HEAVENLY HARMONICS
Harmonics are basically ‘overtones’ (additional musical frequencies normally higher than the original note) that resonate naturally around a note when a string is plucked. On a guitar, we can pinpoint some of these and play them as isolated notes in their own right without necessarily hearing the original note. These are what we generally refer to as ‘harmonics’.
On the guitar we are lucky because there are numerous approaches we can use to achieve harmonics, with each approach using a different technique that gives a unique sound which in turn can create a different musical mood or feel. We can use both an acoustic or electric guitar for most of the harmonic techniques, with the characteristics of the instrument adding to the musical flavour. For example, natural harmonics played on a steel-string acoustic can give a haunting, mystical feel, while a slapped harmonic can give a sharp, zinging, percussive sound. On the electric, with a healthy amount of distortion and a humbucking pickup, a pinched harmonic can make the guitar squeal like it’s being tortured!
In this feature, we’re going to look at six harmonic producing approaches which will be split into five exercises of each type. In addition, there’s a 16-bar rock solo and a 16-bar fingerpicking acoustic solo to learn, featuring a variety of these techniques.
Before we dive into the exercises, we’ll look at each of the six approaches and explain what they are and the technique of how to play them. As a rule, harmonics will ring out most clearly when using the bridge pickup, but experiment with sounds and pickup positions to see what works and sounds best for you.
“On the guitar we are lucky because there are numerous approaches we can use to achieve harmonics for a different mood or feel”
NATURAL HARMONIC: This is probably the easiest type of harmonic to play. The natural harmonics live at specific places along the string’s length, but are most easily found at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets. The 12th fret harmonic produces a note an octave higher than the open string, the 7th fret harmonic creates a note a 5th above that,
