Learn to play guitar harmonics and transform your guitar into a zen garden of soothing sounds.

Harmonics are naturally occurring places on the string that when lightly touched split the resonating string into different proportions and produce new sounds. These places along the strings are called “nodes” and they are easy to find because they are mathematically and visually easy to understand.

Learn To Play Guitar Harmonics

Here’s what I mean:

For example. Play your E6 string. (The big, thick one). Now, lightly touch the string right over the 12th fret (don’t actually press it down, just lightly touch it) and pluck the string. You should hear a humming tone, it’s not too bright or jangly, but your guitar string should sound a little more mellow. What you’re hearing is the octave harmonic, you’re hearing the next E up the scale from the lower “open” E string sound.

Guess what? The 12th fret is the halfway point of your string stretched from the bridge to the nut (the two points from which the guitar string vibrates to produce sound). The halfway points (12th fret) on each string will produce the octave harmonic.

There are also “built-in” harmonics on the 1/3rd and 2/3rd’s points of the string. Can you visually divide your E string into thirds? About where would the harmonic node be 1/3rd of the way up the string? If you guessed the 5th fret, you’re smart.

Ok, bla bla bla, just tell me where all the harmonic nodes are!

You can find the tones on the 3rd (difficult to hear, takes practice), 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 17th frets. There are more, but you’ll have to experiment to find them. Use your ears and listen for sounds on top of sounds.

Remember, just lightly touch the string, don’t press it down into the frets. You should hear glorious tones, not jangly steel strings.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox