Harmonics help...?

My guess would be that you fret the note at the second fret (ie push the string fully down) and lightly touch at the 6th fret (ie like you usually do for a harmonic). Doing this your finger on the 2nd fret acts like a capo. Jaco uses this technique in Portrait of tracy.

Persoanlly I find this stretch very uncomfortable and so I use a false harmonic instead (also called pinch harmonic). I fret the note that I need and then play the string with my thumb touching 12 (or 24) frets above the note. I hope this makes sense. C-YA

Ben

 

Its easier to do this using two hands. Fret the first note with your left, lightly touch above the 6th fret with your right hand index finger and pluck the string with either you middle or ring finger on your right hand.

 

A "half harmonic" indicates that the proper place to put your finger is somewhere other than right over the fret. As you move towards the nut the harmonics stop falling over frets. So "2.5" would be halfway between the second and third frets.

 

Portrait of Tracy is a beautiful song... I'd love to learn to play that.

 

That's because harmonics really have nothing to do with where frets happen to be - but are rather to do with subdividing (effective) string length.