When analyzing sound, you’ll also want to consider qualities like pitch, pace, and volume. Pitch is a measure of the highness or lowness of sound. A child’s voice, for example, is often high-pitched, whereas a lion’s roar is low-pitched. In speech, pitch provides inflection, which affects how listeners interpret the words being spoken. A statement that pitches upward at the end usually sounds like a question. If you’ve seen the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you probably remember the scene in which a teacher (played by Ben Stein) takes attendance. The teacher’s monotonous delivery of the students’ names reflects his overall persona in the classroom: flat and boring. The camera pans to show his students falling asleep before class has even begun. This serves as a humorous justification for Ferris’s skipping class.

Pitch can offer valuable clues about what’s happening in a segment or piece. When people become frightened or stressed, the pitch of their voice tends to go higher. Higher pitch in movie music can emphasize anxiety and fright on-screen and inspire those feelings in the audience.

In addition to pitch, think about pace and volume when analyzing sound. Does the sound seem to be fast or slow (pace)? Is one sound louder or softer than another (volume)? Does the pace or volume of a particular sound change? What is the effect of any changes on the listener? In the movie Jaws, pace and volume work together to create suspense. A simple set of tones plays when the shark is near. These tones get faster and louder as the shark gets closer to an unsuspecting swimmer, encouraging a sense of panic in the audience.