| Natural
Harmonics
with Andy Webber
Harmonics
are the result of causing standing waves in the
guitar string. To do this you have to create a stationary
point on the string, i.e. a point which does not
vibrate, but the two bits of string either side
do. The result is that the note played is one or
more octaves higher than the original note. In this
lesson you will learn how to do this using natural
harmonics.
Natural
harmonic can be played at various points on the
guitar neck. The most common points are on the 5th,
7th and 12th frets. To play a harmonic, lightly
touch the string with your finger over
the desired fret (not between the frets like you
do to play a note normally), and pick the string.
As you pick the string, remove you finger from the
string so that you do not dampen its vibration.
You have just created a stationary point in the
string and you should hear a natural harmonic.
Notice
how this only works on certain frets such as the
5th, 7th and 12th frets. This is because when you
play a harmonic on the 12th fret, you are effectively
dividing the string in two. This is called the 1st
harmonic. When you play harmonics on the 7th and
5th frets, these are called the 2nd and 3rd harmonics.
This
technique also works at the other end of the string,
such as over the 19th fret and others depending
on the length of guitar neck. It is also posible
to create a harmonic over the 3rd fret, but this
is quite tricky. I'll be showing you how to do this
soon!
Practise
playing all the harmonics you can create as shown
in the video. Remember you only need to touch the
string very lightly!
Natural
harmonics can be used in nearly all styles of guitar
playing. Check out this riff by Machinehead which
encorporates natural harmonics into it: Machinehead:
Imperium.
Andy
Webber.
Intermediate
lessons - All lessons
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