[aarona36]

There have been a couple threads regarding harmonics lately, and I think a little understanding of what is going on might help a bit. So this is how I think of it, it might not be 100% correct as it is just what I have figured out myself.

(the picture was supposed to be here but I cant get it work right, sometimes its there and others its not, refer to the link posted below it you cant see it)

Imagine, or better yet get a 10 foot long rope and tie it to something solid and about shoulder height. Now swing it like a jump rope (the red line) this is it vibrating at its entire length. Now shake the rope, put a wave through it, and start swinging it again, see if you can get it to form two humps instead of one (the black line) notice in the middle the rope doesn't move at all. Now see it you can get three humps, and notice there are two places the rope doesnt move at all (the blue line). And so on.

These places where the rope doesnt move are called nodes and can occur where your rope can be evenly divided (1/2, 1/3, 1/4,...)(where any of the lines crosses the skinny green line)

I think of a guitar string as vibrating very complexly, almost like all these ways at once. When you pluck an open string you hear it vibrating at its entire length but you also hear overtones (which get progressively quieter) as if the string where 1/2, 1/3, 1/4,... its length. The sound you hear is really a combination of all of these sounds.

When you play a natural harmonic you are isolating one of these sounds, you do this by touching the string at a node just lightly enough to dampen the other vibrations. So notice at the 12th fret the black line is not moving at all, but the red and blue ones most certainly are. so when you touch the 12th fret you are forcing the sting to vibrate only in this way, and the note you hear is the same one as if the string was played normally at the 12th fret. The next harmonic occurs at the 7th and 19th frets, if you touch the 7th or 19th fret the blue line is not moving but the other lines are. You only hear the blue line and it is the same note as the 19th fret played normally(note: the distance from the 19th fret to the bridge is the same as the nut to to 7th fret it doesnt matter which node you touch).

When you play an artifical harmonic you change the length of the string by freting it, but the harmonics occur at the same intervals. For example if you press a string down at the fifth fret the new halfway point is now the 17th fret and this is where the harmonic lies.

Hope this helps someone, feel free to ask any questions or correct me it im wrong.

[aarona36]

Ahh, where did my picture go? having trouble getting it to work . Here it is a link.
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/cc9096cdad.jpg Also attached.

[Kirk Lorange]

Thanks for that aarona ... a much better explanation than mine ... as in 'right' as opposed to 'wrong'!

I can see that image, by the way.

[danthelion]

Originally Posted by Kirk

Thanks for that aarona ... a much better explanation than mine ... as in 'right' as opposed to 'wrong'!

Hey Kirk

I have read your explanation it's not "wrong", you are just explaining it from a different angle.

Personally I love this sort of stuff as the history of harmonics as we know them goes back to Pythagoras (500 BC). Of course they existed before that but he was the first to observe them the way we do today. Now I don't want to confuse the subject anymore but I thought I would add the following: [Someone tell me if this makes it worse & I will go & stand in the corner, facing the wall ]

1st) Most instruments produce harmonics, but guitar's harmonics are awesome because they are easily accessible & can be controlled. Yes guitars rule!

2nd) When you listen to an open guitar string being plucked, you consciously hear the note called the 'fundamental' i.e. pluck the open 5th string you hear a nice big A.
What you may not realize is that you also hear an entire series of 'harmonic overtones' coming from the sting, guitar body, & everything else physically attached. This is one of the main reasons a guitar sounds like a guitar, piano like a piano & a violin like a cat been tortured , each instrument may play the same fundamental note (say A above ‘middle C’ ) but they all have different timbres (sounds) based on their harmonic series of overtones as they are all built differently.

3rd) Frequency: a note on a string is named after its frequency, or the amount of times that it vibrates, i.e. the open 5th string vibrates at 110hz (or vibrates 110 times per second) now if you double that frequency to 220hz you will have an A note one octave higher (3rd string; 2nd fret) & if you double it again to 440hz you will have an A note another octave higher (1st string; 5th fret), & if you double … you get the picture.

