Hi, my name is Peter aka GP and this is the fourth episode of my fingerstyle series
called Fingerstyle 101. In the previous lesson we learned how to spice up your
playing by adding some kind of rhythm to our playing
and this time we'll take a look at harmonics. So grab your guitar and let's get into this!
A guitar harmonic is a musical note played by
preventing the vibration of certain overtones of a string.
Using harmonics is a great way to get very high-pitch notes
which are difficult or impossible to reach by normal notes.
Harmonics also produce a different sound quality
than fretted notes and for this reason they are a great tool to widen musical variety.
Basically, there are three types of guitar harmonics:
natural harmonics, slap harmonics and harp harmonics.
We'll take a look at all of them.
Natural harmonics are probably the most common kind of harmonics used in fingerstyle.
This might be because it's probably the easiest form of the three.
Alright, so you can make natural harmonics at the
5th, 7th and 12th fret.
However, it's the easiest at the 12th fret,
so let's practice there. Now what you want to do is
lightly place one of your left-hand fingers over
the 12th fret, let's take the G string for example.
So place your
first finger or second finger on the G string
at the to 12th fret - just lightly
touch the string. Remember, it's not a normal note so
you don't have to apply too much pressure, just
touch the string. Right, so now at
second to pick the string with your right hand
you immediately lift your left-hand finger up
the one that was touching the string
and it sounds like this.
You'll hear the difference between harmonic
and a normal note.
So this is how its done, if you get to hang of it
move on to the 7th fret
and to the 5th fret
You'll see that it's harder to make harmonics there.
So that's how you produce natural harmonics.
Similarly to natural harmonics you can also
make slap harmonics at the 5th,
7th and 12th frets.
Although instead of picking the string you just slap on them.
First thing to point out is that it's done with your right hand
so it only requires one of your hands.
However, moving your hand from the soundhole to the desired fret
can be quite tricky, especially if you're playing a fast-paced song,
but it can be handled. Second thing I'd like to
mention is that this way you'll get multiple notes
due to slapping multiple strings.
So while it's possible to get a natural harmonic note on one string only,
you won't be able to do that with slap harmonics.
So here's how it sounds like.
Alright, so take your right-hand index finger and simply hit the strings
at the 12th fret.
You can also slap with your middle finger, or with both of them -
it's a matter of personal taste, feel free to experiment with that.
I personally use my index finger.
So yeah, just slap on the strings. You'll feel how hard you have to hit
to actually get harmonics. Also make sure to hit one the fret,
or as close as possible,
because otherwise you won't get harmonics.
Also you can turn your hand around a bit
to get a more precise slap, like this.
Then again, it's not mandatory, just experiment with
and if you feel like it suits you more then do it.
So yeah, once you mastered this technique, move on to the
7th, 5th frets.
Watching covers on YouTube, this one seems to be the
least used kind of harmonics - maybe because it's the hardest
(well at least it is my opinion)
maybe because it's less known or maybe because people don't feel the
need to put them
in their arrangements. Who knows? I'm gonna explain it anyway so you can use it aswell.
The first thing I'd like to mention about this technique that
unlike the previous two, now you're not limited to the
5th, 7th and 12th frets only,
but you can use it at any fret. Basically, what you want to do is
hold down a note with one of your left-hand fingers.
Let's hold down the G string at the first fret
for example and move your right hand
12th frets further. So in this
example we're holding down the string at the
1st fret, so let's move your right hand over the
13th fret. Now you have to lightly touch the string with your index finger
like this and you pick the string with your thumb.
And just like you make a natural harmonic, you immediately lift your
index finger up after picking the string with your thumb.
Like this.
So that's how it's done, remember, there are always
12 frets between your left and your right hand, so if you're holding down the string
at the 2nd fret, your right hand goes over the 14th fret
and if you're holding down the
string at the 5th fret, your right hand goes over
the 17th fret.
You can also use it and open strings,
just move your right hand over the 12th fret.
You can also take chords and make
harmonics, for example take an A major chord
and simply go string-by-string, like this.
So that was the fourth lesson of
Fingerstyle 101, I hope it was helpful. In the next episode I'll share some tips
with you on how to improve your playing. If you have any questions, suggestions or requests
for the upcoming lessons, feel free to leave a comment below,
send me a private message or contact me on Facebook.
Thanks for watching, see you next time.