Melodic And Harmonics

The word melodic is an adjective, not a noun, and thus there is no such thing as a melodic. The adjective melodic merely means pertaining to melody. A melodic minor scale beginning on C traditionally goes C D Eb F G A B C ascending and C Bb Ab G F Eb D C descending, although in bop and in the works of certain twentieth-century classical composers it may descend C B A G F Eb D C.

A harmonic is a sine or cosine function component of a complex wave. When you bow your open A string on your violin, not only is the entire string vibrating from the nut to the bridge, but so are the two halves of the string, the three thirds, the four fourths and so on. This means that you are actually playing a multitude of pitches (theoretically an infinite number--at progressively diminished loudness) simultaneously. Individually these pitches are called harmonics.

To play an harmonic on the violin means to isolate one of these pitches. There are two kinds of violin harmonics: natural and artificial. Natural harmonics are played by touching nodes (points dividing the string into even parts) lightly. Artificial harmonics are played by stopping a note with your left-hand index finger (first finger) and lightly touching the node a perfect fourth above with your fourth finger, which causes the fourth harmonic of the stopped note to sound, two octaves above the stopped note.

Melodic And Harmonics

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