Harmonics - They're "Something" Else
Apr 15, 2021Harmonics! They're like a magic trick available to you on all stringed instruments.
If you’re familiar with Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” then you have heard harmonics - those heavenly chimes at the top of each verse are 12th fret harmonics across several strings.
At the top of this video, I play an adaptation of the verse melody of George Harrison’s “Something” using all harmonics:
In the second example, below, the tablature indicates what fret your right index finger should lightly touch while picking the string, in order to achieve the harmonic "chime" effect you hear in the demonstration.
These right-hand frets are always 12 frets higher than the left hand's fretted note.
But before tackling this advanced example, we'll step back and learn the basic technique for producing harmonics on the 12th fret.
Then you can see how to create "false harmonics," which are simply harmonics played on a non-open string. Most of the notes in the video example are these so-called "false harmonics."
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