Thanks for the comments everyone. When I saw the picture that I posted yesterday, it differed significantly from the recorded examples that I had analyzed. That 7th overtone (harmonic) was much larger than I was expecting to see. I was also confused when there was no scale associated with the vertical axis. I’m not sure what they’re showing (I had assumed decibels).
Anyway, my point with this experiment in the first place was to provide a starting point for a player to “see” their sound, and get a feel for how “resonant” it is. Resonant in this case would be rich in overtones. Based on my original experiment, I think an “ideal” sound would be close to what is shown in the chart below (Player A). I have shown 10 overtones, and the fundamental (note being played) is in the first position on the left for 3 players of different abilities. (Click on the picture to see a bigger, clearer view!)
If you took a snapshot of a top-flight symphony player, their “sonic signature” would look like
Player A for every note that they played. Many of us would fall into the
Player B picture, and have vibrant, resonant sounds for many notes, slipping in various degrees between
Player A and
Player C depending on the music being played.
Player C represents a beginning student (lots of fundamental, very little energy in the higher harmonics).
Player A simply has more “energy” in their sound. Look at the area under the curve! There’s just MUCH MORE trumpet signal to be heard. And when these overtones have a good deal of energy in the 2000-4000 Hz range, human hearing really picks up on them at a distance. I’ve shown the 4th overtone (right in that 2-4K range) as being as strong as the fundamental for
Player A (3 dB), much less for
Player B (-30 dB) but still able to carry fairly well at a distance, and non-existent for
Player C (-60 dB).
This is what I think this Sound Experiment should show. If a student would go through this experiment and find that they want to have a vibrant sound like
Player A, but are really more between
Player B and
Player C then they would hopefully be much more receptive to suggestions from their instructor on reducing harmful tension in their playing, or understand that overblowing (masked as their idea of “more air”) will never get them to their desired “ideal” sound goal.