[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I remember 'shooting ' someones argument by pointing out by the definition of fundamental it must be the lowest ( cant find an embarressed face! ).

Wow, that guy gave up really easily! If he had checked his Webster’s he could have come back that “fundamental” means “primary, basic or root.”

However, for a definition as it applies to music you need a dictionary of musical terminology. This one I found on-line defines a fundamental as “A base pitch from which a series of harmonics is produced.”

Even the musical dictionary and related sites only describe upper harmonics, however, and one site I saw even said that subharmonics do not occur in “natural” tones (whatever that is). I’m not buying it.

Consider the common charts that tell us what frequency ranges certain instruments “live” in, that typically say cymbals generate frequencies between 8-16 kHz. Anyone here think you can get everything a cymbal generates if you play it through a tweeter that’s been brick-wall high passed at 8 kHz?? Not a chance. Anyone who’s ever heard a real one knows they are generating resonances far, far below that, especially the larger “ride” cyumbals. Same thing with hand bells – they are rich in harmonics above and below their fundamental tones.

Regards,
Wayne