Learn How to Play Natural Harmonics on Guitar

In music, harmonics are amplified overtones. Whenever you play a note on the guitar (or any string instrument), you create multiple pitches. The most audible pitch is called the fundamental, which is the named note (for instance, B5). The less audible pitches that sound above the fundamental are called overtones. When you play harmonics, the overtones sound louder than the fundamental pitch.

If you take a guitar in standard tuning and play its second string at the twelfth fret, you are playing the note B5. Yet in actuality, you are sounding multiple pitches: You're playing the fundamental pitch (note B5), but you're also producing multiple overtones, including an octave up (note B6) and an octave plus a perfect fifth (note F♯7).

When you play that same string at the same position without fully fretting it (instead, quickly lift your finger off of the string after you pluck it), you produce harmonics. In this case, you are producing a twelfth-fret harmonic. Suddenly the most audible sound isn't the fundamental pitch (note B5)—it's the first harmonic (B6). You can find similar harmonics (called natural harmonics) up and down a guitar fretboard.

Playing natural harmonics involves plucking a guitar string with your picking hand while gently touching it with your fretting hand before lifting off the string altogether. To practice playing natural harmonics, try the following:

1. 1. Gently fret a string. Place your fretting hand (your left hand if you play right-handed) lightly atop a guitar string. An easy place to start would be the third string (G string) at the twelfth fret. The seventh fret and the fifth fret also produce clear string harmonics.
2. 2. Pluck the string. While lightly touching the string above the twelfth fret, strike the string normally with your picking hand (your right hand if you play right-handed).
3. 3. Release the string. Quickly lift your fretting hand finger, and let the string ring. Doing so alters the string length and should amplify natural harmonics.

Once you've mastered natural harmonics, you can move on to the more advanced guitar technique of artificial harmonics. There are three ways to produce artificial harmonics: pinch harmonics, tap harmonics, and touch harmonics.

• Pinch harmonics: Create pinch harmonics by picking a fretted note with a flicking motion so that your guitar pick strikes the note but the flesh of your thumb instantly mutes the vibration. This effectively changes the string length and produces harmonics. Pinch harmonics are easiest when you choke up on your pick so that only a tiny amount protrudes beneath your thumb. The prime advantage to pinch harmonics is that you can play them anywhere on the fretboard and they blend right in with the rest of your playing.
• Tap harmonics: Eddie Van Halen popularized tap harmonics. Produce them by briefly fretting a note with a finger on your picking hand—either your middle finger or index finger. Further embellish tap harmonics by pressing your guitar's vibrato arm (also called a tremolo arm or whammy bar). This creates the kind of "divebomb" harmonics made famous by guitarists like the late Dimebag Darrell.
• Touch harmonics: Touch harmonics are a variation on tap harmonics. They involve fretting a note somewhere along the fretboard and then touching or tapping a note one octave above it on the same string. For instance, if you were to fret a note on the third fret, you could create a touch harmonic by touching or tapping that same string on the fifteenth fret.

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