artficial harmonics query

[johnny mullet]

Those who use them, what's your right hand technique? I'm struggling to get my fingers in a workable position and still hold the pick.

[ash]

Use the pick itself or the fingers that aren't holding the pick. I guess it depends on the song and what else is going on.

[johnny mullet]

But aren't you picking the string with the pick at more or less the same time you get the harmonic going by hitting a thumb or finger over the string?

[IkeKrull]

You need to strike the string with the pick, and have the string grazed by your thumb and then released so the harmonic can ring.

Generally, this means digging in quite hard with the pick - like, really pluck the string with the pick hard like youre gouging out its f**king eye! rarrgh metal!, and as the string bounces back up, it'll scrape the side of your thumb - then the trick is to get your thumb out of the way fast so the harmonic can ring out. (though sometimes you just want it damped quickly too)

To get a feel for it fret the note, and have just the tip of the pick protruding from your finger/thumb, and dig in real hard, so when the pick comes off the string, it hits the side of your thumb, making a dead note.

Now, slowly try and get the string to make less and less contact with the side of your thumb and you should start to hear broken harmonics ring out - when you can get just the right amount of contact with the string, you'll get a high-pitched bell-like tone that is the sound youre after.

I can't really punctuate my phrasing with pinch harmonics reliably since i suck, but I can easily make them if i want to - i.e. out of the context of a song.. It takes a lot of practice to be able to sprinkle them into your playing at will.

[oolaef]

i do it with my index finger (using pick with thumb and middle finger), just liiiiighly tapping the string juuust after picking the string... just an alternative technique if you wanted to try it

[johnny mullet]

I'll try both these styles over the weekend. Cheers guys

[slash-ed]

well... just a little tip, if you're worried about your thumb muting it out just after you've struck it, a good wide vibrato should solve that

i honestly couldn't tell you how to do it properly, i do it often enough that i sometimes do it without thinking really... it's the Zakk in me.

[Tsuken]

slash-ed, that's similar to me in a way. I listened to a lot of ZZ Top (and still do), and just hearing the Rev Willy G bust out all those pick harmonics somehow led to me doing them - without actually thinking about it.

Actually though, I reckon if you think about it too much it get's difficult. Hold the pick close to the tip. Start by picking the string with your thumb (picking hand) over the fret 12 frets above the note you're fingering - that's the easiest node to hit. Experiment till you get the harmonic ringing out. Then try 5, 7 19, and 17 frets above the note. Then move your picking hand back to a normal position and bust out the really gnarly ones

[slash-ed]

yeah, the way i discovered pinch harmonics actually was through bad technique my picking wasn't the best to say the least... and sometimes my thumb would nudge the string that was sounding... and mute it. except it left a weird pinging noise behind it....

[Tsuken]

and then you say "hey, that's mad wikkid cool and l33t" and start doing it more often, and it becomes second nature

[johnny mullet]

(picking hand) over the fret 12 frets above the note you're fingering - that's the easiest node to hit. Then try 5, 7 19, and 17 frets above the note.

Ahh now that I didn't know. I thought you looked for the spot by finding halfway between the fretted note and the bridge.

[johnny mullet]

One more question... Is the harmonic always in the same key as the note if you had fretted at that point?

[slash-ed]

nope. depending on where you hit it on your right hand.

it's just like a natural harmonic really, but you just change the position of the open string (and thus relative position of the harmonic) with whatever note you're fretting.

sorry if i'm not as technically in the know, but that's how i think of it, when i sit down and bother to.

[oolaef]

(picking hand) over the fret 12 frets above the note you're fingering - that's the easiest node to hit. Then try 5, 7 19, and 17 frets above the note.

Ahh now that I didn't know. I thought you looked for the spot by finding halfway between the fretted note and the bridge.

yup. 12 frets above is always half way between that note and the bridge if you think about it

12 frets=an octave=double the frequency/half wavelength=half way between bridge and fret

[Tsuken]

One more question... Is the harmonic always in the same key as the note if you had fretted at that point?

The easier ones, yeah. Depending on what node you get, the harmonic will sound an octave (or two), a 5th (plus an octave or two), a major third (plus an octave or two). There is a minor 7th (up at least a couple octaves I think) which is a bastard to actually deliberately get, there's a 9th, and even a #4



from: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/strings.html