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Overtones/Harmonics+bowing

Posted by ladymuse on Tuesday, November 13, 2007

For those of you not getting the overtone biz, every note has a vibration wavelength - (think A 440) - every note has a frequency)
and every note "excites" higher sounding harmonics above it - (ie- the ghost notes) - additional wavelengths that help fill out the sound - (not volume) - making it richer/more depth, than thin and weak.
All these overtones add 'color'- (fullness)etc, to the note being played.

Woodwiz mentioned the first is an octave -
the second is a fifth, the third, an octave above that - THEN the third, 5th, 7th etc -

Think of the note you are playing as a bar cookie, with 2 or 3 small bites out of each side -

the overtones fill out those bites, making it that more full sounding -
call it symmetrical, instead of a sound that isn't as full -

(don't blame the overtones necessarily if you think that is the answer to tone/sound problems!, as before the overtones can sound, you need to be bowing correctly, be in pitch, etc) But in the short run, it is the overtones missing -

here's a pic for those who can decipher notes - gives you an idea of what is actually going on when you are playing the note -
(whether you can hear overtones or not - they are there -)

As most of us are tuned into 'hearing' western music (as opposed to chinese or indian), , within the overtone series, you will see where our chords (1, 3, and 5.. and 8(octave) come from, and why they are so very prominently "right" (or wrong/dissonant) to our ears -

You can find the acceptable notes in the overtone series - (yes, the 7th is there!)
but the first few are Note, octave, 5th, next octave, 3rd, 5th, 7th etc.

That is why everyone says - GET YOUR EAR DOWN! Listen!

To the degree that you do listen, knowing or not, you will develop overtone hearing - and will find it gets easier and easier to predict chord changes, or play along even with melodies/ chord changes you don't know - (for a great ear development story, check out slowpockets topic:
http://www.fiddlehangout.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1595

Jen!***************Hope this helps someone!


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