Why composers must learn the overtone series 

It makes it impossible to take my eyes off the video even for a moment. you are such a genius and got a humor! I’ll be your fan! Thanks

Another fascinating compositional technique using overtones is using them to increase the fatness of chords. I went to my music teacher’s big band concert & felt that some of the chords the band played would literally shake the whole venue & vibrate my whole body. It was truly breathtaking. I asked him about it later & he told me that the way he did that was by making horn voicings that followed the overtone series. What happens is that the vibrations coming out from the horns would sympathetically vibrate the other horns & in turn make them even louder & fatter sounding. Truly fascinating stuff & there is still so much more to explore!

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The instrumentation that Ravel used for that statement of the first theme in Bolero is in principle the same as a register in pipe organs known as the "Cornet." This is a voice known in organs since the early Baroque, and used in several countries. But, unlike Ravel's use of such timbrally diverse instruments, the organ uses five sets of pipes of all similar timbre, normally what is called "flute" tone. These five sets -- "ranks" -- are tuned to the first five harmonics of the unison pitch, which are designated 8', 4', 2-2/3', 2' and 1-3/5.

"Why have you paused the video so long" 😂Got me there! Already familiar with this but this is definitely the best explanation I've heard. Also, the Frequency to Pitch is great thank you

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I'm a composer and producer, i'm gonna start experimenting with the overtone series, to create new sounds. Thank you, this video is very inspiring.

This also helps in a mixing environment. If you have two instruments competing for the same sonic space, taking out the overtones of one will make the other stand out, as the overtones "imply" the fundamental's existence. Awesome video!

I never knew this about Bolero's melody. Very eye-opening! Earned a subscription for such a fantastically succinct and well-structured lesson.

I knew the first example from Bolero but that's just because I was so puzzled by that sound when I was listening to it and I couldn't figure it out, I heard that there was flute but what on earth gave it that strange metallic tone ? - So I bought the score and found out - just another example of Ravel's genius.

My second video in a row.. i am so in love…totally blown away 😱💘🔥🪦

I feel like many orchestral composers before the modern era of computers and synths are the O.G. sound designers! Without realizing what it was, I grew to love this technique in my music production, layering different types of oscillators on a synth, layering subtractive synths with samplers, layering different types of guitars, or layering them altogether to create totally new tonal instruments, layering drums for creative new timbres (how about fattening up a snare drum with a filtered door slam and a soda can being opened?). While that last example is less tonal, the point is, I and many music producers do this layering instinctively because it sounds cool and it's really fun. For many years I had no idea I had been playing around with manipulating the overtone series, albeit in a less informed way than Ravel.

Composing with 12 semitones is like choosing 12 singular number points in a dense real number interval. There are uncountably Infinitely many possibilities.

One rather cool effect is hearing the harmonics (overtones) added one by one by a computer to hear how each one changes the timbre.

I've always thought that musicians should know the basics of the physics of sound. Where overtones come from, how sound combines from different sources, how sound travels, how cents are defined, how to tempre chords yourself, etc.

Great video, just want to add that real instruments also have inharmonic overtones, which are overtones that do not fit in the overtone series. These are a crucial part to many instruments' tonal color, for example bells have very significant inharmonic overtones which gives them that eerie complex tone. Gongs are on the extreme end where inharmonic overtones can even dominate the harmonic ones

I love your dedication to pronouncing words in their original language

This is a cool video! I also really like your frequency to pitch calculator.

This video was incredible, thank you so much!

Amazing. Thank you.