Beginner Guitar Lessons - Play Harmonics

Here's another FREE guitar lesson from Mike at KillerGuitarTips.com

This week let's have a look at a series of three on harmonics.

Harmonics occur over the 5th, 7th and 12th fret and are a natural phenomenon of your instrument.

To play a harmonic all you have to do is gently touch the string over the fret - we'll use the 12th fret for this example - you DO NOT fret the string just touch it directly over the fret and pluck the string.

Once plucked you should hear the harmonic note. If you find you get a dull muted sound simply move your finger towards the fret. Keep plucking the string as you move your finger 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.

If you would like to look at a good example of harmonics, take a look at the middle section of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Practice it until you have mastered it.

Once you've practiced harmonics I would like to give you another tip using harmonics to tune your guitar.

This is a very easy and accurate way to tune your guitar. Following on from last weeks tip...

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 method on strings 5 and 4 and 4 and 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.

As stated earlier this is a great way to tune your guitar and much more accurate than the normal and tuning method.

Ok for the last in this series of three on harmonics, let's now have a look at pinched harmonics also known as false harmonics or artificial harmonics!!

To produce this type of harmonic we have to touch the string ever so slightly with the side of the thumb straight after plucking it. To get the best effect turn your distortion/overdrive on and will sound 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.

Above all - remember, practice equals progress!