Like an A chord is the strings E A and C#, why do our brains recognize that as a whole note instead of 6 different ones. Or is it just a harmony and we’re so used to hearing them?
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Actually there’s a great mathematical explanation.
Let me just start with E and A.
The low A on a guitar vibrates at exactly 110 Hz, that’s 110 cycles per second.
The E just above that A vibrates at a frequency of 165 Hz, which is exactly a 3/2 ratio.
If you take those two waveforms – one vibrating at 110 Hz, and one vibrating at 165 Hz, and combine them together, they fit nicely. They make a pattern that repeats itself every 55 Hz, in fact.
That’s basically how harmonies work. You take two sounds at frequencies that are simple ratios of one another, and you put them together to create a new sound that’s just a little bit richer and more complex than either of the first two.
If the frequencies aren’t simple ratios of one another, they don’t “line up” and create a new pattern. The result is “dissonance”.
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