[malcolm mcwhirter]

I am fairly familiar with the harmonics played on the 5th
7th and 12th fret but would be interested to play other types of harmonics over and above these one and know how to best use harmonics when composing a song

[Doug]

This has been described before so you may want to do a search but I'll try to recap...
There is a technique whereby you can play harmonics of fretted strings rather than open strings. It involves holding the string at the harmonic point with the tip of the index finger of the right hand (assuming right handed) and then plucking the string with the thumb of the right hand (or perhaps the middle finger).

Chet Atkins made this famous and Lenny Breau made it a higher art form.

Lets say you want to play the harmonics of the individual notes that make up a 1st position E chord (the run of the mill non barred E chord). What you do is fret the E chord with your left hand and then the harmonic points will be:
E string 12fret
A string 14 fret (because the left hand is playing 2 frets up from the nut)
D string 14 fret (again left hand playing 2 frets up from the nut)
G string 13 fret (left hand playing 1 fret up from the nut)
B string 12 fret
e strung 12 fret.

A harmonic will occur at the 12 fret of an open string because this cuts the string exactly in half from the nut to the bridge. If the string is fretted at fret 2, then to cut the string exactly in half, the harmonic point will be down toward the bridge slightly - exactly the space of the two smaller sized frets found at frets 13 and 14.

Don't know if that made sense or not but try it out...

[Doug]

As for how to use harmonics in songs, I'd suggest listening to Chet play Starry Starry Night or Vincent I guess it's called. He playe one chorus in harmonics. Or listen to Lenny Breau. It's often used as an ending flourish. Of course, there's the classic Yes - Roundabout.

[justinthyme]

Hi MM.

There are some nice videos about harmonics available from this page:

justinguitar.com - free pro guitar video lessons from Justin Sandercoe

See what you think.

[cshude]

Another excellent example would be Tommy Emmanuel's version of Over the Rainbow.
YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

[skinnybloke]

Originally Posted by cshude

Another excellent example would be Tommy Emmanuel's version of Over the Rainbow.[/url]

True! But most of us are "mere" mortals! It was beautiful