Pinch harmonic

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A pinch harmonic is a guitar technique in which the nail or thumb slightly catches the string after it is picked, creating a high pitched sound in any position. This technique is most widely used in heavy metal and rock music where heavy distortion ensures that the quiet overtones produced are greatly amplified for a high screaming wail. Pinch harmonics are a form of artificial harmonics.

Technique

Overtones

When a guitar string is plucked, the string vibrates back and forth at a specific frequency to produce sound. But the string is not only vibrating along its entire length. It is also vibrating in halves and thirds, etc. To visualize what is happening, imagine physically pinching the string and holding it right at its mid-point and slowly pushing and pulling the entire string back and forth. This is essentially what the string does when it is vibrating, only much more quickly. This produces the main, or "fundamental" tone. Now, imagine one person pinching the string at the half way point, while a second person grabs the string in two spots exactly 1/4 of the way from either end. Now, if the first person holds the mid-point steady while the second person pushes and pulls the string in opposite directions with each hand, the string will be vibrating in a kind of s-shaped curve with each half of the string vibrating at a frequency exactly twice the frequency of the full length vibration. When a guitar string is plucked, it also vibrates in this way, in addition to vibrating along its entire length to produce the main tone. In fact, it is also vibrating in thirds, with the stationary points being 1/3 from either end and the 3 resulting sections of the string each vibrating at 3 times the frequency of the open string, as well as in fourths, fifths, etc. The combination of all of these vibrations and resulting overtones is what gives a vibrating string its rich tone.

Harmonics

When a guitarist plays a harmonic, for example the harmonic at the 12th fret, what he or she is doing is lightly touching the string at the exact mid-point while plucking the string. This deadens the main vibration, which has a swell at the midpoint, but leaves any overtones that are vibrating around the midpoint, such as the 1/2 vibration, the 1/4 vibration, etc. And with the main tone being cancelled out, the predominant tone becomes the 1/2 vibration, which is one octave higher than the open string. Similarly, if you play the harmonic at the 7th fret, this deadens the main tone and the octave overtone (since both vibrations produce swells where your finger is touching the string), but it leaves the one third vibration as the dominant tone. Since this is 3 times the frequency of the open string, it produces a tone that is one octave plus a fifth above the tone of the open string. Similarly, the harmonic at the 5th fret emphasizes the one quarter overtone of the string which is 4 times the open tone or two octaves higher. The breakdown for each harmonic is as follows:

• 1/2: 12th fret, octave tonic
• 1/3: 7th fret, octave + fifth
• 1/4: 5th fret, 2nd octave
• 1/5: 4th fret, 2nd octave + third
• 1/6: 3.2 frets (between 3rd and 4th fret close to the third), 2nd octave + fifth
• 1/7: 2.9 frets (just the other side of the 3rd fret), 2nd octave + minor seventh
• 1/8: 2.3 frets, 3rd octave
• 1/9: 2nd fret, 3rd octave + second

Pinch harmonics

Just as there are harmonic "sweet spots" at all of the points listed above, there are the equivalent "sweet spots" toward the bridge end of the string as well. For example, the 1/3 harmonic can be gotten by deadening the string at the 7th fret on the nut half of the string or at the 19th fret on the bridge half. Similarly the 1/4 harmonic can be found at the 5th fret and the 24th fret. And since guitars generally only have 22 or 24 frets, the "sweet spots" for the 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 harmonics, etc. are all found above the pickups where you would normally pick the string. Furthermore, holding the finger of the left hand against the string at a "sweet spot" and plucking it with the other hand is not the only way to produce a harmonic. A pinch harmonic is produced by rubbing the picking thumb against the string as it is picked. This rubbing of the thumb against the string is sufficient to deaden all or most of the underlying tones and leave only the harmonic tone. The trick, however is to pick the string at the right distance from the bridge so that the thumb is rubbing the string at one of the harmonic "sweet spots." These spots can all be found by experimentation, or by physically measuring the length of the entire string and then measuring from the bridge to find the points 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, etc. the distance away. As for the picking technique itself, the pick should be held so that only a tiny point is sticking out and the pick should be angled so that when the string is picked, the thumb is also brushing across the string at the same time.

Additional tips

1. If the string on which the pinch harmonic is being played is held down at a fret (ie. not played "open") the sweet spots all change slightly. This is because fingering the string effectively changes the length of the vibrating portion of the string which will also change all of the points that are the 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. from either end.
   
2. By using the above list of tones that are produced at each harmonic "sweet spot," pinch harmonics can be targeted to play specific notes. A great example of this is in the opening bars of Steve Vai's song Juice from the Alien Love Secrets CD, where he plays the following sequence on the 6th string: 5th fret pull-off to open, 3rd fret pull-off to open, 5th fret pull-off to open, etc. This is just the notes A, E, G, E, A, E, etc. However, in addition to these notes, pinch harmonics can also be heard stepping down through the notes: E, D, C#, B, A. This is done by targeting specific pinch harmonics the string is being picked. Specifically, as the A is being plucked, the 1/6 harmonic is also being played, which sounds the 2nd octave + fifth, or the E. When the G is picked, the 1/6 harmonic for that note is also being played, which also sounds the 2nd octave + fifth, or a D. When the A is picked the second time, the 1/5 harmonic is played, which sounds the 2nd octave + third, or the C#. When the G is picked the second time, the 1/5 harmonic is also being played, which sounds the 2nd octave + third, or the B. Finally, when the A is picked for the third time, the 1/4 harmonic is also played, which sounds the 2nd octave, or the A.

Advantage

One of the significant practical advantages of the pinch harmonic is that it allows the guitarist's fretting hand to stay in position while higher notes are struck. In addition to expanding the accessible range of pitch, pinch harmonics can be used as unaccompanied tones in a solo or as filler notes between deeper chords.

Artists

Harmonics can help to define an artist's sound or style. Pinch harmonics, as a technique, are used by a number of artists, including John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, Khalid Ilahi of Beyond Shadows, Zakk Wylde, Dimebag Darrell, Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Claudio Sanchez, and Midnight Stalker. Although harmonics are typically played with distortion (which enhances their tone), Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits is known for playing clean, or undistorted, pinch harmonics as well. The first known pinch harmonics on a rock album, are featured on Leslie West of Mountain's first album, "Mountain".

Example

• [Example of pinch harmonic] ([file info])
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• * Problems listening to the file? See [Media helpmedia help].

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