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In Reply to: Why does a violin sound different than a guitar? posted by benhen on April 15, 2007 at 17:39:30:
Get hold of a cheap electronic keyboard - Casio, fer instance - and you can show your nephew, rather than talking to him about it.Any instrument playing "middle C" (that's about 420Hz, isn't it?) will sound different to a 420Hz sine wave. That's because the instrument produces a heap of overtones (multiples), as well as the basic frequency ... and different instruments (or even using strings made of different materials in the same instrument) produce different harmonic combinations.
A typical electronic keyboard will have different buttons to press for 'piano' tone, 'organ' tone, 'harp' tone ... etc. All these are doing is selecting different harmonic patterns on top of the base frequency but the result is easy to hear.
Regards,
Follow Ups:
And I certainly don't mean to be rude or sound like a know-it-all. I'm hardly a know-it-all as I am all to aware that I know not much at all.
The majority of the frequencies might be middle C, but it's accompanied by a bunch of other tones that make up the sound of the instrument.
You said: "The majority of the frequencies might be middle C, but it's accompanied ...".Actually it's "The base frequency is middle C, but it's accompanied ...".
Regards,
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