Harmonic series (music)

Pitched musical instruments are usually based on a harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air. Both can and do oscillate at numerous frequencies simultaneously. Because of the self-filtering nature of resonance, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples of the lowest possible frequency, and such multiples form the harmonic series.

Terminology

Harmonic vs. partial. Harmonics are often called partials. In some contexts, "partial" may refer to an overtone that is not an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, but this can be confusing in wire-stringed instruments where, due to inharmonicity, none of the harmonics vibrate at exact integer multiples of the fundamental. In music, and especially among tuning professionals, the words "harmonic" and "partial" are generally interchangeable.

Related Topics:
Overtone - Inharmonicity

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Likewise, many musicians use the term overtones as a synonym for harmonics. For others, an overtone may be any frequency that sounds along with the fundamental tone, regardless of its relationship to the fundamental frequency. The sound of a cymbal or gong includes overtones that are not harmonics; that's why the gong's sound doesn't seem to have a very definite a pitch compared to the same fundamental note played on a piano.

Related Topics:
Overtone - Fundamental frequency

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Harmonic numbering. In most contexts, the fundamental vibration of an oscillating body represents its first harmonic. However, some musicians, tuners, and even developers of piano tuning software do not consider the fundamental to be a harmonic; it is just the fundamental. For them, the harmonic one octave above the fundamental (the second mode of vibration) is the first harmonic or first partial. There are logical arguments for both approaches to numbering, but in this article, the fundamental vibration is referred to as the first harmonic for simplicity.

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