Easy Guide to Violin Harmonics
Hi! I'm Zlata
Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.
READ MORE
Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.
READ MOREA harmonic is an overtone you get when you place your finger softly on the string. It creates a whistling sound and in some harmonics a different higher note.
What? How is that possible? By not pushing the string down to the fingerboard, the string can vibrate on both sides of your finger.
If you place your finger softly on the string in one of the harmonic spots without stopping the string with another finger, this is a natural harmonic. The string vibrates between the nut and your finger tip and between your finger tip and the bridge.
On the G string, this would be the G once octave higher, like the one you play with the third finger in the first position on the D string.
Where? This is exactly the middle of the string.
How to play it? You can play this by placing the fourth finger in the fourth position.
You can easily find this one, even if you're a beginner. Your reference point is the sound box just as it is in the third position. You point your first finger up, stretch your pinky a bit and your second and third finger will be off the string. While your hand rests against the sound box, your fourth finger reaches like a telescope and is placed with the cushion of the finger tip flat on the string.
On the G string this is the G two octaves higher than the open string, like the one you play with the low second finger in the first position on the E string.
Where? This harmonic is located on a quarter of the string: either counted from the nut or the bridge. The sound is the same.
How to play it? You can play it with the third finger in the first position. When you need to play this and you're in a high position, you can better go for the version a quarter of the string length from the bridge with whatever finger you find handy.
On the G string this would be the D, like you play with the third finger in the first position on the A string.
Where? This harmonic is located on a third of the string length: either counted from the nut or the bridge. The sound is the same.
How to play it? You can play it with the fourth finger in the first position and can also play the high version with any finger you want.
On the G string, this would be the B, like you play with the fourth finger in the first position on the E string.
Where? This harmonic is located on four spots: on a fifth and two fifths from the nut or the bridge.
How to play it? You can find it with the high second finger in the first position or with the third finger in the third position or one of the two same distances from the bridge down.
Get my violin fingering chart with the exact spots of ALL notes for FREE!
Yup, I know I promised you not to bother you with a complicated overview and you don't need this one. With the information above you can read and find all natural harmonics.
But… stay with me for a moment, because this looks more intimidating that it actually is and I believe you can understand it:
Now share the love on Twitter or your favorite platform, so all my hard work doesn't get to gain dust somewhere on the internet:
If you place your first finger somewhere on the string and you place your fourth finger like you'd play a harmonic… guess what happens? The note will sound two octaves above the first finger you stopped!
Is it really that easy? Yup… it's the same idea as the natural harmonic with the third finger in the first position I explained above.
Now try playing a harmonic scale…
Haha, not so easy, is it? That's the difference between theory and practice ;).
In sheet music a harmonic can be written in two ways:
Usually composers and editors save you the fuss and write down how to play it and sometimes even how it should sound.
In theory more artificial harmonics are possible, but they are hardly used anywhere, so I'm not covering them in this article. With the principles of the natural harmonics however you can find them yourself. Also it's possible to play double stops in harmonics.