Jack here, JBF music and guitar lessons, in this quick guitar tricks, we’re looking
at the seldom used Harmonic pull off! I’m a big fan of harmonic tricks and if you want
to learn how to catch, bend or slide a natural harmonic check out that video, card in the
top right, in fact I stumbled across this idea when I was filming that one! But yeah
as usual I’ll pop timestamps in the pinned comment and video description to navigate
to whatever parts are most relevant to yourself.
The basis of this technique in the first bar there, I’m playing the 7th fret as usual
but then, making sure my 1st finger is resting on the string; as you would do for playing
a natural harmonic; and rather than plucking the string, I’m using the force of the pull
off instead; pretty much like the Dimebag squeal, but without a whammy bar; lesson on
that with the card up there. But yeah, once more, playing that 7th fret, meanwhile my
1st finger is just resting above the fret wire, rather than holding it down, then I’m
pulling off with my 3rd finger and the force of that, because I’m essentially picking
the string with this 3rd finger; plucks that 5th fret harmonic. Same idea on the next strings;
the A and D strings. Then on back on the G string I’m doing the same trick, but this
time playing the 5th fret and pulling off to the 4th fret’s harmonic; exactly the
same technique, but now pulling off with my 2nd finger. In Bar 2 I’ve combined this
idea with tapping. Here, My right hand is tapping the 11th fret, then pulling off, again,
my left hand is taking care of the harmonic by rest above the fret; here I’s the 7th.
Then I’m tapping higher, the 12th fret, pulling off to the 5th fret’s harmonic and
the tapping the 14th fret, pulling off to the 4th fret’s harmonic. This example is
to highlight that could can go up and down one string, tapping various notes and catching
various harmonics. You could tap all of these notes and keep the harmonic
the same until all notes have been tapped
Or wild and crazy option, we could swap our hands around, like in bars 3 and 4 there.
It might look unnecessarily flash, but this is probably easier, for most of us, that trying
to tap on those higher notes (attempts tap to prove point). Certainly is for me anyway,
haha! So yeah, a group of 5 notes being squeezed into the space of 4 for this left hand legato;
for more on quintuplets check out that tutorial, with the card in the top right. But yeah,
hammering on, then pulling off these notes with the left hand, and then pulling off to
the 7th fret harmonic, which as you can probably work out is being taken care of by my right
hand. I’ve opted to use this finger; if this is feeling odd, just keep pulling off
a note with the left hand and move your right hand each side of the fret wire until the
harmonic is clear Also, bare in mind how much pressure you are applying to the string, we
really just want to be touching it in no more. Then I’m moving
this left hand legato idea up a 4th, to here and pulling off to the 5th fret harmonic.
Bonus tip! You can go for trickier harmonics, like those on the 3rd fret, but I’m trying
to keep this introduction to this technique as straightforward as possible, while still
showing a good range of possible applications; on that note if you’ve thought of any other
ways to use this, let the rest of us know in those comments!
My hands have reverted back to their usual positions for this next lick, here showing
that you can also tap across strings; you could do this with ideas like the last lick
we looked at, but I’ll leave those up to you! Here, I’m tapping this 17th fret, pulling
off to the 5th fret’s harmonic and just doing that across the D and A strings as well.
I’d suggest using a bit less gain and even letting these notes ring in to each other
a bit; this is a bit Van Halen sounding to me; for more on his harmonic tricks check
out that tutorial with the card up there; but I think this lick would sound really cool
with some delay; again remember you can add effects on top of these licks for a whole
new world of sonic landscapes. Then I’m back to the G string but tapping this shape
with my right hand and pulling off to the 7th fret harmonics instead, for a different
sound. bonus tip, I’m not sure how well this will work out, but, you could try it
on chords, so if I fret a G major at this 12th fret here, stum that, then rest my right
hand’s finger over the 7th fret harmonics hopefully we’ll get a D major; these notes
are just G, D, F#; the harmonic on the 7th fret is just the same as the normal notes.
Finally we have this lick
Full disclosure! I’ve got no idea how I can tab this; which in my estimation is a
good sign your using the guitar in a creative way; if there is no obvious way to write it
out! So I’ve playing these 9th fret harmonics, by resting my right finger over them; a bit
like lick number 3, but this time I’m getting the strings to move by pulling off the 5th
fret, to the 3rd then the open, with my left hand; really similar to the palm harmonic
trick; video with the card up there; but this lick has a much more targeted pitch. So same
idea on the D string, pulling off those frets and resting my finger on the above the 9th
fret wire. Going between those strings again, then moving my right finger to the 12th fret,
again keeping the left hand pulling off in the same way. That same move between the strings.
Then back to the 9th fret, just like the start of bar 1. And then wrapping it up by catching
the 7th frets harmonics using the same move as the rest of the lick. The reason this sound
quite so bizarre is a bit easier to explain with artificial harmonics, if I rest my finger
on the 12th fret for a harmonic, but hold down the 5th fret we get this note , if I
do that holding down the 3rd fret and when I don’t hold any fret So, with that last
lick that each fret that is being pulled off with the left hand is creating a different
harmonic; because we’re changing the length of the string by holding it down; which just
like when you play more normal stuff is changing the pitch because the string length; that
is the distance from the bridge to the nut; or a new point of contact; is being manipulated
by our fingers.
That was Harmonic Pull offs, this has been Quick guitar tricks, that’s the playlist
there. For more weird harmonic tricks check out this tutorial with tabs. I’ve you’ve
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