Hey Friend,
Soooo….
Yesterday, we got an email from the boss… First “communication" we’ve gotten since his abrupt departure last Tuesday (if you missed it, the county sheriff took him away in cuffs).
We still don’t know any more than we did when it all went down, except that we won’t be seeing him again for a while. He’s now on a leave of absence, and if we need anything, to use the office administrator to relay questions.
He named one of the guys a technical lead in the interim (which was news to him!).
I don’t know about you, but to me that’s not a lot to hang your hat on…
More fuel to my fire to make the career jump! But oh, what a delicate dance that is...
Anyway, picks and picking…
Brad sent over a question the other day regarding pinch harmonics, another technique you can use to coax odd and wonderful sounds from your guitar. He was having trouble consistently creating the harmonic part of the note.
Before I get to suggestions for that, a quick description of pinch harmonics.
A pinch harmonic combines a pick stroke with a harmonic immediately after. While you can use the technique on both acoustic and electric guitar, to really hear them well requires an overdriven amplifier.
And you'll know the pinch harmonic when you hear it - the plucked note becomes a high pitched squeal. These can be played on fretted and bent notes equally well.
The guitar solo in “ Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi is a good example of pinch harmonics being used.
How to Get Them
This technique is a more advanced picking tool you can use to spice up your playing. You’ll want to make sure you play the note that is to become the harmonic fairly aggressively - this is not an “easy listening” technique!
The key to consistent, on-demand pinch harmonics is to “choke up” on the pick.
Like with a baseball bat, choking up means to shorten the potential contact area of the pick. You want your fingers close to the tip of the pick to make this technique work.
Normally, when I play, I’m already holding the pick with very little of the pick exposed - it’s around 3/16 of an inch. But when I get ready for a pinch harmonic, the pick gets pulled in even more to where I’m only using about 1/16 of an inch of the tip.
This puts my thumb in perfect position to lightly brush the plucked string as it passes by on the down stroke. This is near instantaneous, and the edge of the thumb barely makes any contact - just enough to coax the harmonic out of the string.
The movement is very subtle, and the thumb has to follow though, much like a golf swing. You don’t stop a club swing when it hits the ball, you allow the club to complete the full swing up over the shoulder.
The thumb has to pass by the string completely. Otherwise, it may dampen the string and kill the harmonic.
For best results, the pluck is solid and a bit aggressive (strong attack) with the thumb brushing by a nanosecond later.
It takes some practice to master pinch harmonics, but nothing a couple minutes a day won’t take care of.
Give these a try to see if can persuade a squeal out of your guitar. These can be a lot of fun once you have the technique down and can create them on demand.
Peace~
Dave
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