Why Instruments Sound Different

Рет қаралды 27,915

Күн бұрын

Have you ever wondered why instruments have such a unique sound? It's more than just the material and shape of an instrument that determines why it sounds a certain way, and in this video I'll be going over the basic science behind why every instrument sounds different.
0:00 Intro
0:26 Physics
2:47 Overtones
4:49 Orchestral Instruments
8:41 Outro
Don't forget to subscribe to the channel for all things instruments, orchestras, and music!
#instruments #overtones #physics #sound #orchestra #strings #brass #woodwind #percussion
Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/

Пікірлер: 129

@bonemasterj 4 ай бұрын

The attack of a note has a huge effect of it's 'timbre'. It is much more difficult to differentiate two instruments if you remove the attack and just play the tone.

@VincenzodeLeon 4 ай бұрын

Not just the attack, but the rest of the envelope too!

@xanyeeast 3 ай бұрын

Exactly. take any tenor-bass voiced brass instrument, they sound (almost) identical playing in unison but articulated passages gives it away. (my sound still sometimes gets mistaken for a trumpet or trombone by my director and gets wrong sections' called out lol)

@FerDeAlmeida 3 ай бұрын

Thanks, I was coming to make the same comment. The video is unfortunately incomplete.

@Trombobrer 4 ай бұрын

Wait how does this guy only have 47 subs

@klementzhao2557 4 ай бұрын

This is actually really informative, and this only helps my understanding of music as I continue my music career 😼

@isaiahfelix4458 4 ай бұрын

im thinking the same thing

@hdbrot 4 ай бұрын

He has 308 now and it’s because he‘s new.

@nichts-8yearsago 4 ай бұрын

at 400 rn

@J-Crash 4 ай бұрын

539

@tjmartin67 4 ай бұрын

One big omission : in addition to the overtones present, the "attack" (initial transient) of the sound of a musical instrument is very influential in the character of that instrument. This is the short period leading up to the steady-state resonant character of the of the instrument. If you separately record a flute and oboe playing the same pitch, and replace the attack (say first 50ms) of the flute recording with the first 50ms of the oboe the result will sound very much like an oboe even though only 50ms of the oboe sound is present. In addition "noise" and other non-harmonic elements associated with particular instruments can also be significant, especially with percussion instruments many of which emit non-harmonic partials (sometimes misnamed as overtones). The differing profile/shape of marimba bars and xylophone bars result in a different set of non-harmonic partials for these two instruments. So there is often much more to musical instrument sounds than a varying set of static harmonic overtones.

@studiomedia-arttomaszzbore1251 3 ай бұрын

Right - transients play very important role.

@captainapples9006 4 ай бұрын

You should start with the trumpet for the brass, because it is easier to switch from high brass to low brass than it is to switch from low brass to high brass

@williamsanborn9195 4 ай бұрын

Counter argument: start with French Horn. The mouthpiece is smaller than a trumpet’s mouthpiece. I had a buddy in high school switch from trumpet to French horn and he said the hardest thing to adjust to was the size of the mouthpiece.

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

Y’all better stick around because… 👀

@capn7298 4 ай бұрын

@@williamsanborn9195i did the same thing and the hardest thing is hitting the correct partial, as they are way closer than on trumpet

@kathyschreiner4852 4 ай бұрын

Another comment: I appreciate your presentation style, especially that you speak slowly and clearly, especially when defining an important point, and that you use your hands to describe a point, rather than just waving your hands for no reason. Good presentation!

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

I appreciate the positive feedback! Thank you for subscribing, I hope you enjoy the content!

@steve17 4 ай бұрын

There's also an interesting phenomenon called sympathetic resonance with polyphonic string instruments and the piano. At least I think it's just with those. But basically, when you pluck/play a a note, notes that share a note with that note in the overtone series will vibrate in "sympathy". Pretty cool :)

@owenweddle8928 4 ай бұрын

Great video. I think I was your 100th subscriber. Can’t wait to see you learn trombone since that’s the instrument that I play.

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for helping me reach a milestone! I’ll try to remember you when I get around to trombone 👌🏼

@kathyschreiner4852 4 ай бұрын

This is the best explanation of how overtones are produced I’ve seen on YT. Thanks. I’m subscribed

@videogamer-lp4wu 4 ай бұрын

0:07 I'll tell you why the first one sounds different. It's about 30 cents sharp.

@frogger551 4 ай бұрын

Oboe things

@BenthovenMusic 3 ай бұрын

I've been asking this same question the whole time but never even got the chance to look up the answer on the internet. And yet low and behold, somehow KZfaq just randomly ecommends this banger of a video to answer my question. This was awesome, dude!

@frittatasTV 4 ай бұрын

Wow, you are really good at explaining concepts!

