readings make a much more persuasive pocket tuning fork.

D♭
02

Walk it home to C

The clever bit is not perfect pitch. It is relative pitch: remember the short musical distance from your dental note to C.

Pitch route
Starting at D♭Destination: C4
C

You have arrived.

Hum this note while the tone fades. Tomorrow, try the journey with no screen at all: tap, remember the distance, find C.