Pitch: Difference between revisions

The simplest, purest pitched sound is the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave:Sine wave|sine wave]]. But note that, if you have a pattern that's half the length of your original wave, or a third, or a fourth, and so on, it also fits into the same wave period. These are called '''harmonics''', and the original sine wave is called the '''fundamental frequency'''. Harmonics have half, a third, a fourth, etc. the wavelength of a the fundamental frequency, and their frequencies are correspondingly twice, thrice, etc. as high.

These different waves, all with the same fundamental period length, can be added together using a concept known as the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series:Fourier series|Fourier series]]--basically overlain one on top of another, if you're drawing them--to create a distinctive waveform.