@AryanShehranMusic 3 ай бұрын

Great video man 🎉

@JoshuaBurniece 4 ай бұрын

Welcome to the KZfaq scene! Praying for nothing but success from this channel. Happy to support a fellow musician.

@nobody2416 4 ай бұрын

I would be interest in a bit more of physics: - how does a wave with overtones look like (longitudinal wave or transverse wave) - how do the overtunes of different instruments look when put into a frequency spectrum Those topics would get you another click from me. Otherwise I'm more into music experts for one instrument. But good luck and have fun learning many instruments!

@SaxonQW 4 ай бұрын

Super high quality video for amount of subs, keep it up!

@sacraficialraccoon6135 3 ай бұрын

bro really thought he could get away with the Sam o'Nella intro piece.

@keenanmcwhorter7803 4 ай бұрын

Great video, it really help me understand how sound is a wave.

@BassGoblin 4 ай бұрын

dude, amazing video, do more, instant subscriber here!

@originalname7176 4 ай бұрын

This chanel is really nice ! I wish you luck on learning every instrument !

@dancoroian1 4 ай бұрын

You earned my sub! Can't wait for more

@axielanor 4 ай бұрын

very informative and interesting, thank you!

@ethanos9026 4 ай бұрын

Ur gonna go big bro I can’t wait for ur success😃

@andrew7955 4 ай бұрын

This needs to get big

@dorothynemeth9675 4 ай бұрын

This was great. Would you consider doing a video on subharmonics and where they appear in the orchestra?

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

I'll make a note of it!

@lemoanfr 4 ай бұрын

@@2T_Music You have a really great talent for teaching!! I would love to hear you explain subharmonics and undertones, it'd be really helpful to us😊

@charlesgaskell5899 3 ай бұрын

You don't really talk about the difference between "overtone" and "harmonic". It's noticeable that at 4:40 you add the caveat "more or less" when asserting that the overtones are "multiples of the fundamental pitch", without any explanation of why this should be so, and why it's only approximate and why the frequency of a particular note is what it is. So why when a trumpet plays A440 (written B4) - as in the example you give - is the "fundamental" B4 rather than B3 as the length of the tube would suggest? Stringed and wind instruments work differently. On a stringed instrument, the string keeps getting shorter as the pitch goes up. That's easy On wind instruments, above the bottom 5th / octave / 12th of the instrument, the effective fundamental length of the column of air doesn't get any shorter. The intended (perceived) pitch is not a fundamental but an overtone. The same fingering or length of tube can produce a lower pitch. All of which means that this video doesn't really even begin to answer the question about why a sounding D5 sounds so different on trumpet, clarinet, oboe, flute, bassoon, French horn and trombone. And yes, I've not even started to take into account the role attack also plays in distinguishing instruments apart.

@Dr.RolyndDellaSylvan 4 ай бұрын

@2T_Music I enjoyed your video and appreciate the work you put in. Please note: *not *only does -the onset “quickness” of a note’s rise (slope) to apex of onset and “quickness” of descent (slope) and average sustained nadir of onset -AND the duration of this ascent/descent -AND its sustain and decay (slope) -AND the amount AND frequency AND duration of sibilants in the onset -AND duration of sibilants -AND subtones -AND more … ----all sum to create defining conditions and characteristics for each instrument. ----It behooves us to consider the insights into “how/why different instruments sound” by how wave/sonic/etc. investigations show how differently just one instrument sounds using different mouthpiece. This helps us to understand how/when/why/what/etc. we can hear and explain how different instruments sound different. I wish you health and joy. Dr D

@dat1pengu1n 4 ай бұрын

underrated and high quality +1

@EliezerRoqueCisneros 4 ай бұрын

Such a great video idea, I subscribed halfway through, and I’m excited to be a part of your channel. I did want to learn more about how the overtones change the sound. do they change the sound in ways that are pleasing or unpleasing when the ratios are simple or complex? what gives brass, the brassy sound? those kinds of things. this is a good explanation of how the instruments make the sound, but not really why they all sound distinct from one another. It’s a good video. I just wanted to learn more about the relationship between the overtones and the instruments: like do some instruments have considerably less overtones more overtones? Which ones are they?. How does that affect the sound how the material and the construction of an instrument change its overtones. you mention that even within the same instrumens, from instrument instrument, the overtones could be different. How can they vary? What are the general overtones that make the instrument sound like that instrument and not like another one? I was really curious: what about the envelope of the instrument- i imagine that the attack and decay of a brass instrument is considerably different to a string instrument. Or maybe it isn’t, idk. I would love to see a follow up video with some more details and maybe some comparisons of some charts comparing those overtones you did one or two charts I think. again awesome video can’t wait to see more.

