So if an A is 440hz, why does a piano playing an A sound different than a violin, a guitar, or someone’s voice making that same A 440 note? It’s obvious that the pitch is the same on each instrument but each instrument has a distinct sound. I’ve never heard an A on a piano and thought, is that a piano or a cello. Why can we distinguish between instruments?
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Anytime you play a note on an instrument, you are actually getting many different overtones of that same note, but higher octaves. So, if you play an A (440 hz), you will also get some sound of the next A (880 hz), and so on. The volume of each of these overtones is specific to the instrument played, so pianos have a specific pattern of volumes that we can recognize.
ETA: Here’s a link with some really good pictures of graphs showing what I’m describing: [link](https://vibrationresearch.com/resources/overtone-comparison-obserview/)
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