Musical note recognition in presence of harmonics without the fundamental

Musical signals are complex periodic waveform characterized by the sum of different frequencies. The lower frequency is called fundamental while the other frequencies are called harmonics, and their frequency is multiple of the fundamental. The pitch of a sound is correlated with the value of the fundamental even though in many situations it can be impossible to perceive it. In these cases, it is possible to identify the pitch thanks to the perception of harmonics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the identification of the notes on the basis of the presence of consecutive harmonics only and to determine the importance of their distance from the fundamental. The study was carried out on 30 normally hearing musicians without absolute pitch. The acoustic signal was characterized by the association of four consecutive and two consecutive harmonics of central notes of the piano keyboard. The rate of correct identification ranged between and 8% and 100% with a better identification when stimuli were characterized by more harmonics and lower frequency. The results confirm that it is possible to identify a note on the basis of the presence of harmonics near to fundamental especially if the fundamental frequency is under 2000 Hz.