The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52641 Message #808410
Posted By: Pied Piper
22-Oct-02 - 06:47 AM
Thread Name: Is the tempered scale overrated?
Subject: RE: Is the tempered scale overrated?
Pavan is absolutely right here. Any mechanical oscillating system be it a string, a column of air, or whatever, generates a whole load of notes other than the fundamental. This set of notes is called the harmonic series, and consists of hole number multiples of the fundamental. For the note A-440Hz (vibrations per second): - Frequency Interval ratio Name expressed as within 1 octave (2/1)
And so on theoretically fore ever, but in real systems the amount of energy in these "partials" diminishes as the harmonic number increases, so you only hear the first few. This series also produces other intervals between the harmonics.
You can see above, the intervals produced by the GHB Drone correspond to notes in the Pipe scale. Its interesting to note that traditionally tuned Pipes have a Sharp 4th possibly the 11/8 interval from the series.