Guitar Lessons For Beginners - How To Play Harmonics
Mike here again from KillerGuitarTips.com
For this week's tip we have a series of three on harmonics.
Harmonics on the guitar are a natural phenomenon. They occur over the 5th, 7th and 12th fret.
Harmonics are played by gently touching the string over the fret without depressing it. We'll use the 12th fret in this example. you DON'T fret the string, just touch it gently and directly over the fret and pluck the string.
You will hear the harmonic note. If you just get a muted dull sound move your finger towards the fret whilst constantly plucking the string until it becomes clear.
Try this over all the strings at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets.
Harmonics are a 'must know' killer technique that every guitarist must have in there armoury of tricks.
For a good example have a look at the middle section in Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
Give it a whirl.
Once you've practiced harmonics I would like to give you another tip using harmonics to tune your guitar.
Using harmonics is the most accurate way to manually tune up your guitar. Let's have a look...
The harmonic over the 5th fret on the 6th string is the same pitch as the harmonic over the 7th fret on the 5th string.
When playing the two harmonics together a wavering sound will be heard if the strings aren't in tune with each other. Now if you tune let's say the 5th string and the wavering speeds up the string is going further out of tune. Whilst doing this if you find the string wavering slowing down then it's coming into tune. You need to keep tuning until the wavering has stopped. Once the wavering has stopped the two strings are then in tune with each other. If you find you tune to far the wavering sound will speed up again.
Repeat this with strings 5 & 4 and 4 & 3.
When tuning the 2nd string we have to be a little innovative here as this string is tuned 4 frets higher than the 3rd whereas the others are tuned 5 frets higher so this technique has to be adapted. Now play the harmonic on the 3rd string at the 12th fret (this note is G) then FRET the 8th fret on the 2nd string (the note is again G of course!) use your strumming hand to turn the tuning peg and tune the string!
Back to normal now, tune the 1st string 7th fret harmonic to the 2nd string 5th fret harmonic.
It is best to try this tuning technique with your distortion turned on as this makes the wavering sound really stand out.
This is a much more accurate way to tune your guitar than the normal conventional manual tuning method and should be used whenever you do not have access to an electronic tuner.
Now we'll move onto the last in this series of three on harmonics. The third is a look at pinched harmonics that's also known at artificial or false harmonics.
To create this type of harmonic we need to touch the string very slightly with the side of the thumb immediately after you have plucked it. To get the best effect you need to have your distortion/overdrive turned on and sounds like a screech. Here is how we do it: Move your picking hand up and down the string whilst picking constantly to find where the different harmonic notes are found.
Listen to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top he's a master of this technique.
Practice equals progress. - 18423
For this week's tip we have a series of three on harmonics.
Harmonics on the guitar are a natural phenomenon. They occur over the 5th, 7th and 12th fret.
Harmonics are played by gently touching the string over the fret without depressing it. We'll use the 12th fret in this example. you DON'T fret the string, just touch it gently and directly over the fret and pluck the string.
You will hear the harmonic note. If you just get a muted dull sound move your finger towards the fret whilst constantly plucking the string until it becomes clear.
Try this over all the strings at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets.
Harmonics are a 'must know' killer technique that every guitarist must have in there armoury of tricks.
For a good example have a look at the middle section in Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
Give it a whirl.
Once you've practiced harmonics I would like to give you another tip using harmonics to tune your guitar.
Using harmonics is the most accurate way to manually tune up your guitar. Let's have a look...
The harmonic over the 5th fret on the 6th string is the same pitch as the harmonic over the 7th fret on the 5th string.
When playing the two harmonics together a wavering sound will be heard if the strings aren't in tune with each other. Now if you tune let's say the 5th string and the wavering speeds up the string is going further out of tune. Whilst doing this if you find the string wavering slowing down then it's coming into tune. You need to keep tuning until the wavering has stopped. Once the wavering has stopped the two strings are then in tune with each other. If you find you tune to far the wavering sound will speed up again.
Repeat this with strings 5 & 4 and 4 & 3.
When tuning the 2nd string we have to be a little innovative here as this string is tuned 4 frets higher than the 3rd whereas the others are tuned 5 frets higher so this technique has to be adapted. Now play the harmonic on the 3rd string at the 12th fret (this note is G) then FRET the 8th fret on the 2nd string (the note is again G of course!) use your strumming hand to turn the tuning peg and tune the string!
Back to normal now, tune the 1st string 7th fret harmonic to the 2nd string 5th fret harmonic.
It is best to try this tuning technique with your distortion turned on as this makes the wavering sound really stand out.
This is a much more accurate way to tune your guitar than the normal conventional manual tuning method and should be used whenever you do not have access to an electronic tuner.
Now we'll move onto the last in this series of three on harmonics. The third is a look at pinched harmonics that's also known at artificial or false harmonics.
To create this type of harmonic we need to touch the string very slightly with the side of the thumb immediately after you have plucked it. To get the best effect you need to have your distortion/overdrive turned on and sounds like a screech. Here is how we do it: Move your picking hand up and down the string whilst picking constantly to find where the different harmonic notes are found.
Listen to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top he's a master of this technique.
Practice equals progress. - 18423
About the Author:
About The Author: Mike Jones is a Professional Guitar Tutor. Offering Guitar Lessons geared to bringing the beginner through to an accomplished player in the shortest possible time, using amazing speed learning techniques developed over two decades of teaching and playing guitar as a professional. To get more information about Mike's teaching methods and receive FREE tips and tricks each week visit his website at: Guitar Lessons
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