Notation Question

Alright, I mainly write music for guitar, but have recently begun to compose for other instruments.

Now my question is, for instruments such as violin and cello, what is the proper way to notate harmonics?

There are two ways, depending upon what you're doing.

Natural harmonics (partials of an open string), commonly only the ones sounding one or two octaves above the principal note, though others are possible: notate the note as it sounds, with a harmonic mark above it.

False harmonics (played by fingering the fundamental note with the first finger, and the fourth finger hovering over the string roughly a fourth higher), sounding two octaves higher than the fundamental: notate the fundamental note, with a diamond-headed note a fourth higher.

Also to note: if you want the instrumentalist to play the artificial harmonic with their finger hovering over the string a fifth higher (seven frets, if they had them, but you knew that), you would notate it with the "fretted" note as a normal notehead and the hovering finger with a diamond notehead, just like you would with J. Lee's example, but with a different interval. The harmonic created this way is an octave and a fifth higher than the fretted note (for example, if you fret a C4, you'd hear a G5).

Alright cool

Thanks for the help guys :D

Basically, there are a couple of ways to notate natural and artificial harmonics.

Natural harmonics can be designated either by writing a note at sounding pitch, and then placing a circle above the note (if the particular harmonic can be produced in more than one string, you must also specify the string by writign "Sul X" -where X is the string- or the roman numeral for that string). You can also write the sounding pitch and change the notehead to a big diamond. Natural harmonics are quite effective on the double bass :wub:

Artificial harmonics are harmonics that are produced by stopping a note with one finger, and then touching lightly the string a 4th, 5th, major 3rd or minor 3rd above the stopped note. To write them, you must write the stopped note and then write a note with a diamond notehead a 4th/5th/major 3rd/minor 3rd above the stopped note (if a harmonic note is to be tied to another harmonic, both the stopped note and the diamond note are to be tied to the next ones).

You can read instructions on how to do these in this link:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/creating-string-harmonics-finale-2007-a-13771.html

Which you would have found, had you searched for "natural harmonics" or "artificial harmonics" in the forum... :whistling: