Intro To The Harmonic Series - TWO MINUTE MUSIC THEORY #31

Music is made by sound waves. The objects that make those waves make complex waves. Which create what we call Harmonics. Today we look at some Music Physics and get an intro to the Harmonic Series.

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Hey, I'm Jesse, a composer and music theorist. I believe that Music Theory is a practical and valuable artform for all musicians throughout their lifetime. On this channel, I am making videos to help all musicians grow in their understanding of music theory and how it can make them a better musician.

[spencerbrothers]

There’s some really cool physics behind this! Whenever an instrument plays a note, the lowest (fundamental) frequency is usually the note we hear, but the higher (overtone) frequencies also resonate. They control the instrument’s overall tone/ how it sounds. A violin playing an A sounds different than a piano playing an A because the overtones produced have different amplitudes (volumes) for each instrument. You can analyze the waveform produced by an instrument to find the amplitudes of the overtones (which involves some pretty neat math). This means you can recreate the sound of any instrument using a combination of simple sine waves

[fattyacid]

This is a very good revision of year 12 phsyics on standing waves. And explained in a musician's perspective no less. Thank you.

[caitlunsford]

this is so frickin cool dude, thank you so much for this!! i play clarinet, sax, and recently took up flute so the idea of overtones and partials went totally over my head since i never had any reason to understand them. i love wave physics and am a music theory nerd so this video made my head

[averagehooligan]

I'm writing a paper on this. You explained this concept in less than 4 minutes in a more simple and clear way than any of the BS scholarly journal sources I'm supposed to be using.

[pcmountaindog]

Well done. To all you teachers out there. If you don't start with this in lesson one, if you skip over this, you are one poor teacher. ALWAYS start at the beginning. This guy gets it.

[papasalt]

As someone who began studying music after pursuing math, this more mathematical/physical based perspective on music theory is a lot better for me than the regular "just memorise these chords and rules". This is a way more interesting way of studying the subject. I greatly appreciate these sort of videos :)

[antonio]

Being in music for almost 50 years and you are the first person to explain plain and clearly something that in conservatory school was nor possible, even with a teacher that was engineer in his past life.
Thank you very much.

[chrissimmonds]

most helpful video i could find on harmonics, clear and makes sense. i like that you used examples in keys too, made it alot more understandable to have an example like that
( 0:55 for reference )

[BBKrish]

Thank you. Now I understand the basis of the Handpan or Hang drum instrument every note plays harmonics..fundamental, 5, ths and the octave on each tone field.. a very special instruction and instruments perfectly tuned are Amazing.

[chrismusic]

What this taught me as a guitarist is reinforcing what I already suspected. Conform to musical standards in the lower registers, and just go absolutely nuts and insane higher up on the fret board

[jocareding]

it's the first time I've understood what the harmonic series is, thanks!

[iansdigby]

really brilliant - concise and accurate. thanks!

[drumplestiltskin]

is this guy on Udemy??
EXCELLENT explanation, far better than a lot I've seen on the other platform.

Subbed in any case!

[Robbinsffxi]

The harmonic series is: (Fundamental * Integer). Integer = the relative number to the harmonic in the series. So 55 * 1 = 55, 55 * 2 = 110, 55 * 3 = 165, etc.

[CapJackSparrow]

I've seen harmonics only on paper when studying transformers in my electrical engineering, it is so cool to finally hear them practically as I am practicing my flute

[sebastianzaczek]

2:48 *D quarter sharp/E three-quarter flat... yup, there's a name for it, definitely Check out some quarter tone music and other microtonal music!😃

[AshleyWalls]

Wow, you did a great job explaining this. Thanks so much for making this video.

[kyranolen]

Thanks!! Used this video to get a better understanding on harmonics for my Speech Science class at college and it was very helpful!

[ktang]

I'm about to start learning the trombone and this is exactly what I needed to know! Excellent video!

[chergaoprss]

2:58 might not be accurately tune to the sound as the instruments are only accurate up to some point.