Harmonics w pinky of picking hand??

[tanpsi]

How many people do this besides me??? and does anyone know who came up with it???? I was reminded of it when I read something about pinch harmonics

[Tashtego]

I do them using the part of my hand you would 'karate chop' with.

[maxboost]

What exactly are you doing with your pinky? Is it something like this from http://www.buckdharma.com/Guitar/GuitTips_02.shtml

On the single note side, here is a technique I use for getting a harmonic in any fret on any string. I hold the pick with my thumb and first finger and lay the nail of my middle finger about an inch behind the pick and about four inches up from the bridge. Pick the string with a downstroke and lift the nail off a hair behind the pick. By using this technique, you can move your pick hand backwards and forwards from the bridge toward the neck and get different harmonics. It's not like making a true harmonic where you use the meat of your finger on the string. With this technique you'll get whatever note you fret plus a harmonic on top. It's great when you want to make a couple of notes sound funky. I use this one all the time when I play live.

[jwoods986]

Bastard! You stole my technique -lol. J/K.

That's exactly how I do my pick harmonics, but it was more as a work-around. When I was learning to play, I had trouble getting P.H.s down the "correct" way, using the side of your thumb, so I just kind of stumbled onto, figured out, whatever, this way of getting them using the nail of my middle finger. And man, they jump out. But lately I have tried using the side of my thumb way and I can get them now but there is a difference in sound between the two techniques. Try both ways and see what you like

[maxboost]

hey jwoods it wasn't me. It was Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult that stole your technique. LOL

[tanpsi]

Yes, that is similar to what I do, but instead of the nail of middle finger, I use the middle 3rd of the curled up pinky, and yes if you do tremelo picking and move the hand down the string you can get some neat sounds as you go through the different harmonics, but high gain helps of course!!!


What does he mean by not making a "true harmonic" though?????, I mean a harmonic is a harmonic right??

[Wayniac]

I've been doing it since I started playing. When I started to try to get fast, I'd hear them (squeals) pop out occasionally. Then one day watched my hand and saw that my pinky was dragging and sort of muting the string...
First one I saw doing it (I think) was Lynch...

[atomic charvel guy]

I'm sorry but it was I who coined that trick. Ask the Boston JCF'ers.-lol

[Spidervenom]

I used to use my pinky - I'd play it on the string, pick, and remove it, more or less.

I retrained myself into doing it the right way aftera while.

[omwdc]

i'm going to try this

[sakeido]

I'll do it either way, hitting a pinch harmonic with your thunb "the right way" gives a crazy squeal but to mess around and get the different harmonics I will hit them with my middle finger in different places in the string. If you hit the right spot (usually the same spot that gives you the sickest squeal from a proper PH) you can turn a normal note into something that is pretty close to a pinch harmonic.

Its a neat trick but I don't have much use for it.

[JACKSONFREAK]

I've seen Phil Keaggy do this thing with his picking hand. What he does is. places the pick between the index and midle finger and uses the index finger to tap out harminics as he strickes the string with the pick. I think it's done been by Eddie, PAtrucci Yngwie, etc.. But I Phil is the first one I've seen do it. Aside from the guitar player in my band when i had it. To which he stole it from Phil.
Gil

[JACKSONFREAK]

Or are you talking about the dragging your pinky across the strings as you do a hammer on pull off on a string. Like in the beggining of crazy train?
Gil

[TinTin8]

i dont do it this way, but i do you my middle finger for Artificial harm.
you fret a note, and tap(with right hand) the note 12 frets up

[Cinder]

Thumb method for me, though your way sounded interesting, I've tried using the side of your hand to do pinch harmonics, but I couldnt get it to work properly. Each to his own.