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HUMAN HEARING RANGE AND THE RANGE OF A PIANO
The range of human hearing spans roughly 20 Hz at the low end to 20,000 Hz at the high end. That means your brain does not respond to tones or overtones with frequencies lower than 20 Hz or higher than 20,000 Hz.
Of all the common acoustic musical instruments in the world, the piano has the widest frequency range. Its 88 keys span a range of 27.5 Hz to 4,186.0 Hz.
What do you hear when you plink that last, highest key of the piano? You hear the fundamental tone at 4,186 Hz, and your brain also picks up and processes the first few overtones. But only the first few.
Recall that overtone frequencies are always whole-number multiples of the fundamental. So the first overtone of the highest note on the piano has a frequency of 8,372 Hz. The second overtone, 12,558 Hz. The third overtone, 16,744. Your brain probably does not process the fourth overtone—it’s too high.