Although the high-pitched sounds by which Tympole communicate can not be picked up by human ears, successive civilizations since the dawn of Unova's history have noted these pokemon's affinity towards music. If isolated from their pod and others of their species, lone Tympole will alter their frequencies in the hopes of being heard, and the sound they produce this way is a high-pitched, beautiful melody.
Tympole's musical talents were supposedly discovered by accident, but this discovery predates the dawn of civilization, and even the earliest sources record it only in legends. Human musicians in antiquity were quick to take advantage of the Tympole, using these pokemon both for their voice and as drums, although this practice was controversial and derided by many of their competitors as pokemon abuse. These ancient songs have been lost to a lack of notation, but later eras answered that problem with a musical language based on the symbols on a Tympole's face – one which provides the roots of the notation used to this day.
Today, Tympole are rarely used musically outside of the orchestra, and strict laws regulate their commercial performances; Tympole drums are illegal in Unova, and they are most frequently used for their voices. The songs they typically sing to humans are highly ritualized and the product not of isolation, but fierce training; they bear more resemblance to the vocalizations used to communicate with other species than the songs wild Tympole sing to one another. Yet Tympole are frequently isolated from their own kind by trainers, who capture them in poke balls and are loath to repeat a species on their team even in tournaments where doing so is legal. And some nights, before these trainers sleep, they hear the same wonderful songs which so enthralled the first concert audiences of Unova.