How to Use Tap Harmonics in Metal Guitar

Among all of the techniques of metal guitar players, tap harmonics belongs in the general category of using strings for various effects. It's a harmonic method based on using specific frets in a somewhat unusual way. Here's how to play tap harmonics and incorporate them into metal guitar.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Get your sound sustained. This means hooking up your electric guitar to an amp and jacking up the gain and/or volume so that when you play a note and let it hang, you hear it for a long time. Without this, your tap harmonics will sound feeble or you will hardly hear them at all.

2. Identify specific harmonic frets. Harmonics, the kind tap harmonics belongs to, only works on the fifth, seventh, and twelfth frets. Use these exclusively for tap harmonics.

3. Identify specific 'harmonic frets'. Harmonics, the kind tap harmonics belongs to, only works on the fifth, seventh, and twelfth frets. Use these exclusively for tap harmonics.

4. Practice your harmonic feedback with a light-touch harmonic style. This is a more conventional style of harmonics: using one of the frets mentioned above, come down with a finger of your left hand on the fret, put light pressure on the string, then pluck the string with your right hand as you let go with your left. You should hear a high melodic note: that's your harmonic note.

5. Do tap harmonics using the same method. For tap harmonics, you don't pluck the string. You jab the fret with your left-hand finger, throwing the string back against the fret and then letting go quickly. Do it with enough force, and you'll hear your harmonic tone ring out.

6. Blend tap harmonics into solos. Tap harmonics can be mixed into other tapping styles for a "shredding" sound now so popular in metal guitar. Practice your tapping skills until you can get a variety of notes using this metal guitar method.