Add new comment

Permalink

Nice article. I wonder if the Helmholtz motion does anything to explain why a violin can seem to sound lower in pitch than the fundamental pitch of the string. I do not know if this is a right perception or not, but when playing a violin against a mandolin tuned the same, the violin seems lower. (I play mainly with fiddlers, who get a good growling sound - it may be less true for classical players.) Yes I know about the mix of harmonics on the plucked instrument, but it seems to hold even if one plucks in the middle to try to pick out the fundamental. And I think that it is true also if one compares a plucked violin to a bowed one.
Does the Helmholtz motion happen at a lower frequency than the fundamental?

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.