musical notes

brow_601

not sure if this is the right forum but sure here goes...

i'll try get this across the best i can but i'll probably end up confusing myself...

my general understanding on this subject:
440hz is an A note, and has a different tone when its played on different instruments, eg A on a guitar will be the same frequency as A on a piano, but will sound different because of the level of the overtones produced


but what aboutwhen something, like a percussion instrument, eg guiro, or snare is hit with a drumstick, what note is produced? and how come this not can be played with anything, as in it wont sound out of key with a piece of music?

i've had a bit of a look on the internet but i havent really found anything on this subject, so any info or links will be appreciated..

CianRyan

Well for a snare just take the cables off and you can here the note righ out pretty clearly.
Drums and such do have to be tunned too, or else they just sound like c**p.

richie_os

hmmm

red_ice

i was watching a Pink Floyd documentary and someone said that one of the lads spend weeks in a shed tuning random objects like sticks - whittling them down to a key and playing them on an album track. It makes sense... everything when struck produces a vibration which will resonate at a certain pitch, that pitch will change with mass and so will frequency and overtones.

So to try answer your question i think, what ever object you are hitting will produce what ever note it reverberates at due to its mass... If you know what i mean...

Voodu Child

brow_601 wrote: »

but what aboutwhen something, like a percussion instrument, eg guiro, or snare is hit with a drumstick, what note is produced?

Some percussion instruments are what's called indefinite pitch instruments. They produce a complex range of frequencies, and so the human ear can't assign any particular exact pitch to them.

and how come this note can be played with anything, as in it wont sound out of key with a piece of music?

Because they don't have an exact simple pitch that can be heard, they don't sound 'out' of tune when played alongside music that's in a particular key.

If you had a percussion instrument that did produce a definite pitch (xylophone etc), it most definite would sound out of tune if it was played in the wrong key or the physical instrument was out of tune.

A7X

I always wondered about this myself. It seems so obvious now lol Thanks voodoo child

brow_601

voodoo_child wrote: »

Some percussion instruments are what's called indefinite pitch instruments. They produce a complex range of frequencies, and so the human ear can't assign any particular exact pitch to them.


Because they don't have an exact simple pitch that can be heard, they don't sound 'out' of tune when played alongside music that's in a particular key.

If you had a percussion instrument that did produce a definite pitch (xylophone etc), it most definite would sound out of tune if it was played in the wrong key or the physical instrument was out of tune.

that clears things up nicely, thank you very much