Guitar HarmonicsLearn all about natural harmonics in this free guitar lesson and how to play them on the guitar.

Guitar Harmonics

Guitar Harmonics, also called overtones are what gives our instruments depth and quality. It not only is an expression that defines the number of harmonic octaves that a note possesses, but can mean a way to play multiple octaves above the fundamental tone.

The typical open "E" the 1st string on our guitar has a harmonic pitch of 329.6 Hz. Multiple octaves above this are an "E" at the 12th fret, which would be twice the pitch or 329.6 x 2 = 659.2. Similarly when we say we play harmonics on the guitar, it is sounding notes that are multiples of the original tone.

Let's take that same open "E". A guitar harmonic of that note would be played on the same 12th fret, but it would not be fingered, it is just touched. We will get into that in a moment. A typical picked note sounds the note from the nut in open position to the bridge. If you finger a note on any fret, when picked the note sounds from the fingered note to the bridge.

What a true guitar harmonic does is sounds the note from the note that is touched above a fret backwards to the nut, as well as to the bridge, combining the sounds.

Now the open "E" and the 1st harmonic of "E" are played approximately above the 12th fret, which is approximately 1/2 the distance between the nut and the bridge.

Guitar Harmonics are also found at the 7th and 5th frets, and if you are really good and you have a guitar with perfect intonation, you can squeak one additional weak one at the 3rd fret.

There Are 2 Types of Guitar Harmonics.

Natural Guitar Harmonics: These harmonics are played entirely by touching the string above the frets, but not pressing the string down to contact the fret. With a little practice you can get the harmonic to sound loud and clear.

Artificial Harmonics: Artificial Guitar Harmonics are played quite a bit differently by touching and picking the string 12 frets above the note that is fingered.

Here Is How You Play Natural Harmonics:

Pick or pluck the string in your normal fashion. The left hand plays the harmonic by just touching the string directly above the 12th, 7th, 5th or 3rd fret.

Do this - pick the note and touch the string with the left hand at the same time. Just a split second after picking the note immediately lift your left hand finger off the touching position.

The key here is the timing in the release and the force in picking. You will find that the harder you pick and the better your timing becomes, the louder and clearer your harmonics will become.

Here is some data on natural harmonics:

In the table below you will see the notes that you can play on each string on the 12th, 7th , 5th and 3rd strings.

The 12th Fret is One Octave above the open string

The 7th Fret is One Octave + a Perfect 5th above the open string

The 5th Fret is Two Octaves above the open string

The 3rd Fret is Two Octaves + a Perfect 5th above the open string

Guitar Harmonics Table

String12th Fret7th Fret5th Fret3rd Fret

1st StringEBEB

2nd StringBF#BF#

3rd StringGDGD

4th StringDADA

5th StringAEAE

6th StringEBEB

The graphic above illustrates how the harmonics are divided graphically on the guitar fingerboard: The guitar scale length shown here is 645.2mm.

The 1st guitar harmonic at the 12th fret is exactly 1/2 of the total scale or 322.6mm.

The 2nd guitar harmonic, which is located above the 7th fret is 1/3 of the total scale length or 215mm.

The 4th guitar harmonic is located above the 5th fret and is 1/4th of the total scale length or 161.3 mm.

The 5th guitar harmonic, which is located above the 3rd fret is 1/6th of the total scale or 107.5 mm.

There are many more guitar harmonics, but they cannot be played clear or loud enough to hear. The harmonics presented here are the ones accessible to us as guitar players and are very beautiful when executed properly.Let's Play Some Guitar Harmonics

The graphic at the bottom of this page, indicates a tab from a song called Lovely Weather. The song kicks-off with about seven measures of true harmonics.

Look at the tab - in both tabulation and notation scores, guitar harmonics are differentiated from normal notes by the placement of a small diamond beside the note.

The first measure is played by alternating the 2nd to 1st strings with the 7th and 12th fret harmonics. Since this is quite a spread for your fingers you have to use the 1st finger on the 7th fret and the 4th finger on the 12th fret.

You should arch your fingers on the left hand as well to allow the harmonics to sound clearly.

Repeat the process on the 2nd & 3rd strings, and again on the 3rd and 4th strings. Then play one 7th fret harmonic in the 4th measure for 2 beats (this is 2/4 time).

Continue with the same fingering pattern on the 4th and 5th strings and finally the 5th and 6th strings in the 6th measure.

We end up with a 3 note guitar harmonic chord in the 7th measure, playing the 2nd, 3rd & 4th string harmonic on the 12th fret. Play this with the third finger, just lighting laying it down on the strings, pick the strings and immediately lift it off.

