Six Strings
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Intermediate · step 8 · Not started · Electric guitar only

Pinch harmonics

Your thumb grazes the string right after the pick, and the note turns into a high-pitched squeal: the scream of rock and metal solos. Goal: hit a pinch harmonic reliably, then put it into a lick.

This lesson is for electric guitar: it doesn’t count in your acoustic course, but you can still read it.

Time
15 minutes
Before you start
Your first licks
You’ll be able to
Put a pinch harmonic into a lick

You need distortion

Pinch harmonics exist on every guitar, but they only really jump out with gain. Distortion boosts that tiny high harmonic and makes it sustain. Before you start: distorted tone, gain around 6 to 8, bridge pickup. Without that, you’ll barely hear a little tick.

The Pinch harmonic page covers the technique and its notation in detail; here, we put it to work.

     PH  PH
e|---------|
B|---------|
G|-7-7-----|
D|-----7-7-|
A|---------|
E|---------|

The motion

  1. Hold the pick very short: only the tip sticks out, barely 2 or 3 millimetres, and the side of your thumb is almost level with it.
  2. Pick down, firmly, as you would for a normal note.
  3. Let your thumb graze the string right after the pick, in the same motion. It brushes past, it doesn’t stop there: if it stays on, it mutes the note.
  4. Let it ring, and add vibrato to make the squeal sing.
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The pick for pinch harmonics

  1. The pick held very short: only the tip sticks out.
  2. Right after you pick the note, the side of your thumb brushes the string, then moves away.

Where to pick?

It all comes down to where your pick hits the string. The harmonic only comes out at certain exact spots, and those spots change depending on the fret you play.

The easiest way: start halfway between the neck and bridge pickups, over the middle pickup if you have one. Pick, listen, then shift a few millimetres toward the bridge. Try again. At one spot, the note suddenly squeals: remember it. Move a little further and you’ll find another, higher or lower.

Common mistakes

Your thumb stays on the string. The note dies instantly. The contact should be a brush, almost an accident.
  • Too much pick sticking out. Your thumb never reaches the string. Choke up on the pick.
  • Always the same spot. If nothing comes out, it’s not your motion, it’s the position: sweep the area millimetre by millimetre.
  • Not enough gain. With a clean tone, even a perfect motion gives you almost nothing.
  • Timid attack. You need a firm attack; a pinch harmonic isn’t played gently.

The exercise

1. One note. G string, 7th fret, a D from the A minor pentatonic. Ten picks in a row, sweeping the picking area, until you find the spot that squeals.

2. Consistency. Once you’ve found the spot, aim for five harmonics out of five picks. Then eight out of ten.

3. With a bend. Same note, same harmonic, then bend it up a whole step and add vibrato. The squeal rises with the note: that’s the most famous sound of this technique.

4. In a lick. Take the descending lick, or the bend-and-release lick, and replace its last note with a pinch harmonic.

e|------------|
B|------------|
G|-7b9r7-5----|
D|---------7~-|
A|------------|
E|------------|

Don’t put harmonics everywhere: one or two per solo, in the right places, have far more impact.

You’ve got it when…