432 Hz: an alternative tuning pitch

Tuning A4 to 432 Hz instead of 440 lowers every note by the same small amount — about a third of a semitone. Verdi argued for 432 as a singer-friendly standard in the 19th century; it was never adopted, and 440 became the international standard in 1939.

432 Hz is often promoted with claims about health, mood or a special relationship with nature. Controlled listening studies have not found effects that survive blinding, and the numerical coincidences depend on the second, which is a human unit of time. What 432 really changes is pitch: music at 432 is slightly lower, and it clashes with anything still at 440.

• Hear 432 against 440 in a blind A/B test

Which note 432 Hz is at other reference pitches

“In tune” depends on what A4 is tuned to, so the same frequency is a slightly different distance from the nearest note in each tuning.

An octave of notes at A4 = 432 Hz

Middle C to the C above, tuned to this reference, beside the same notes at the 440 standard.

Octaves of 432 Hz

Doubling a frequency raises it an octave and halving lowers it one, so these all have the same note name and the same offset from it.

• 54.00 Hz · A1
• 108.00 Hz · A2
• 216.00 Hz · A3
• 864.00 Hz · A5
• 1728.0 Hz · A6
• 3456.0 Hz · A7

Harmonics of 432 Hz

A real instrument playing 432 Hz also sounds whole-number multiples of it. The first eight, and the notes they fall nearest:

Period and wavelength

One cycle of 432 Hz lasts 2.315 milliseconds; in air at 20 °C, where sound travels at about 343 metres a second, one wavelength is 79.4 centimetres.

Convert another frequency

Or hold 432 Hz as a steady tone, sweep from it, or beat it against a second tone in the tone generator. The note frequency chart lists every note from C0 to B8.

Frequently asked questions

Related frequencies

• 440 Hz — the standard tuning pitch
• 528 Hz — a “solfeggio” frequency
• 256 Hz — the “scientific pitch” middle C
• 435 Hz — the French diapason of 1859
• 432 vs 440: the blind test