To understand the concept of a word such as an overtone, you first need to listen to it or sing it, as it is an additional sound or a sound that is higher than the main tone, sung by a voice or played on any musical instrument. The musical term overtone is a kind of decoration of natural natural sound.
History of the classification of overtones
In Europe, no one paid special attention to additional sounds produced on musical instruments. But everyone perfectly understood that they heard additional sounds. Such a sound is the overtone, what is it and how is it designated, let's try to figure it out.
At one time, Professor Keyserling and his student named Ralph Rosing, who even surpassed his teacher by improving the concept of overtones, were engaged in the classification of overtones. However, he even wrote music based on this unique scale.
Harmonic and non-harmonic overtones
Surely, many people know that there are sounds that cause positive or negative emotions. So they are the overtones. It is believed that the lowest sounds such as hum are referred to as “bad” sounds. But overtones and sounds in the upper range act on a person soothingly. Then consider the overtone - what kind of sound, and how it affects a person.
Overtones cannot be imagined without some additional terms. This applies to their varieties. The meaning of the word overtone is general and includes two main categories by which overtones are classified.
There is such a thing as a harmonic overtone. What is it, it is necessary to understand. In the world of music and the study of sound vibrations in physics, harmonic overtones are usually called additional sounds of the upper range, the frequency of which is a multiple of the frequency of the fundamental tone. Joint sounding in the theory of music is called harmonica.
In some cases, the frequency of the overtones may go beyond the multiplicity of the fundamental tone. Here the notion of harmonic overtone is applied. What it is? In fact, this is too much a difference in the sound of the primary and secondary sounds, which can occur, for example, when massive strings oscillate.
The most popular in musical terms are harmonic overtones, the multiplicity of which is expressed by regular and incorrect fractions. The second option is used for instruments without a specific tone, say, for drums. Here you need to take into account the amplitude of the sound, which is often confused with volume, and the frequency of vibration, and resonance indicators.
The meaning of overtones in music
The use of overtones musically is difficult to overestimate. Indeed, because it is thanks to them that one can observe a wide range of instrument tones. If all the sounds on a musical instrument did not have overtones, we would simply not distinguish between them. Each sound would be like one another. It is clear that emotionally such sounds will not cause any moral satisfaction.
From a musical point of view, answering the question: overtone, what is it, you can give a lot of vivid examples of how overtones can decorate the sound of an instrument. So guitarists very often use tricks of the game called artificial flagollet. Moreover, if such a sound is extracted on a guitar using effects such as Fuzz, Drive or Overdrive, the manifestation of overtones is greatly enhanced. In addition, overtones of different heights can be obtained by extracting flagolets on different sections of the neck.
If we take the story, then overtones were given special preference in ancient China. The Chinese were very scrupulous in tuning musical instruments and sound production. In principle, they did not have the concept of overtones, but they felt the emerging harmony on a purely intuitive level.
The role of overtones in tuning instruments
The tone of the overtone is of great importance for tuning the instruments. Of course, you can use special devices called tuners. But the same professional piano tuners never use them, because they are used to relying only on their unique hearing. When tuned, they perceive by ear the difference with which several strings sound when struck with a hammer.
The lower registers have two strings per key. In the upper octaves - three. You can only imagine how subtle the perception of sound should be with the tuner in order to hear the imperceptible difference in amplitude and sounding overtones.
The same can be said about professional guitarists who use the instrument building technique, based on a comparison of natural flagollets extracted on adjacent strings (usually on the fifth fret).
Vocal overtones
Voice overtones, as well as overtones received on musical instruments, play one of the key roles for conveying all the emotional shades of vocals. This is understandable. After all, the human voice is the most interesting instrument of natural origin. And it is not subject to adjustment. Here you only need to learn how to use it with the help of many singing techniques.
Probably, many of us paid attention to the strong vibration of the voice of opera singers. It is at this moment that you can hear additional harmonics, overtones. Only with vocals you need to be very careful, because if the voice is set incorrectly, a situation may arise when it sounds a little fake. To prevent this from happening, you can use a lot of techniques for teaching singing. And spend on it will take more than one month or a year. But when a person has learned this, listening to his performance of a song will be a real pleasure, which is breathtaking.