harmonic

In music, the generation on a musical instrument of a pure tone from the harmonic series, rather than the fundamental.

In string playing the player lightly touches a node on a string, rather than pressing the string down onto the neck. This causes a high, clear, but thin tone, used to effect in the opening of Gustav Mahlers first symphony.

In woodwind and brass, harmonics are achieved by overblowing and form a basic part of playing technique.

It is also a prefix denoting organ pipes, producing harmonic notes from pipes of double, triple, or quadruple speaking length. See harmonics.