Harmonics
Making a string or air column sound an overtone — clear as a bell
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Harmonics make an instrument sound an overtone rather than its fundamental: a string player touches a node lightly (natural harmonic), or stops the string and touches a node (artificial harmonic), producing a clear, bell-like tone; wind players overblow to reach an octave or higher partial.
It is more than "a brighter colour": a harmonic changes where the pitch comes from — you hear half, a third or a quarter of the string vibrating, not the whole. Diamond noteheads are common in notation; on strings harmonics also create a floating, unearthly effect.
Read deeper → Harmonic Series
Sources
- 弦乐与管乐泛音的物理与记谱，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Harmonics"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.