How to Do a Pinch Harmonic

Pinch harmonics are those intensely high-pitched squeals that you hear in heavy metal solos. While natural harmonics are limited to certain fret positions, and thus certain notes, you can play pinch harmonics on any note, making it a much more flexible tool in your arsenal of skills. Using pinch harmonics also lets you hit high notes while staying in a lower position on the neck.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Guitar
• Amplifier
• Active pickups
• Pick

1. Use a good amp and active pick-ups. It's possible to play pinch harmonics without them—you can even play pinch harmonics on acoustic guitars—but they're much harder, and don't sound as good.
2. Crank up the distortion and the high end of the sound on your amp.
3. Find a pronounced natural harmonic on any string around the area of the pickups by striking the open string with your pick and then lightly touching the string with the tip of your finger, or your fingernail, at various points between the end of the fretboard and the bridge. When the normal note is replaced by a high-pitched note, you have found the natural harmonic.
4. Strike the open string with your pick and simultaneously touch the string with the tip of your finger or your fingernail. To do this while playing, you'll have to sound the harmonic with a finger on your picking hand to free up the other hand for fretting.
5. Repeat the process of finding the natural harmonic and moving on to the pinch harmonic while fretting different notes.
6. Bend the string while the harmonic is sounding to get a whammy-bar effect.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice sounding the natural harmonic a lot before moving on to the pinch harmonic, to get a feel for all of the different sounds you can make with subtle changes.
• Sounding the note and the harmonic at the same time is the hardest part of pinch harmonics, so experiment with different ways of holding the pick until you find one that works best for you.