"The physics of vibrating strings is a complex subject in which I have no expertise, other than twanging music out of them, so I won't pretend to know the details. I do know that when you strike a guitar string, the note that you hear is called the 'fundamental'. It's by far the loudest note created, but along with it you are also hearing 'harmonics'. These are subsidiary tones that accompany the fundamental, and are responsible for making each instrument sound the way it does.
Guitar 'harmonics' are created when you lightly touch the string with your finger at specific positions and then pluck the string. This causes both sections of the string, to the right and left of the spot you're touching, to vibrate simultaneously, giving a bell like quality to the note. It's best to quickly remove your finger as you pluck. What you are doing is removing the fundamental and only hearing the harmonics.
There are three points along the string points this: the fifth, seventh and twelfth frets ... directly above the fret-wire. At these points, the string is divided exactly into fourths, thirds and halves respectively. The purity of sound comes from these perfect fractions of string ringing together. If you try it anywhere else on the string, you hear a dead sound without any ring. "
3 comments:
ought there not be 2 more spots?
if it's 1/4s, 1/3s and 1/2s:
--*- is the fifth fret, then why not:
-*-- ?
or for the 7th:
--* and *-- ?
There are.
|----*-*----*----*-*----|
|123456789012345678901|pickups
They're way up high on the neck, and they're the same note as the lower register.
--*- makes the same HARMONIC note as -*--
Its not really where the asterisk (or your finger) is placed; its the number of equal segments that are vibrating.
--*-
-*--
each scenario has 3 equal lentghs of string vibrating. That's really what counts.
Most lessons/guitarists leave out the other 'versions' of the same not, because they don't ring quite as true and don't fall in a place on the fretboard that's easy to get to. So 99% of players just stick to the 7th, 9th, and 12th fret harmonics.
My example didn't line up the way it was supposed to.
Great question, though, man. I had to stop and think about that for a second. I knew what the answer was, but I'd never thought about why.
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