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

All these questions are awesome, and I would also like to know more about this topic! Maybe later down the road I can revisit the subject with more detailed information. Until then, thanks for the sub!

@alexgrunde6682 4 ай бұрын

Yes, instruments vary in terms of how many overtones/harmonics they have, which are more prominent, and how many partials. I believe the recorder has very few. Not quite an instrument, but a sine wave generator would have the least in that it has none, just the fundamental. If you really want to see the fine details, look up the spectrum analysis graphs of various instruments. That will show you exactly which overtones are being hit, how strong they are, the fall off at higher frequencies, even the nature of their partials.

@leonard_maxi 4 ай бұрын

This is gonna blow up pretty quick

@xKumei 4 ай бұрын

If you were to do something like this again, I was kinda hoping that the overtones of different instruments would be visualized.

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

I'd love to revisit this topic down the road when I have more material and do a deeper dive into the harmonic makeup of each instrument sound. Maybe someday!

@lordwillibur438 4 ай бұрын

you should keep making videos! You are extremely underrated 😔

@EvanBolduc3 4 ай бұрын

Your videos look very professionals don’t give up !

@oliverdiamond6594 4 ай бұрын

waiting for this guys channel to blow up... one time i saw a really good video from a youtuber with like, 400 something subs. i came back a month or two later and he had over 2.5k.

@play3r.wav. 4 ай бұрын

it really is a small world, huh?

@oliverdiamond6594 4 ай бұрын

@@play3r.wav. Haha you watched him too? i won't name the guy, i'll just wait for more people who know what i'm talking about to appear. he was music related btw

@marco-ls9fm 3 ай бұрын

Hey very cool man!

@HoodedOlive 3 ай бұрын

Tenor Saxophonist and Guitarist here something I find interesting about overtones is about how shapes of instruments affect such things. The clarinet and the sax produce tone in the exact same way with the only major difference being that sax has a larger mouthpiece however due to the cone shape of the sax and the cylinder shape of the clarinet they sound very different and are very different volumes because of that. I understand you wish to play all orchestral instruments but it would be pretty fun if you picked up a sax of some sort just saying. Not as commonly used but classical sax is pretty cool.

@2T_Music 3 ай бұрын

Saxophone is certainly on the list ✔️

@HoodedOlive 3 ай бұрын

@@2T_Music If you do I would definitely recommend starting on an alto or a tenor though an alto would be easier. Bari and especially Soprano are more niche but also just harder to control so with a 3 month span an alto or tenor makes more sense. Happy learning!

@Arycke 4 ай бұрын

Bells can be a notable exception to the overtone occurnce.

@Arycke 4 ай бұрын

Source: David Bruce, composer, on YT, from "Why Composers Love Bells."

@benbookworm 24 күн бұрын

Those delicious minor thirds, and that octatonic scale.

@heyihavenoclue7541 3 ай бұрын

Great video

@PiotrBarcz 4 ай бұрын

I was thinking about this a few days ago and realized that Trombones can hit the same notes as a trumpet however they have a stronger fundamental making the tone more rounded and warm. Same with almost every reed instrument, they have a very similar range but the overtones make them sound higher or lower than they actually are.

@steve17 4 ай бұрын

That's a very good point actually. I always wondered why the Alto sax sounds so much higher than the Tenor when they're only a perfect fifth apart. Thank you!

@PiotrBarcz 4 ай бұрын

@@steve17 The tenor sax does I guess have a lower range, it's a much bigger tube but you can certainly hit very high notes on both, just one is going to be more throaty.

@steve17 4 ай бұрын

@@PiotrBarcz Yup. Oh, I forgot to add, a trumpet can also play the same notes as a trombone :) Definitely harder to do and doesn't sound the same, but it's possible. Source: Arturo Sandoval heh

@PiotrBarcz 4 ай бұрын

@@steve17 Yeah, pedal tones xD

@samuelungar6528 4 ай бұрын

Commenting before this channel blows up

@rowanxxd3366 4 ай бұрын

I’m excited for when you start percussion! I am percussion education major in college

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

I've never learned a percussion instrument before! Which would you recommend I start with?

@gregonline6506 4 ай бұрын

This I understand. Is there an explanation, in which way the way to create and amplify the sound waves influences the amount and volume of the overtones?

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

That's a great question! I'd love to know more about it myself. A lot of those topics are pretty advanced physics concepts, and unfortunately I'm not versed enough in them to give you a satisfactory answer. But I definitely want to learn more about it!

