So what exactly are the pitches of the harmonic series and how do we describe them? We’ve already developed some tools with which we can begin to go about doing so. We know that a sound is a series of pressure waves, caused by a vibration, that oscillate with a certain frequency in hertz. When someone hears two or more pitches simultaneously, or in rapid succession, the perceived character of that sound is based on a ‘snap’ assessment of...
Just like vibrating strings, the human vocal chords produce audible overtones that correspond with the same harmonic series. Some of these pitches can be isolated and strengthened by changing the shape of the mouth, throat, and lips, and in Mongolia and Tuva in particular, this ability has been developed into a full fledged musical art-form. See this site for a primer on different types of "throat" or "overtone" singing. If you haven't already,...
In an episode of the television show Myth Busters, Jaime Vendera became the first documented person to shatter a wine glass with the power of his vocal chords alone. As you can see from the video below, he went on to practically perfect the art. Based on what we've already covered in previous posts, it makes perfect sense that this is possible. The wine glass essentially acts in the same manner that the sympathetic strings of a sitar do. The...
Still don't quite get the whole sound = wave thing? Check out the video below, which contains a demonstration of a classic physics experiment: the Ruben's Tube. Flammable gas is circulated through a perforated tube and ignited. Then, music is projected through the tube, which creates points of higher or lower pressure, and causes the gas flames to mirror the properties of the sound. This one was constructed by Jeff Ryan at the University of...
Photograph courtesy of Andrew Davidhazy - ----- If you pluck a string and watch it closely, you may be able to see a pattern of oscillation in the shape of a standing wave. This pattern is not created by a single waveform however. Aside from the fundamental length, numerous subdivisions of the string also vibrate simultaneously, and these nodes and their simple mathematical progression have a profound influence on the way we perceive sound. The...
Robert McLassus. Surface Waves. ----- So what is a sound and how do we perceive it? Just good vibrations? Not quite. A sound itself is actually a series of pressure waves traveling through a medium (gas, liquid or solid). These waves (or "impacts," as the ancient Greeks sometimes described them) are caused by a source vibration, which is technically defined as an oscillation around a point of equilibrium. Sound waves, in turn, induce other...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Farbenkreis zur Symbolisierung des menschlichen Geistes. 1809 ----- As a musician, I used to cringe at the thought that art might have anything to do with math (a subject I dreaded, and still dread for the most part). Music, I felt, was something to be perceived, experienced, and understood emotionally, not calculated and formulated. After years of devotion to musical practice in one form or the other, I have to say,...