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Overtone Series

Overtone Series
All instruments are created around a naturally occuring series of notes. Each fingering on every instrument allows a certain series of notes to be produced and that series is called the overtone series. With the correct setup and everything working in the right way, the attempted note should come out. However, there are various issues that can cause incorrect notes to come out. Have you ever heard a reed instrument squeak? That is a note within their overtone series that came out instead of the note they were attempting.
On the horn, the overtone series on the open F side of the horn looks like this:
(photo credit : Maurice Limon)
This series works for each fingering on the F side of the horn and goes down by half-step as you add fingerings in order (2, 1, 12, 23, 13, 123) and this is how the fingerings for all of the notes on the horn are determined.

There are many exercises that are based around the knowledge of the overtone series. Some of the notes are not perfectly in tune, but being able to guide yourself across each of these notes can be useful for building flexibility on the horn. This is also a way to figure out which notes you are hitting when you are on the wrong partial. If you are consistently hitting a wrong note either too high or too low but are playing the correct fingering, knowing how the overtone series works can help you figure out the pitch you are playing instead so that you can quickly solve the problem.

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