Learn to hear Harmonics!! (Intros to Just Intonation)

0:00 Introduction and Exercises
12:08 Just Exercises

The first in a series, hopefully long running, designed to get you acquainted with Just Intonation and microtonality more broadly. Though along the way there will be things useful for many different types of music.

Software!

Ear Training Books:

JI resources:

[LatchezarDimitrov]

No future for all of these divisions, no true music it will stay ever a noise, trust me! Ask yoursef why the 12ET is accepted like a standard temperament so long time. Instead of loosing time try to make better the 12ET.

[music-zvje]

4:36 singlehandedly the best intro sound bite to any thing ever

[mimisaiko]

19:12 It would be encouraging to add a cheer effect with kids shouting YAY here when we finished the practice.

[Tyrell_Corp]

Fantastic. One of the things that really opened my ears to overtones were Tibetan Buddhist mantras and throat singing.  It's astonishing to me that, here we are today, using computers and synthesizers to nail the overtones that monks had been targeting with their voices for over a thousand years. Love this video. Thank you.

[johjoh]

It's amazing how before you know what to look for you can tell something is off when they disappear but can't quite figure what is it, but once you know it's impossible to not notice, amazing, ty for this!

[tomatosauce]

Makes me think of how on guitar, playing a harmonic isn’t really “playing the harmonic, ” it’s cutting out every note EXCEPT for the harmonic you are trying to hear. Playing an open string, then a harmonic, and then trying to hear the harmonic in an open string is good practice as well

[jeremiahmcpadden]

For any of you who listen to metal, or any distorted guitar music, overtones are VERY prominent there. I can often hear* a 5th harmonic quite easily.

*Edit: Mispelled

[bysho]

i genuinely love what this video is compared to the rest of your work, and i love the effort you put into communicating this to people who arent as familiar with the topic. a true scholar

[Andreatellsstoriesc]

That first overtone series is why I play the clarinet, it’s overtones bring with them such a unique beautiful richness

[isaacdillon]

The overtone series is one of the most fascinating aspects of music and sound imo. I’ve been teaching myself to distinguish the various overtones but can usually only get up to the fifth harmonic before it becomes too aurally fuzzy for me

[patienthands]

This is a great exercise, thank you for sharing. I studied electroacoustics for a bit, and we didn't quite do this exercise, but we did similar things. And as your hearing developed, these things became clear. But being able to readily hear overtones is so useful for tuning, for composition, and for practical things like mixing. As soon as you apply a compressor to something you change the harmonic relationships, and that can really affect a mix, especially on something like electric guitar.

[whoe_whate]

Amazing video! Im an amateur musician, and new to the concept(s) of microtones, overtones, and the harmonic series, as well as how they function in music. Thanks for the video. Neat way to start to explore these concepts. :>

[manuelgonzales]

Cool series. I've been doing whistle tones on my piccolo and this helped me understand what's really happening in that little pipe 😸🪈

[AlejodelosReyes]

This is so awesome. I'm sharing it with all my students. Any musician should be train his ear to this extent, that's the way we craft music in any instrument, specially in harmonic instruments. I've never thought about actually enhance the partials using an EQ. It's a wonderful, super didactic idea. This is the best that YT has offered me in the whole year, to say the minimum. Liked and subscribed, looking forward to the next videos. Thanks a lot!

[chaoschikin]

Great video! This actually will help even outside of microtonality. I make a lot of drone music and I'm always listening for these overtones in sounds I use and trying to harmonize them. I just somehow didn't think to actually train my ears properly to do it, lol. This will make my life easier.

[gabeleneveu]

Really amazing video! I literally started working on a script for a video very similar to this one this morning!! I will absolutely point to this video as a resource. Congrats very much!

[TowerofGuitars]

So much tense contemporary film scoring is just this.

[nicolevichan]

just AMAZING video, amazing, godlike

[lukasiewicz]

Pretty cool that the amplitude modulation of the partial sounds like phase modulation until it becomes loud enough to overtake it.

[michaelbonesmusic]

13 and 5 sounds amazing! Cool video great for eartraining