Harmonics

Thats a good question, but I think the best incorperation of them I've heard is: Portrait of Tracy.. But good luck on it, it boggles my mind.

 

Victor Wooten (of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) does this often. He plays Amazing Grace entirely in harmonics live too!

 

I use the "Steve Bailey" technique (at least that is who I learned it from) for false harmonics - where you paly and mute with the same hand. It works very well for me, and not that hard with a little practice.

Vic does an unbelievable job with his... but I believe he used true harmonics on Amazing Grace (at least, I was able to figure it out without using false/artificial harmonics).

I would be curious to know what you settle on... I have tried the pinch technique as well - didn't do that well at it needless to say

 

i have some questions here....what are Pinch Harmonics? natural Harmonics? and artificial harmonics?

here is how i play my harmonics(just not sure of the name)

i play with my left hand fretted and i put my right thumb to make a harmonic sound when i play the string. i also do some harmics like the ones where you tune your bass(are those natural harmonics?)

BTW...vic plays amazing grace with Natural Harmonics(thats if im correct up there) saw it live....needed some paper towels afterwards. peace
Chad

 

I found that the best place to put natural harmonics, especially when using double-stops and chords is when you're just letting notes ring for a measure. Do you know what tones go with the hamonics (i.e. 1/4 on the g is a G, 1/5 on g is a B, 1/6 on g is an D.)

 

This was posted by one of our members in a previous thread:

 

That chart is great. See all of it on his website:

http://www.guitar-and-bass.com/sixstringbass/harmonics-reference.html

 

what do the colors mean? peace
Chad

 

Look at the link I posted and think.

 

i guess i still dont get it.

 

I use artificial harmonics a lot in solos - like Jaco with thumb on the strings 12 frets above where you are fretting the notes - this means that you are just getting everything in a different octave and you can play just what you would normally and add a different colour. If you are very accurate with these, they stand out and make your solos more audible and interesting.

If you are using natural harmonics it's much more case of working it out in advance and it's more difficult to improvise. I think that if you are basing a song on this, then you need to include some "normal" notes and soem harmonics - so you could play a normal bassline on the lower strings with your thumb - say on the E or B strings - then add arpeggios or chords made up of harmonics with your fingers.

So you could fret a normal note around the 5-7 frets on the B or E strings and play it with your thumb then experiment, with adding simultaneous harmonics on the higher strings. So you could use your 2nd finger to fret the lower notes and then use the others to play the natural harmonics.

 

It is a fraction dividing up the neck. I've always heard harmonics labeled as "1/6th, 1/2, 1/3rd, 1/4th, 1/5th, 1/7th."

It's a sixth of the scale from the nut or bridge. There are harmonics at half the neck scale, one third the neck distance, one fourth, one fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth..."