Harmonics? help!!

I was just wondering whether any of you guy's had a really straight forward answer to my question.....

how do i get harmonics to sound great?

at the moment, i get the high pitch sort of noise, but it's so quiet. is it strings, volume, technuiqe?!!! pls reply to this if you have a good idea!! there must be others like me!!! cheers, Damo

Well, it could be the guitar and the amp, but thats a long shot. You may also be missing the harmonic. When i first started out and found out about harmonics was when i learned nothing else matters by metallica. I couldnt figure out the harmonics so i went up and down the fret board mutting the strings and found the harmonics. try that i guess.

A harmonic of a note is a higher note that is related to it by a simple multiplier. ie. the second harmonic of note X has a frequency twice as high; the third harmonic is three times as high, etc.

The second harmonic of a note on the guitar will be at the mid-point of the string. So, the second harmonic of an open string is at the 12th fret. The second harmonic of a string fretted at the sixth fret is at the fifteenth fret.

The more accurate you are about finding the right point on the string, the louder the harmonic will be.

Another big factor is your touch. You need to touch the string just enough to set up the harmonic vibraton on either side of your fingertip, without touching it so hard that you damp it out.

you might just need to turn the volume up on your amp, thats what i had to do when i first started playing harmonincs. also, there are certain frets that can make the sound of the harmonic louder, just practice, thats what i did.

I just wanted to add something that lordofthestrings wrote, about how to play the harmonic. The best place to hit the harmonics are right above the frets (just play the 5th, 7th and 12th frets for now), gently laying your finger on the string, Strike the string hard with your pick (not too hard that your gonna break the string, but don't be a pussy). and here's what I wanted to add, as soon as you hit the string, immediately pull your finger off the string. DON't even barely leave your finger on the string, this will still dampen it. And taking it off immediately will help make the harmonic stronger and it will carry out more.

I may be the minority here but I think Damo is speaking about Artifical Harmonics, pinch harmonics, whatever you want to call them, if so, Volume and Distortion will definitely help, and you might want to experiment with where you are picking the string, bend a note and start close to the bridge, keep picking and work your way towards the fretboard, you'll find the spot that sounds best...

Maby your guitar isn't intonated properly, your harmonics could be off a little bit.
Oh yeah, and pstring, Artificial Harmonics and Pinch Harmonics
are two different things. Sorry if thats not what your saying, but mix-ups like that tend to get me a little ticked, ya know what I mean?

hey pstring I wasn't really that clear on that too, but when someone says just harmonics that's what I think of. What I said still fits the situation, you shouldn't leave the finger you use to play the harmonic on the string cause no one can hold the fingers perfectly still so just take them on the strings. Then there is no chance of suppressing the harmonic. Also if the harmonics are not sounding out right check your bridge to make sure it is correctly aligned. here's a way to test that..

Get your tuner and tune say your low E, get it in tune, and now play the same string but on the 12th fret, it should be tuned to E also. If not, you need to adjust our bridge.

I just thought from reading Damo's post that he meant the pick and flesh type of harmonic, I agree with most of what everybody had to say about them, but on a few things I must comment, 1. Bridge Intonation is not going to cause a difficulty in playing the harmonic at the 12th fret or any other fret, the 12th fret harmonic will still be 1 octave higher than the open string it is played on, string length compensation is for compensating the fretted note, 2. In standard musical notation, and most Tab any Harmonic played on an open string is usally called a natural Harmonic, pick and flesh type are usally called artifical harmonics, if we call them pinch harmonics, artifical harmonics, pick harmonics, which is the term I used for years, it really is just a matter of semantics, if anyone wants to explain some technical difference between pinch and artifical harmonics to me , I would be glad to read and learn, No I'm not mad but I have seen this before, and I'm always amused when we get to haggling over the non-specific terms used to describe techniques.................

