Hello my name is James Manuele and I'm a guitar instructor here in Vancouver, Washington and today we will discuss how to play natural harmonics. In order to play natural harmonics on guitar, you can use any guitar, whether a six string, seven string, eight string, even the electric guitar. The term natural harmonics is that it falls on the guitar's finger board naturally. The definition of harmonics is it has an overtone series that you hear after playing it. The three frets that occur on the fingerboard of the guitar are the fifth fret, the seventh fret and the twelfth fret. On a nylon string guitar they usually have about nineteen frets. So the twelfth fret falls right where the neck or the fingerboard hits the body of the instruments. It is easily found. The twelfth fret also cuts the fingerboard completely or directly in half so you will get the string length half of the string length producing the note. If I strike on the twelfth fret, I'm getting an E which the open E string or the first string is also an E, which is an octave. Now if I touch the string very lightly right above the fret without depressing the string itself, you will get a harmonic naturally, meaning that I don't have to alter the pitch of the string to produce the harmonic. I can touch the first string going all the way down to the sixth string right on top of the twelfth fret producing a harmonic series. Now, the other place where natural harmonics falls on the guitar is the seventh fret, and this is dividing the string length up in thirds, not halves. So again striking the first string on the seventh fret I'm producing a B. Now if I were to touch the seventh fret right on top of the fret, slightly strike the string, take my finger away I would produce a B but in harmonic producing the overtone series. So, again I can go all six strings right above the fret and I'm producing natural harmonics because you are dividing the string lengths up in thirds. First it was halves on the twelfth fret. Then it was thirds of the seventh fret. On the fifth fret you are dividing the string length of the guitar in quarters. This note is an A. The same situation if I play right above the fifth fret, I will produce harmonics. The best finger to use harmonics naturally would be the pinkie. It is a very subtle touch of the string above the fret. You want to keep your pinkie very straight and when you strike it, take your finger away from the string and you'll produce a natural harmonic. I'll do it one more time on the fifth fret. So, again, natural harmonics will fall naturally on the fingerboard without depressing any string. My name is James Manuele, and that's how to play natural harmonics on the guitar.
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Mar 17, 2010
Thanks, this is great