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| Harmonics |
Harmonics are not very hard to understand if they are explained right. The hard part is perfecting how you play them. Practice is what will make you perfect, as I've repeated a thousand times now!
First, you need to understand a few basic "guitar/string physics", so here it goes:
When you strike a fretted string, the only part that vibrates is the part between your fretted note and the bridge. You can mess with the part from the nut up to your fretted note and the sound won't change at all.
When you strike an open string, the entire thing vibrates, which isn't too hard to understand.
Harmonics basically combines these two concepts into a playable guitar technique.
To play a harmonic, start at fret 12 on the high e string. Now, barely touch the part of the string above the fret. Strike the string, and if you hear a high pitch and the whole string vibrates, you got it. You can also pull your finger off as you strike (similar to the way Kirk plays "Sanitarium" on Cunning Stunts during the Doodle).
Hint: Try playing a harmonic note above the fretbar from the note that you want to play. For example, to play the 12th fret harmonized, instead of touching the string above the 12th fret, touch it right over the fretbar that comes before fret 13.
If you can't seem to get it, pluck an open string and slowly stop it from vibrating by lowering your finger above the fret. The high pitched sound that should result is what harmonics sounds like.
Sanitarium Opening
****** ****** ****** *********
e-----12------3--3-5p3p2----12------2-2--3-0 ---12---- -12-------
B---------12-----0--------------12----0----- -------12 3 times -----12---
G------------------------------------------- --------- --------12
D------------------------------------------- --------- ----------
A------------------------------------------- --------- ----------
E--0---------------------0------------------ -0------- ----------
*Harmonics
Now, the logic behind this is fairly simple. When you touch that string ever so lightly without fretting it, you are causing the whole string to vibrate, like an open string, but it vibrates less. This results in a higher pitch. It's is caused by adding another constraint, which is your fretting finger.
You can experiment by trying this technique on different frets to see what notes you get and if it works at all.
That's about all harmonics is. Of course, like most things that deal with guitar, there is a whole world of theory behind it. As always, you can explore this subject in deeper detail and theory, but this is the basics of it.
| Harmonics |