Pstring, I have to disagree with you on this. Bridge Intonation has everything to do with what Damo is saying, and I’ll explain why. I’m going to talk about natural harmonics, but it is the same with all harmonics, artificial, pinch, tabbed, whatever. Your right on saying that it doesn’t make it more difficult, but if your bridge is not adjusted accurately enough, it won’t sound right. Here’s an example, play any of the 5, 7, 12 fret harmonics. Pretty easy to play, right? Yeah. But did you notice if you played all of them, which one just didn’t sound quite there like the rest of them. Well it’s the 7th fret on the B string? Why doesn’t that sound right? Here’s why. All these harmonics are all natural pitches, except that one, It’s an F# harmonic. Harmonics that play accidental notes usually don’t sound quite as bright, there a little deader that the one’s that are played of natural notes. It’s still there and you can hear it, just a tiny difference. This is where Bridge intonation comes into play, if your bridge is not adjusted right; all these notes on the frets are a little flat or a little sharp. This can cause some deadness in those harmonics. And if your bridge is way off, like it is in between notes, damo's experience is very common. To most of you it isn’t cause your bridge is probably adjusted right. I hope I explained this enough. It’s not the only solution, but I think it’s one that should be taken into consideration if deadness of your harmonics is a problem.

There is a huge difference, tecnically anyway between artificial and pinch harmonics. I dont know why anyone would even get them confused in the first place, they are so dissimilar.
First of all, pinch harmonics are sounded with by catching the string with the edge of your thumb or any other finger you'd prefer right after you pick the note, and moving your pick around will give you different pitches of pinch harmonics, you probably already knew that.
Artificial harmonics on the other hand are also sounded on fretted strings(maybe this is where the confusion comes from) but are created the way natural harmonics are. They are usually sounded one octave higher than they are fretted (12 frets up)
What all this entails is that to sound an artificial harmonic of G on the 6th string, I would fret the G at the third fret, then lightly touch the string with my index finger 12 frets up, and pluck the string with my thumb, then quickly take my hand away to let the harmonic sound clearly.
There. I stil dont know how anyone could get those two confused.:confused:

Josh, technically we could say both techniques produce an artifical harmonic, that is if we define a natural harmonic as one played on an open string, the latter technique of fretting a note and touching it 12 frets up (Harp style) effectively is the same as using the open string, you are just dealing with a shorter piece of string, the fret is stopping the string just like the nut stops the string, and we are still producing the 2nd harmonic, I think this is all semantics, Noticing, I still disagree, tune all your strings down 1/2 step or up 1/2 step, now the B string harmonic at the 7th fret is a natural note and all others are accidentals right? play all the harmonics like you outlined in your post, do all the other strings sound dead or have less volume? Tune back to standard tuning and then tune the B to a C, does the the B sound better at the 7th fret? Theoretically the nodal point we touch to make the harmonic does move slightly when we change the string length at the bridge, but only minutely and the contact surface of a finger tip is large enough to make up the difference, I think what we notice when we play the harmonic on the B string, is the intervallic difference it has relative to the other strings...........

You've missed my point, its not simantics, thats what the two techniques are called. All harmonics are basically the same thing, the difference is the way they are sounded, and thats why the different harmonic techniques have different names. I'm telling you what they are called because this isn't something I've guessed at surfing on the web, I've been schooled in music and thats what I was taught, and it isn't wrong. I've even confirmed the two names from different sources.
All harmonics are essentially the same, the difference is the technique you use to produce them, and thats why they have different names. You dont sound an artificial harmonic with your pick, and you dont make a pinch harmonic by lightly touching the string on the fretboard. Different techniques, not simantics.