4th) Back to the series of ‘harmonic overtones’ on a guitar string. In addition to hearing the fundamental A on the open 5th string you are also subtly (but not consciously)hearing the other ‘A’s that are octaves above it, in addition you are hearing what they call the 1st harmonic , the 2nd & so on in ever decreasing audibleness, thankfully our ear only focuses on the fundamental. Also the harmonic overtones fade out before any dissonant overtones can be heard ( the dissonant ones really annoyed Pythagoras, maybe he should’ve stood in the corner, once he’d worked out the square root of it, of course )
So, on the open A string there are lots of ‘A’s. Then there is the next harmonic one & a half octaves above that the ‘E’ note, then the next harmonic one and a half octaves above that the ‘B’ note and so on until they become impossible to hear.

5th) Playing harmonics on the guitar. When you play a harmonic on the guitar you are isolating the harmonic overtone & making it audible. Personally I thought the above diagram was a little misleading, as it doesn’t clearly relate to scale length.

If you play a harmonic on the 12th fret this creates a node point as described above & the string emits 2 vibrating lengths of string either side of the node point, the note you hear is exactly one octave above the fundamental i.e. harmonic 12th fret 5th string creates an ‘A’ note one octave above the open ‘A’ note.
Why? Because you have exactly halved the scale length of the sting & doubled the frequency!
Just imagine if you played the actual note on the 12th fret(the ‘A’ one octave up from the fundamental), the only difference is that instead of one part of the string vibrating between the 12th & the bridge, you have two equal lengths either side of the 12th fret vibrating in unison.
(Go on go get your tape measure out & measure the scale length of the string from the nut to the bridge, you will find that the 12th fret is exactly half way along this scale length)

If you play a harmonic on the 7th fret this creates two node points (7th & 19th frets) & the string emits 3 equal vibrating lengths each side of the 2 node points, the note you hear is exactly one & a half octaves above the fundamental i.e. harmonic 7th fret 5th string creates an ‘E’ note, one & a half octaves above the open ‘A’ note.
Why? Because you have divided the scale length of the sting exactly by 3 by touching the node point exactly one third along the scale length of the string. (Hence you produce the note that you would on the 19th fret if you played a normal note, except you have 3 equal lengths of string vibrating in unison making a pretty bell like sound instead of just one little bit )
Obviously you have already worked out that the harmonic on the 19th fret is exactly the same as the harmonic on the 7th.

If you play a harmonic on the 5th fret this creates 3 node points (5th, 12th, & 24th frets) & the string emits 4 equal vibrating lengths of string either side of the node points, the note you hear is exactly two octaves above the fundamental i.e. harmonic 5th fret 5th string creates an ‘A’ note two octaves above the open ‘A’ note.
Why? Because you have divided the scale length of the string exactly by 4. (Hence you produce the note that you would on the 24th fret if you played a normal note (two octaves above the fundamental), except you have 4 lengths of string vibrating in unison making a pretty bell like sound instead of just one little bit )

If you play an artificial harmonic, you are creating a node point exactly 12 frets above the fretted note & this creates a note one octave above the fretted note i.e. if you fret the ‘A’ note on the 3rd string; 2nd fret you would play the harmonic on the 3rd string on the 14th fret. This creates a node point exactly half way along the fretted string creating 2 equal vibrating lengths of string.
Why does it work? If you don’t know by now, you might want to go & stand in the corner with Pythagoras.

Dan

PS. I have just typed this on the fly, if I notice any mistakes I will edit it later.

[aarona36]

Doesn't make it worse just a little more complicated, I was just trying to explain what you are doing when you play a harmonic, you take it to the next level. You provide some additional info and clarification...So, i think ill let you off with only 2 min in the corner, and thats really only for that violin comment.

[danthelion]

Yes, it's one of those subjects that can be simple i.e. this is a harmonic & you play it here, but also be complicated when you first delve into the reasons why.

