What physically happens when notes in singing or an instrument harmonise? Why do those certain notes sound good together and others sound awful?
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Turns out our ears and brains are excellent at detecting wave harmonics; we can detect when sounds are in harmony and when they are not;
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inharmonicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inharmonicity)
Hearing an inharmonic sound is grating to people, while harmonic waves are pleasing;
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic#:~:text=A%20harmonic%20of%20such%20a,are%20known%20as%20higher%20harmonics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic#:~:text=A%20harmonic%20of%20such%20a,are%20known%20as%20higher%20harmonics).
Say you play two notes of wildly different pitches, that is, the higher note has a faster frequency and the lower note has a slower frequency. If the higher frequency note is a positive integer multiple (so you can multiply the base frequency by some whole number and equal something close to the frequency of the higher pitched note) of the lower note that music is in harmony. It sounds like the two notes are playing well together in the sandbox, while inharmonic pitches make you want to cry.
Professional vocalists who have ‘perfect pitch’, so basically anyone whose name is not Miley Cyrus, can hit the note’s pitch with their voice very accurately – which is important if instruments are playing at the same time and they need to be harmonious. This is why timing is so crucial, if you are off tempo, even if the music is written with and performed with harmony it will sound like crap because the pitches don’t line up.
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