From what I remember of the monochord experiments in the phys.lab. course, there is almost always a traveling-wave component as well, and those do add all kinds of non-harmonic tones to the timbre. Also, in addition to the pretty two-dimensional vibration, the chord has a strong tendency to go into helical or other three-dimensional vibratory modes, and those have slightly different overtone structure from the plain sinewaving.
This is helpful information (though I still want stroboscopic imaging because this explanation, while making me less confused, makes me even more curious).
I haven't played fipple-flutes into a scope yet. If the audio capture on the machine I've got Audacity installed on is good enough, I'll try that. (Or are you referring to how the sound coming out the foot and the sound coming out the fipple combine at different distances? Or something else entirely?)
In the bowed-string jargon in Finnish (and to some degree, in plucked-strings as well), flageolet tones are ones where you damp the fundamental and force an overtone node by softly touching the string at the desired location. As a result, the string goes into an almost pure overtone vibration mode, with tone quality very different from normal fingering.
I think the concept of "artificial harmonic" referred to elsewhere in the comments to this entry is synonymous, or at least closely related to my flageolet tones.
Ah! (I'd thought you meant tones from an actual flageolet; I hadn't heard that term applied to stringed instruments before.)
That's what I'm talking about when I say "play a harmonic" (guitar jargon; I think it applies to other stringed instruments in English as well) -- for a "natural harmonic", you touch the string lightly with one hand at a spot that will be a node of the standing wave you want to produce and pluck it with the other hand, resulting in a more bell-like tone on a guitar than a stopped string (or an open one) produces. For an "artificial harmonic", you stop (fret) the string with the left hand as you would when playing a normal note, and with the right hand you gently touch the string at a node with one digit and pluck with another (e.g. touch with index finger and pluck with thumb), or for a "pick harmonic" you pluck the note sharply (nearly always with a plectrum) and immediately brush against it at the node on the follow-through. On a fretted instrument, finding the right spot is easy: count up the same number of frets from where you touch for the natural harmonic, as the number of frets away from the nut your left hand is.
(no subject)
Have you experimented with flageolet tones?
(no subject)
I haven't played fipple-flutes into a scope yet. If the audio capture on the machine I've got Audacity installed on is good enough, I'll try that. (Or are you referring to how the sound coming out the foot and the sound coming out the fipple combine at different distances? Or something else entirely?)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
That's what I'm talking about when I say "play a harmonic" (guitar jargon; I think it applies to other stringed instruments in English as well) -- for a "natural harmonic", you touch the string lightly with one hand at a spot that will be a node of the standing wave you want to produce and pluck it with the other hand, resulting in a more bell-like tone on a guitar than a stopped string (or an open one) produces. For an "artificial harmonic", you stop (fret) the string with the left hand as you would when playing a normal note, and with the right hand you gently touch the string at a node with one digit and pluck with another (e.g. touch with index finger and pluck with thumb), or for a "pick harmonic" you pluck the note sharply (nearly always with a plectrum) and immediately brush against it at the node on the follow-through. On a fretted instrument, finding the right spot is easy: count up the same number of frets from where you touch for the natural harmonic, as the number of frets away from the nut your left hand is.