I agree, 2 diferrent techniques, I agree, I wouldn't call a harmonic produced by the "Harp Technique" a pinch or a pick harmonic, I think the terminology "Artifical Harmonic" probaly was borrowed from other instruments, Harp, Violin, etc, and that causes a harmonic produced by a pick in any fashion kind of wont for a name in the world of formal music instruction, although in the informal world of guitar playing, right or wrong, the have been termed Artifical many times over many years, But!, since you have the formal education, and your school, if no other, has taken time to formalize and define the techniques with precision, I tip my hat to you and will be more careful with my terminolgy in the future, I'm glad modern guitar technique is being defined, it will make communicating alot easier........

Its just that I've seen artificial(pinched) harmonic on so many tabs on the net, I start to get ticked off. Its just one of those terms that get confused as it travels from person to person.
As far as I know artificial harmonics are big on the classical guitar (thats where I got the technique) but I dont know where the technique originated from. Probably and instrument that preludes the guitar, like a lute or something similar.

Pstring, I agree completely with what you’re saying, but you are missing the point. You are right in what you are saying tuning doesn’t make a difference; I just think your poking in the wrong part of what in saying. I’m not saying your wrong in what your saying, please don’t take it that way. You’re absolutely correct and your point is well said. Here is why I used the reference to that harmonic being a little deader. Well maybe I shouldn’t use the word deader, maybe softer. Now I’m not talking about the pitch of the harmonic, cause the pitch of an F# is very bold, it is in so sense of the word dead or soft. I’m talking about the harmonic sound compared the others. Now if your string length is off, I’m talking about a good bit off. All the frets are a little sharp or a little flat. This is because the distance the string needs to vibrate at isn’t close enough to produce an accurate pitch. You already know that, I know. Now the distance is off, so are the harmonics. Don’t think of pitch wise, but an accurate distance. And you’re right; if your bridge is relatively close, the harmonics are relatively close to where they should be. Now if your bridge is way off, then the accurate spot for the harmonic is off. And your finger won’t compensate enough to make the harmonic sound right if it’s too far off. The harmonic will still sound, but it will be softer and it won’t ring out the way it should and if you push down too much with your finger to compensate, you’ll just mute it. You can see the closer you are to the spot; the better the harmonic sounds. My point is if you just move your finger a little to the right or left of where you would normally sound the harmonic. Now you still hear the harmonic but it is a little softer than if you played it where you normally would hit it. Now for the tuning, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “If for some reason you can’t get completely accurate with tuning your strings, make sure they are on the sharp end rather than the flat end of a pitch” or something like that. This is cause the flat end of any pitch is a little bland and not quite as driven as the sharp end which is brighter and it carries a stronger sense of the pitch. I’m not talking about D to D#, and I’m not talking about how you tune the string. I think you understand. If the harmonic is a little off in this sense cause of the bridge, it’s going to assume the same characteristics. And everyone knows a harmonic is meant to be bright and strong. Plus you shouldn’t have to search for it; the harmonic should sound by slightly laying the finger right above the fret, nowhere else. Except for those rare harmonics that are in between certain frets. The same rule applies to them too. Final conclusion is that the bridge should be as accurate as possible to get a good sound out of your guitar whether your playing harmonics, chords, anything.

And believe me I can see what might be perceived as errors in my post, and you probably wont agree cause it’s pretty hard to explain in words. I guess you have to hear what I’m saying.

I do hear what you are saying, and I believe if we lived in a perfect world with incredibly precision made instruments, you would be right on the money, but we don't , and when you factor in all of the mechanical imperfections of the guitar and the limitations we have for adjustment, the distance this node moves is very small, when we consider our target area is the width of one fret, and the size of the contact surface of the finger tip , I think the movement of the node is practiclly imperceptable, I can't ever remember one time in 23&1/2 years of playing of not being able to find the harmonic at the 5th, 7th or 12th fret and even if I did, the brain can quickly compensate and make this incredibly small adjustment, I played violin for awhile and even with out aid of frets you quickly learn how to play harmonics on open and stopped strings, so I guess I could sum all this up by saying that even the raw beginner without the aid of any technical understanding would without thinking about it just make the mental adjustment and find that node easily..........