overtones?

[Bluemilk262]

whats an overtone? i hear this term a lot in this place , but i have no idea what it is. anyone care to enlighten me?

[mr00420]

It's a kind of Harmonic series; getting different notes from one original fingering. Playing low Bflat, then changing your embouchure to play mid. Bflat, then up again to play mid F, then high Blfat, on up as far as your embouchure will allow you to. You can do this w/ any of the low notes. It becomes more difficult the higher the finering.

[Big Nick]

Any musical note is made up of a number of sine waves (pure tones such as tuning fork). All these are going on at the same time.
The lowest one of these tones is called the fundamental which is usually the pitch of the note you hear. The rest are called overtones (or harmonics) and are present in different amounts depending on the instrument - it's what allows you to distinguish between a C on a violin and a C on a flute.
On most musical instruments the frequencies of the overtones (their pitch) are all whole number multiples of the fundamental, eg. a fundamental of 55Hz (A) will give the series of overtones: 110 (A), 165 (E), 220 (A), 275 (C#), 330 (E), 385 (flattish G), 440 (A), and so on.
The fewer overtones present in any note the purer the sound of the note. If there are more then the note sounds reedy. So a note on a flute has fewer overtones than the same note on an oboe.
Brass players use this series in order to play chromatically with only 7 valve combinations. They 'pick out' the note they want from the series using their embouchure. You can also do this on a saxophone. If you finger low Bb you can, with practice, play the series: Bb1, Bb2, F2, Bb3, D3, F3, etc.
If you're into this sort of thing there's a shareware program called Transcibe you can download that will do this analysis for you and allow you compare notes from different instruments (or mouthpieces, reeds, etc.)
http://www.seventhstring.demon.co.uk/xscribe/

[JL]

Bluemilk (how do people drink that stuff?), just in case you're wondering "what's the point?," playing overtones will improve your embochure, tone, and help train you to play in the altissimo register.

[mr00420]

Don't forget improving your multi-phonic technique... you can get many multi-phonics between the various harmonics in the overtone series.

[colibri]

In other words, practicing overtones daily can get you closer to "be one" with your instrument, almost like a natural extention of your body. It's meditative. It's a Zen exercise. It's like Tai Chi or Yoga. 8)

[Krawfish3x]

how exactly do you do overtones?

[mr00420]

I guess my post under Bluemilk's wasn't clear enough... Try first w/ low Bb. Play the low note, then tighten your embouchure (a.k.a. your lip) and blow a little faster and you will be playing a middle Bb; you've certainly done this by mistake in the past when trying to play a Low Bb and you poped out a higher note. Well, that's a harmonic! Now try to do it intentionally, and hold the note. Next try to get the next note up by tightening your embouchure again (slightly) and again blowing (slightly) faster: this should be a middle F natural. You can continue this up the overtone series, and you can do (theortically) on any note, though the easiest ones are from G1 to Bb1 (low Bb.) Check Big Nick's post for the intervals of the overtone series.

[JL]

It's best to try and make subtle adjustments in your throat to get each overtone, rather than tightening the embouchure (although it's hard to get around some tiny changes in the embouchure). This is not easy to explain, you just have to experiment and get a feel for each and every overtone.