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3.2.2What Are Harmonics? Same As Overtones
So, that’s what happens when you hear a tone (or note).
Or is it?
Music—as distinct from sound—begins, not with tones, but with something called harmonics or overtones (these two terms mean the same thing) and their role in the construction of scales (the subject of Chapter 4).
When you play the note “Middle C” on the guitar (B string, first fret), the string vibrates 261.6 times per second (assuming you’ve tuned your guitar), or 261.6 cycles per second. Also called 261.6 Hertz, after physicist and wave theory pioneer Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Also abbreviated 261.6 Hz.
The vibrating string sets the body of the guitar pulsing at the same frequency, 261.6 Hz.
When you play the same note, Middle C, on the piano, a hammer hits some strings attached to the sound board inside the piano, which starts vibrating at the same frequency, 261.6 Hz.
You hear the same note, Middle C, on each instrument. Yet, you can easily tell the sound of the guitar from the sound of the piano.
How come?
The answer has to do with tone color. The technical term for tone color is timbre (pronounced, TAM-ber, unless you know proper French). It’s a function of harmonics, or overtones.