For most visiting this site they will just want to know how to play them & not so much why it all happens & Kirk's lessons get them started.

Actually what is above is quite simple, we could start discussing how there are many other harmonics on the guitar, or how Pythagoras used completely different scales to what we use today (not based on the same 12 notes we have) etc.. but that's another story. But we live post Bach & have Equal temperament, so we should just be happy that we have what we have & enjoy making music with it, because music is all about enjoying yourself!

http://users.adelphia.net/~cygnusx_1...mperament.html

If you want me, I'll be standing in the corner working out the square root of...

Dan

[aarona36]

Thanks for that link, i like that tuning procedure, i guess you an come out of the corner now but only if you can tell me the square root of.....

[gravitas]

I've got a question that doesn't exactly follow the strain of conversation, but is related nonetheless.

There are other Harmonics than those that occur at the 5th, 7th, and 12th frets. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 15th, and 20th all have their own sounds. They're just more difficult to hear.

I'm interested in learning to make these sounds, as they're the spacey, robotic sounds you hear in songs like Frank Zappa's Black Napkins, or sprinkled throughout either of the Mars Volta's studio releases. Apparently, if you pump your treble up far enough and give yourself a little feedback, they're easier to hear, but as far as offering anything musical- see Black Napkins as an illustration as the sounds I'm trying to produce- I haven't the foggiest.

Any ideas?

[Kirk Lorange]

I have also experimented with those other harmonics, they're quite obvious on electric guitars ... I've always assumed they were the next perfect fractions of the strings ringing out. The 12th, 7th and fifth frets are the half, third and quarter points of the string; I figure that the others are the fifths, sixths etc. Can anyone confirm that?

[aarona36]

Yes, you are correct kirk. The only think that makes it a bit harder is past the harmonic at the 5th fret they stop falling directly above the frets. They can all be easilly found. Just pluck the string rapidlly, but not too fast, and slowly slide your finger down the string, you should hear each one as you pass it. they are everywhere, the higher order the harmonic the more times it appers, at half the length theres is one, the 12th fret. At 1/3 the length there are 2, the 7th and 19th frets, at 1/4 the length there are 3, the 5th, 12th and 24th frets. at 1/5 the length there are 4, just behinde the 4th fret, the 9th fret, the 16th fret, and one more in imaginary fret land. at 1/6 the string length there are 5 and so on.

Gravitas- im not exactlly sure what you are talking about but it sounds like you are describing artifical harmonics, probablly played with distortion, and most likely accomplished by freting a note then simitaniously plucking it and hitting a harmonic near the bridge. This can be done either with your fingers or if your using a pick with the side of your thumb, so you would pluck the note and in the same motion hit a harmonic with the side of your thumb, it an be a little hard to do. Keep in mind when you fret a note you change the length of the string and in doing so the location of all the harmonics, though they always occur at the same intervals(1/2, 1/3, 1/4) the length. Also there are no frets near the bridge so you have to learn where they are without a solid reference. Hope this helps, if you googled "artifical harmonics" you could find alot more.

[Canuck-Playa]

... thank you for your... ugh... indulgince in harmonics... it is as clear as mud

lol thank you none the less i dont get it all yet, but somedayt i am sure i will.

[gravitas]

Originally Posted by aarona36

...if you googled "artifical harmonics" you could find alot more.

No, I know artificial harmonics. These do not sound like any natural harmonic I'v ever heard. The sound is more akin to slap bass than anything else.

I also know pinch harmonics, so don't go there. These have a totally different sound than anything I've heard before. I think they're muffled harmonics in unconventional places, actually.

Try it: turn up youre treble to max and place your finger over or around (I'm not positivies on the positioning) the 3rd fret on the G string (it's the most audible). Keep the string muffled, and pluck it so that you can the percussive sound of the string hitting the fretboard. Not tuneful or anything, but I think that it's the sound he's getting.

The next step is to find all the rest of them, which could take a long, long while.