called Fingerstyle 101. In the previous lesson we learned how to spice up your

playing by adding some kind of rhythm to our playing

and this time we'll take a look at harmonics. So grab your guitar and let's get into this!

A guitar harmonic is a musical note played by

preventing the vibration of certain overtones of a string.

Using harmonics is a great way to get very high-pitch notes

which are difficult or impossible to reach by normal notes.

Harmonics also produce a different sound quality

than fretted notes and for this reason they are a great tool to widen musical variety.

Basically, there are three types of guitar harmonics:

natural harmonics, slap harmonics and harp harmonics.

We'll take a look at all of them.

Natural harmonics are probably the most common kind of harmonics used in fingerstyle.

This might be because it's probably the easiest form of the three.

Alright, so you can make natural harmonics at the

5th, 7th and 12th fret.

However, it's the easiest at the 12th fret,

so let's practice there. Now what you want to do is

lightly place one of your left-hand fingers over

the 12th fret, let's take the G string for example.

So place your

first finger or second finger on the G string

at the to 12th fret - just lightly

touch the string. Remember, it's not a normal note so

you don't have to apply too much pressure, just

touch the string. Right, so now at

second to pick the string with your right hand

you immediately lift your left-hand finger up

the one that was touching the string

and it sounds like this.

You'll hear the difference between harmonic

and a normal note.

So this is how its done, if you get to hang of it

move on to the 7th fret

and to the 5th fret

You'll see that it's harder to make harmonics there.

So that's how you produce natural harmonics.

Similarly to natural harmonics you can also

make slap harmonics at the 5th,

7th and 12th frets.

Although instead of picking the string you just slap on them.

First thing to point out is that it's done with your right hand

so it only requires one of your hands.

However, moving your hand from the soundhole to the desired fret

can be quite tricky, especially if you're playing a fast-paced song,

but it can be handled. Second thing I'd like to

mention is that this way you'll get multiple notes

due to slapping multiple strings.

So while it's possible to get a natural harmonic note on one string only,

you won't be able to do that with slap harmonics.

So here's how it sounds like.

Alright, so take your right-hand index finger and simply hit the strings

at the 12th fret.

You can also slap with your middle finger, or with both of them -

it's a matter of personal taste, feel free to experiment with that.

I personally use my index finger.

So yeah, just slap on the strings. You'll feel how hard you have to hit

to actually get harmonics. Also make sure to hit one the fret,

or as close as possible,

because otherwise you won't get harmonics.

Also you can turn your hand around a bit

to get a more precise slap, like this.

Then again, it's not mandatory, just experiment with

and if you feel like it suits you more then do it.

So yeah, once you mastered this technique, move on to the

7th, 5th frets.

Watching covers on YouTube, this one seems to be the

least used kind of harmonics - maybe because it's the hardest

(well at least it is my opinion)

maybe because it's less known or maybe because people don't feel the

need to put them

in their arrangements. Who knows? I'm gonna explain it anyway so you can use it aswell.

The first thing I'd like to mention about this technique that

unlike the previous two, now you're not limited to the

5th, 7th and 12th frets only,

but you can use it at any fret. Basically, what you want to do is

hold down a note with one of your left-hand fingers.

Let's hold down the G string at the first fret

for example and move your right hand

12th frets further. So in this

example we're holding down the string at the

1st fret, so let's move your right hand over the

13th fret. Now you have to lightly touch the string with your index finger

like this and you pick the string with your thumb.

And just like you make a natural harmonic, you immediately lift your

index finger up after picking the string with your thumb.

Like this.

So that's how it's done, remember, there are always

12 frets between your left and your right hand, so if you're holding down the string

at the 2nd fret, your right hand goes over the 14th fret

and if you're holding down the

string at the 5th fret, your right hand goes over

the 17th fret.

You can also use it and open strings,

just move your right hand over the 12th fret.

You can also take chords and make

harmonics, for example take an A major chord

and simply go string-by-string, like this.

So that was the fourth lesson of

Fingerstyle 101, I hope it was helpful. In the next episode I'll share some tips

with you on how to improve your playing. If you have any questions, suggestions or requests

for the upcoming lessons, feel free to leave a comment below,

send me a private message or contact me on Facebook.

Thanks for watching, see you next time.