Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of encoding speech comprised of processing the speech by harmonic coding to provide, a fundamental frequency signal, and a set of optimal harmonic amplitudes, processing the harmonic amplitudes, and the fundamental frequency signal to select a reduced number of bands, and to provide for the reduced number of bands a voiced and unvoiced decision signal, an optimal subset of magnitudes and a signal indicating the positions of the reduced number of bands, whereby the speech signal may be encoded and transmitted as the pitch signal and the signals provided for the reduced number of bands with a bandwidth that is a fraction of the bandwidth of the speech.