Wind Chime - Sounds and Music

Sounds and Music

Chimes produce inharmonic (as opposed to harmonic) spectra, although if they are hung at about 1/5 of their length (22.4%), some of the higher partials are damped and the fundamental rings the loudest. This is common practice in high-quality wind chimes, which are also usually hung so the centre ball strikes the centre of the wind chime's length, also resulting in the loudest sounding fundamental. Frequency is determined by the length, width, thickness, and material. There are formulas that help predict the proper length to achieve a particular note, though a bit of fine tuning is often needed.

In instruments such as organ pipes, the pitch is determined primarily by the length of the air column, because it is the resonance of the air column that generates the sound. The pipe material helps determine the "timbre" or "voice" of the pipe, but the air column determines the pitch. In a wind chime, the vibrations of the pipe itself radiates the sound after being struck and so the air column has little to do with the pitch being produced.

Sound can be produced when the tubes or rods come in contact with a suspended central clapper in the form of a ball or horizontal disk, or with each other.

Wind chimes may be used to observe changes in wind direction, depending on where they are hung, when they commence to sound.