Almost all musical instruments (such as pianos, organs, orchestral instruments and the human voice) have sounds that contain a range of frequencies f, 2f, 3f, 4f and so on where f is the lowest frequency in the sound. The pitch or note we asssign to the sound corresponds to the frequency f. Frequencies with this regular arrangement are called harmonic. The frequencies in the sound of bells, on the other hand, are not harmonic, and the pitch we assign to the sound of a bell is roughly an octave below the fifth partial up ordered by frequency. This partial is called the nominal, because it provides the note name of the bell. There often isn’t a frequency in the bell’s sound corresponding to the pitch we hear.
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There is a nice little rabbit hole to go in to: psychoacoustics of church bells.
https://www.hibberts.co.uk/what-note-do-we-hear-when-a-bell-...
Almost all musical instruments (such as pianos, organs, orchestral instruments and the human voice) have sounds that contain a range of frequencies f, 2f, 3f, 4f and so on where f is the lowest frequency in the sound. The pitch or note we asssign to the sound corresponds to the frequency f. Frequencies with this regular arrangement are called harmonic. The frequencies in the sound of bells, on the other hand, are not harmonic, and the pitch we assign to the sound of a bell is roughly an octave below the fifth partial up ordered by frequency. This partial is called the nominal, because it provides the note name of the bell. There often isn’t a frequency in the bell’s sound corresponding to the pitch we hear.