@Dr.RolyndDellaSylvan 4 ай бұрын

@@2T_Music I enjoyed your video and appreciate the work you put in. Please note: *not *only does -the onset “quickness” of a note’s rise (slope) to apex of onset and “quickness” of descent (slope) and average sustained nadir of onset -AND the duration of this ascent/descent -AND its sustain and decay (slopes) -AND the amount AND frequency AND duration of sibilants in the onset -AND duration of sibilants -AND subtones -AND more … ----all sum to create defining conditions and characteristics for each instrument. ----It behooves us to consider the insights into “how/why different instruments sound” by how wave/sonic/etc. investigations show how differently just one instrument sounds using different mouthpiece. This helps us to understand how/when/why/what/etc. we can hear and explain how different instruments sound different. I wish you health and joy. Dr D

@jacobkochperc 4 ай бұрын

Excellent vid

@JustinEverson 3 ай бұрын

great videoooo

@mikeshirk1137 4 ай бұрын

Regarding the flute, does the air "split" or does it oscillate in and out of the embouchure hole?

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

It's a little bit of both! The amount of air that enters the flute oscillates, depending on the pressure inside the instrument. Although the amount varies, there's always some going in and some going out, which is why I say it "splits."

@MaQuGo119 4 ай бұрын

Really interesting.

@ravenger2445 4 ай бұрын

here before this channel blows up

@VerRGR 3 ай бұрын

I ❤ music and instruments ong 💕🔥

@benjamingreenan1313 4 ай бұрын

Commenting before this guy gets big

@ultra9349 3 ай бұрын

Mallet percussion is 442 ik that because my teacher uses it to say that u can tune a band using mallets

@anapaulamendozadiaz8890 4 ай бұрын

Esto es un tema bastante peculiar :3

@HammerDemonn 3 ай бұрын

Thumbs up if you too didn't hear a low pitch on 2:21

@Little_G_Dizzle 3 ай бұрын

I hear the Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049, and I know that its just classical Music, but I cant unhear SamO'Nella

@corneliaippers603 3 ай бұрын

Bach is baroque music, almost 100 years older than classical period.

@DaveBassDotCom 3 ай бұрын

Doesn't mention the most popular woodwind, Saxophone; mentions Clarinet, shows a picture of a Saxophone mouthpiece. Just bustin' your balls! Nice job. Now go one step further - get an oscilloscope and have your buddies who play a few different instruments play their one note into it - show us the waveform! Now THAT would be fun!!!

@2T_Music 3 ай бұрын

Darn, I tried so hard to color correct that into looking like a clarinet mouthpiece! 😉

@infledermaus 3 ай бұрын

Physics is okay as long as I don't have to do any math. 😂

@EthicalEthicsEnteringEthically 4 ай бұрын

149th subscriber surprised I’m not 149,000th subscriber

@therealchadbroski 4 ай бұрын

same lmao, i'm willing to bet that after a few uploads he'll have a few thousand subs

@franciscoariza9600 4 ай бұрын

An acoustics teacher asked us: why does a string section sound louder with vibrato than without it? I never got the answer and he didn't tell us... Nevertheless, from my experience, it doesn't happen with choirs, unlike strings

@peperillo 4 ай бұрын

50th sub

@mralbertoooo 4 ай бұрын

here before you blow up wooooo

@lightify. 4 ай бұрын

❤

@isaiahfelix4458 4 ай бұрын

631

@granthewitt5029 4 ай бұрын

Did you know that harp is actually a percussion instrument? I know, weird right?

@puk1667 4 ай бұрын

No, it's not

@Abigael317 3 ай бұрын

This is interesting, but as a person who knows nothing about music, this content is too advanced for me. I need it broken down into smaller & more simple details in order to understand it.

@haydenaldridge 4 ай бұрын

He only has like 3 vids so yeah he doesn't have many subs

@antongryffindor 4 ай бұрын

I like your video! I have some very minor feedback. During this video, especially during the physics portion, you talk very slowly and like you are explaining this to a child. It makes the experience more difficult to enjoy, as it comes off as slightly rude. (although of course I understand that's not intended and reading from a script is a difficult thing to do naturally ;) I know this is pretty nit-picky, and I like where you're going. I hope your channel does well as you learn content creation!

@2T_Music 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the feedback and the well-wishes!

@liamcullen3035 4 ай бұрын

I thought the physics explanation was fine. Many people watching this won’t have a physics background, so going through it slowly makes it more accessible, but understandably a bit more frustrating for people who already know it and are eager to move on. I was in fact going to give a little bit of the opposite feedback 😂 I thought the language was maybe a bit too sciencey, maybe not as accessible as it could be. But the diagrams were very helpful, and the explanation was concise and very clear, so overall great job 👍 I have worked as a science teacher, so I know it’s always a balancing act. It’s hard enough to pitch a lesson at the right level to a classroom of 25 kids, let alone the whole of the internet! You did great with this one, so keep up the good work!

@davidsean290 Ай бұрын

Yeah, I thought it was totally fine and not condescending. Taking time to explain things is important for new folks.