If you would like a more in-depth look at harmonics, I would recommend the 2 selections that I use, listed in the text above. Guitar Harmonics Book Recommended by UGOL

HYPERLINK "http://tinyurl.com/yld9ba7" Harmonics for Guitar - The Complete Guidebook $11.66USD This in-depth look at guitar harmonics teaches the techniques of masters such as Lenny Breau, Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Andres Segovia and others! This book/CD pack covers:

Natural harmonics; tapped, plucked and pinch-style artificial harmonics; chordal and melodic applications for harmonics; and more. Includes a natural harmonic fretboard map and tuning tips. The CD contains demos of every example in the book.

Guitar Harmonics - Artificial Harmonics

Learn The Difference Between Natural & Artificial Harmonics and How To Play Them

Guitar Harmonics: Artificial Harmonics

Even though Artificial Harmonics sound similar to Natural Guitar Harmonics, the differences are quite remarkable, especially in the manner in which they are played.

Natural Harmonics are only playable on a few of all the frets that we have available on the guitar.

Artificial Harmonics on the other hand, are available on all strings and all frets, because of the way we play them.

How the Play Artificial Harmonics:

The left hand fingering and the manner in which we play the notes are unchanged from playing notes normally on the guitar when we pick the strings. The difference in entirely with our right hand or our picking hand.

There are two ways to play Guitar Harmonics Method One: Fingerstyle Guitar Harmonics

Fingerstyle Artificial Harmonics are quite a bit easier to play than those with a flat pick. If you happen to play with a thumb pick on your right hand or picking hand, it will be the easiest of all.

Let's start with open strings, which are the simplest to implement:

Artificial Harmonic Touch The String Above the 12th Fret For An "E" On the 6th String

What we have to accomplish to get this guitar harmonic is to touch the string with our index finger exactly 12 frets above the open or fingered note, on the same string.

As with Natural Harmonics, the secret is in the timing and release of the finger on the touched string.

Extend your index finger of your picking hand and stretch it completely forward. At the same time, touch your thumb under knuckle of your index finger, with either your thumb or thumb pick pointing slightly downward.

It Takes A Light Touch

Lightly touch the string directly above the 12th fret with the tip of your out-stretched index finger. Let's try this on the first string...

Pick the string with your thumb and a split second later, lift your index finger off the string completely. The harmonic will sound.

Typically an Artificial Guitar Harmonic does not have the volume that you can attain with Natural Harmonics. The note you just played in also an "E", similar to the open "E" string, but one octave higher.

Now try to finger an "F" note on the first fret of the first string. With your right or picking hand in the same fashion as above , shift the position of the right hand up by one fret, or directly over the 13th fret with the tip of the index finger and string the string with your thumb and immediately release the index finger.

Play Artificial Harmonics With A Flat Pick

When an Artificial Harmonic is played with a flat pick of your picking hand, we just have to make a few adjustments over the fingerstyle type of Artificial Harmonics.

Artificial Guitar Harmonic Touch The String Above the 12th Fret For An "E" On the 6th String

The major difference is that with a flat pick, your thumb and index finger are already assigned the job of holding the flat pick itself. So we have to make an adjustment.

We have to use the next available finger to touch the string 12 frets above the fingered notes, and that would be the middle finger.

So extend the 2nd or middle finger out to touch the string 12 frets above the fretted note and just touch the string with the tip of the finger.

Now pick the string with the flat pick that is held between the thumb and index finger. This will seam awkward at first, buy as you gain skill it will become much easier.

Don't Get This Confused With Pinch Harmonics

The artificial guitar harmonics we are demonstrating here covers methods that can be used on all guitars, but especially acoustic and steel string guitars.

With electric guitars, the more common technique is called a pinch harmonic or a squeelie. The technique is quite a bit different and will be handled in a separate section of this site. Look for that article later if you are interested is pinch harmonics.

Artificial Harmonic Exercise:

I would like you now to play the entire natural scale on the guitar with artificial harmonics. So you would play the following notes, starting with the open 6th string. Refer to the diagram below:

If you can read music or tab, you can play basically any note with Artificial Harmonics that you would play naturally. Your only limitation is that you would run out of frets with your right hand due to your right hand playing 12 frets above the fingered notes consistently. With a 22 fret guitar that means you would be able to play up to the 10th fret accurately. After that you are in uncharted (or unfretted) territory.

Well that's about if for Artificial Guitar Harmonics. Now all that you have to do is practice to perfect your style, just like everything with music. You have just added another thing to your bag of playing tricks.

If you would like a more in-depth look at harmonics, I would recommend the 2 selections that I use, listed below. Harmonics for GuitarThe Complete Guide. By Los Lonely Boys. Guitar Technique & Instruction. Softcover with CD. Guitar tablature. 48 pages. Published by Hal Leonard.

Harmonics(Guitar In The Style Of Lenny Breau, Ted Greene, And Ralph Towner) Written by Jamie Findlay. Instructional book and examples CD for guitar. 16 pages. Published by Musicians Institute Press.