Harmonics · Exhibit
Open a note.
See what is inside.
Each bar is a pure tone at 1×, 2×, 3× the lowest pitch. Silence one partial and the colour of the note changes.
Harmonics
One note is already a chord.
Set the fundamental, number of partials, and brightness, then play the tone or tap any numbered bar. Listen for the pitch to stay recognizable while its colour changes. Each active bar is a partial: a pure tone at a whole-number multiple of the fundamental. Changing which partials sound reshapes one note, showing how its spectrum helps create timbre.
Ear test
Which note do you hear after partial 1 fades?
Run the test and follow the low pitch while the first bar fades. All six partials sound first; then only partials 2 through 6 remain. Their equal frequency spacing still points to the missing fundamental, so your ear may supply A2 even though 110 Hzis silent. Perceived pitch can come from the pattern, not one sounding component.Whole numbers
all the way up.
With a 110 Hz fundamental the partials run 110, 220, 330, 440 and up.
How loud each partial is decides much of a tone’s timbre, and the way a note starts and fades decides much of the rest. Your ear hears one note, and will supply a fundamental that never sounded.
Those whole-number multiples are a physical fact of periodic vibration. Which of them a culture lifts into its scale, and how far it stretches or shrinks each one when it tunes an instrument, is a cultural choice.
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