Up until this thread, my understanding was that when one plucked blew or whacked a musical instrument one was generating a single wave which, depending on the instrument could generate sympathetic resonances that affected the nature of the sound.
Fred,
I think you are pretty much on it here; but as you know it gets very complex fast. A piano, for instance, is a instrument that has strings that vibrate at a very precise frequency. It is not the strings you hear, however. When you strike Middle C, its the soundboard you hear, which is formed to generate a very complex (and pleasing) sound; its not just a 440Hz sin wave.
