When musical notes sound good together, “our ears are doing math.”
This fantastic explainer on the harmonic series , in typical Andrew Huang fashion, requires no prior musical (or even mathematical) knowledge, yet quickly escalates into territory as “mind-blowing” as it is fundamental to, well, nature itself and the human experience:
Try It Yourself
The interactive harmonic diagram, which Andrew uses to demonstrate the harmonic series, is available to play (via Alexander Chen on GitHub):
Further viewing
Here is the explainer from Smarter Every Day which Andrew references, ‘What is a Fourier Series? (Explained by drawing circles)’:
Related Posts:
Audio School: Music Theory Intro A roundup of super-short videos on music theory for beginners.
Audio School: Synthesis, from Fundamentals to Advanced Learn synthesizer sound design, from basic to advanced, with these two tutorials.
Audio School: Intro to FM Synthesis A roundup of video tutorials introducing Frequency Modulation Synthesis.
Audio School: Intro to Synthesis Easy to follow resources for beginners.
Audio School: Mixing A roundup of introductory video explainers.
Audio School: Compression A roundup of video tutorials.
Film School: Sound Design Tricks Create your own sound effects, with household items and a couple of clicks.
Audio School: Ableton Live Explained in 37 Minutes A concise overview that helps demystify features and workflow in Ableton Live.