Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [overtones]

For questions related to frequencies greater than the fundamental frequency of a given sound. Questions may also necessitate the acoustics and/or harmonics tags.

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Are there any instruments that don't produce overtones?

Essentially all instruments produce overtones, which are frequencies other than the dominant frequency of the note. -- How do harmonics work? The use of "essentially" there got me thinking. Are there any instruments which do not produce…
Joseph Lennox
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What are overtones?

Can someone please explain what overtones are and why they are important? I read a lot on the web about them but didn't understand. Also how can they be used when writing for orchestration?
LoveIsHere
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How do harmonic tones get "out of tune" on a brass instrument?

In a video I saw, a guy was reviewing a prototype trombone, and he said that "the high f is out of tune" (the sixth overtone) I don't understand how a fixed length of tubing (1st position) can produce a out of tune overtone. For what I know, I was…
Slapp45
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What's the difference between overtones and harmonics?

What are overtones and what are harmonics? How do they relate? I know that the first harmonic is the tone A at 440 HZ and the second harmonic is at 880HZ an octave higher, it is also the first overtone, is this just a normal tone? Is the base…
Phanest
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What is brightness?

I hear the term get thrown around a lot, and it seems pretty nebulous. Usually, it's invoked under the heading of tone, but I've heard it linked to intonation and a handful of other categories. At the physical level, though, how do the waves of a…
Lysander Cox
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Can overtones be heard if the fundamental is below hearing range?

I hope I'm using the term correctly... I think the overtone series is what one hears based on a fundamental. For example, if a C3 is played as the fundamental, the first overtone would be the octave above that, followed by the fifth above that,…
user79440
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Why don't tuning forks produce overtones?

I want to know how a tuning fork can produce a pure tone. I do not understand the process because I know, although not sure, the presence of air inside an instrument introduces the harmonics of the fundamental frequency (e.g. guitar or violin…
Oguz
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What physical effects cause ageing/worn guitar strings to change their tone?

Guitar strings wear out over time and are prone to oxidation due to sweat. As a result, they change their tone usually sounding more "bright" when they are new and "dull" when aged. There's been a question on this site that goes into what changes…
Johannes Rudolph
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Do sine waves (pure tones) have overtones?

I was told in my music theory lessons that most sounds we hear in our everyday life contain partials which make up the timbral quality of that sound, whilst the sound musical instruments generate contain partials that occur at integer values to the…
user11845919
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Harmonic implications of an instrument's timbre

Is there a study of harmonic implications of an instrument's timbre in western music theory? For example: If i use an instrument with a "rich" timbre, with lots of overtones, then isn't the sound more prone to "cluster" if i play a set of…
ccorvi
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What is the point of notes lower than human hearing

(Scientific pitch notation) For example: Organs can go down to C-1 Hyperbass Flute goes down to C0 And these notes have neglegible overtones on these instruments! Do they modulate other notes? They certainly can not be heard, as C-1 is ~8Hz, max…
Feliks_WR
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In a musical note (A for an example) are all the other frequencies harmonic?

In a musical note (A for an example) are all the other frequencies harmonic (integer multiples)? Is there any inharmonic frequencies in A? Edit: A4 on the piano for example. Im very grateful for all the answers I get. Thanks so much!
Hiluluk Adde
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How can you distinguish instruments by their timbre characteristics?

What I am trying to achieve is to distinguish instruments by their timbre. What I have read so far made me think that different instruments have different number of overtones. Is it possible to identify an instrument from a list of…
Юрій Кравець
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Rhythms notes for didgeridoo

I'm learning to play didgeridoo and have a question - How can I write the rhythms on paper? It's overtone musician instrument and I don't know how can I apply musical notation or something other. I have the same problem and with jew's harp.
Hleb Kastseika
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How do tonewheel organs sound coherent?

So there are notes that the key nominally doesn't play in an organ note if the drawbars are pulled out. Yet if I pull all the drawbars out and play a chord, it sounds like a coherent chord. A C minor chord supposedly has present, beyond the…
JohnnyApplesauce
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