Technique 303 - Harmonics

Harmonics are achieved when the strings vibrate at a different oscillation, or amplitude. These can be a very cool sound to use in a variety of scenarios. 

The easiest way to play harmonics is to place your finger over the desired fret, but don’t push it down, and pick.  These exist naturally all over the neck, but the clearest ones are at the 12th fret (octave), 7th fret (Perfect 5th), 5th (double octave), and the 4th (major third 2 octaves above). 

Another way to play harmonics is by finger tapping. We will have a whole lesson on finger tapping in the future, but for harmonics, you can “tap” the desired fret while the string is ringing and it will begin to oscillate at that different frequency. 

What’s super cool about tapping harmonics is that they are movable.  That means that if you hold a note with you fretting hand, you can tap harmonics at the same intervals as you did with open strings!

For example: if you are holding the A note on the 3rd string, you can tap 12 frets up (14th fret), 7 frets up (9th fret), 5 frets up (7th fret), and 4 frets up (6th fret) and get the desired harmonics.

Harmonics can be “plucked.” This means instead of tapping or picking the harmonics, you can place a finger of your picking hand (typically the index) on the desired harmonic and “pluck” the string with your thumb of the same hand to create the harmonic. This is common in jazzier scenarios. 

Also, these are movable as well!

Lastly, harmonics can be “pinched.”  This is most common in metal scenarios, as distortion makes these very audible.  The idea is to “pinch” the string between the pick and the thumb, essentially letting the string become muted directly after it has been picked. You are trying to pick the string directly into your thumb. Check out the video, as it’s had to explain without showing :)

These exist essentially everywhere, and you have to get a feel for you guitar, but are typically heard easiest with heavy distortion and the bridge pickup.