What's the Deal With A = 440 Hz vs 432 Hz? Let's Talk!

This is by far the most frequent question I get asked so I finally decided to weigh in on it. I brought in 3 experts to weigh in as well. What are your thoughts?

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[prettyboyyjo]

Spiritual So brought me to this video 💯

[quailstudios]

This is the best video I’ve ever seen on A 432 versus A 440 comparison! I especially like the way that the experts weighed in right at the end. Brilliant Rick!

[ZeroFunctional]

Wow, three experts featured in one video? Quality has really come a long way.

[Buonarr]

finally a succinct youtube video actually covering the topic without 3 minutes of intro, five minutes of fluff, and 2 minutes of actual content. cheers mate

[michaelwallace]

Just saw this - some 6 years later. Brilliant! What the people talking about a few cents either way don't seem to grasp is that music is not a single note, it is the resonance of harmonics. Shape of the room, even the moisture in the air can subtlety alter this. Let's tune the room, not the minutia! Go Rick!

[m.e.c.j.]

I absolutely love everything about how my guitar sounds and FEELS/RESPONDS; even through the amp, when tuned to my preferred Ab/Drop Db = 432Hz. However, considering nearly every piece of recorded music that i grew up listening to; and still do, was recorded using A = 440Hz(or some variation of it), so learning/jamming along with pre-recorded music or friends, is impractical. But my love of 432Hz has nothing to do with any mystical, cosmic, or devine theories. I can only say that when my guitar is tuned to Ab/Db = 432Hz, it just sounds, feels, and responds in a much more "relaxed" way. Not so tense/intense. If that makes any sense.

[ToniMazzotti]

Sexagesimal second have 6.000 years. To discuss the seconds and the measurement of time and space based on the rounded seconds for the Hertz, before, we need to understand the sexagesimais origins of the second. Each turn of the clock has 43, 200 slices, or seconds. And the number 60 is not a random choice. 60 is the smallest number with the largest number of connections: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60. We don't invent mathematics, we just discover the relationships between the quantities, and give them names. That's why I reaffirm that to understand the relationship between the number 432 and the sexagesimal mandala of 60, we need to understand its origins in mathematics, geometry and cosmology.

[FUFUWO]

I don't know about y'all, but I tune everything to 420hz :)

[robertzeurunkl]

I've listened to comparisons of the two (432 and 440), and for some reason the 432 does sound more calm and relaxing to me. I think it might just be because it's a slightly lower tone, thus sounds more mellow when set beside a 440 sample. Throughout school, I was a trumpet player, and we always tuned *A* to 440. We had a tuning machine that you would stand in front of and play an A, and it had little dials on it that would "freeze" when the note was just right - very much like the record player strobe light tuner on a turntable. In fact, it was the same color. But when put side by side, I do like the 432 better - again, I think, because it's just a slightly lower tone giving it a more "bass" sound.

[davidberndt]

I like A432 Hz because its not standard ( its part of my Oppositional defiant disorder....) ;-)

[Jiwpgakis]

When I play Slayer I tune my piano to 666

[thechrishouse]

SoLLUMINATI is blowing up this comment section like crazy!

STAY WOKE!

[marcstoneslade]

Rick, I love your videos and I was wondering if you could make a video explaining George Russell's lydian chromatic concept and its application in jazz composition. Thank you.

[redshoe]

I agree with Lennon. I moved to 432 Hz just because it seems a little richer in tone and seems to make slight intonation problems less noticeable. It's no big deal to me because all my gigs are solo. I keep a Strat tuned to 440 Hz, just in case you want to jam.

[CrossbeatsMusicProduction]

couldn't help but laugh about resampling all of your audio collection!

[keithfranklin]

432 is so much easier and natural for me to sing to, also 432 is very calming, I put it on before bed and during work commute traffic and within minutes I am calm relaxed and happy

[hmsdefiant]

432 is much better for meditation music and songwriting, I used to be sceptical but I have done a LOT of comparison and I don't think it's just a placebo and there could have been a conspiracy. I think Rick is being a bit glib with his dismissal here.

[jrsmoots]

You won't convince all the new age nuts with facts, man!

[jerseydeviljohnnyfeds]

FINALLY SOME INTELLIGENT TRUTH ABOUT THIS ARGUMENT!

[WhiteOakAmps]

Dear sir, this standardization issue is a bit of a "red herring" in that it supposes that the frequency that A is mapped to is really important, but as you point out for centuries (perhaps millennia) to exactly map a master tuning frequency to 440 Hz would have been impossible without modern science.  So how did they tune at all?  For guitarists this an important point and leads us to the 6th, and the difference between natural tuning and equal temperament and Das wohltemperierte Klavier (The well-tempered Clavier) by Bach and the differences in the fractions that make up Natural tuning (for instance tuning a guitar or piano to an open chord such as G Major or E Major versus Standard tuning.  When tuned to the single Major Chord, as one goes around the Circle of Fifths, the 6ths begin to detune due to the fractions used in relation to the key center.  Meanwhile in Standard or Equal Temperament, the division between half-steps is constant, and thus as one goes around the Circle of Fifths (no matter what key one is in), the "out-of-tuneness" is spread across all semitones as opposed to being solely centered on the 6th.  If I am not mistaken, this also is the source of differences in notation on enharmonic notes, and the use of sharps when ascending and flats when descending for historical purposes.  And finally, it took the three strings of a harpsichord or piano to really center in on equal temperament.  Electronically, due to the fact that sine waves produced by electricity do not have inherent overtone artifacts unless they are deliberately designed in, we can have any mapping we desire, but it won't sound "as real" until the proper odd and even harmonics are added.  Just my two cents.  Great video