How I play harmonics ?

There are two main types of harmonics: natural and artificial. For a natural harmonic, you lay your finger lightly on the node (the spot where the harmonic is found) and play the string. You should hear a bell-like tone, which is the harmonic. If you do this at the 12th fret, which is the easiest one to play, you'll hear a tone that's one octave higher than the open string. Doing it at the 7th fret gives you an octave and a fifth higher, and at the 5th fret two octaves higher. Your touching finger should be pretty much exactly over the fret - the exact location will vary with the position, your setup, and the intonation accuracy.

Fretted notes require artificial harmonics, and there are a number of ways to do that... the most common way within a lead is to simultaneously hit the string and touch it 12 frets above your fretting finger. That means using your picking hand to touch the node, unless you're in a high position and have monster hands. There are a few ways to do that:

You can hold the pick with your thumb and middle finger, and extend your index finger. You use the index fingertip to touch the string 12 frets above your fretting finger.

You can pich normally, but 12 frets above the fretting finger. As soon as you pick the note, your follow-through touches the string 12 frets above - I use the joint of my picking hand thumb for this technique.

You can pick normally, but a bit higher than that (higher = more towards the headstock), and use the heel of your hand to touch the string.

There are other ways too... tapping harmonics, for instance, where the tapped note is ON the fret instead of between frets.

Each one takes a good bit of practice and gives you a slightly different result... but they're all harmonics.

thanks.. i think that pretty much explains it all.. ill give it a try.. :)

you lay your finger lightly on the node (the spot where the harmonic is found)

Whats a node.

Whats a node.

node (the spot where the harmonic is found)

Class dismissed.

Now I'am confused.

Node is the technical name for where a harmonic is found. Nodes are at each place where the string is divided into exactly 'x' pieces.

If x = 2, you're dividing the string in half. That results in a harmonic that's one octave higher than the open string, and that node is found at only the 12th fret.

If x = 3, you're dividing the string in thirds. That gives you a harmonic that's one octave and a fifth higher than the open string. You have two nodes... the 7th fret is 1/3 of the way from nut to bridge, and the 19th fret is 1/3 of the way from bridge to nut.

If x = 4 you divide in quarters and get the harmonic two octaves higher than the open string. That would give you three nodes (1/4, 2/4, 3/4), but the 2/4 node is the same as the 1/2 node - and the lower number wins. The two new nodes will be above the 5th and 17th frets.

x = 5 gives you the harmonic two octaves andd a third higher. It's over frets 3 and 15... but at this point the position of the node starts to stray from the frets for reasons I won't get into - it's kind of complex.

x = 6 is the harmonic two octaves and a fifth higher. It's roughly over 9 and 21, plus a couple more that end up between frets.

The more you divide ths string, the weaker the harmonic gets (and the harder it is to play).

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh I see thanks