Pinch harmonic

What it’s for

A pinch harmonic turns an ordinary note into a high-pitched scream. You fret the same note, but what comes out is a squeal that cuts right through the band. Put one at the end of a phrase and it works like an exclamation point.

You hear it all over overdriven rock: Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top uses it in greasy blues-rock; Zakk Wylde made it the signature of his solos; Dimebag Darrell, with Pantera, used it to make his riffs scream between palm-muted notes. It lives mostly on electric guitar, with distortion.

How to do it

1. Dial in a distorted tone, gain fairly high, bridge pickup. Without distortion, even a perfect motion only gives you a faint “tick.”
2. Choke up on the pick: only the very tip should stick out of your fingers, barely 2 or 3 millimeters, with the side of your thumb almost level with it.
3. Pick the string downward, firmly, and let the side of your thumb graze it immediately after the pick, in the same motion.
4. Don’t leave your thumb on the string: it touches and comes right off, or the note gets muted.
5. Find the sweet spot. The harmonic depends on where you pick the string: move your picking hand a few millimeters at a time between the end of the neck and the bridge until you hear the squeal.

The harmonic makes the note sound an octave and a fifth higher, or even higher depending on where you pick. In tab, PH above a note means: pinch harmonic. The number is still the fret you play.

Examples

The example at the top of the page plays each note twice, first normally, then as a pinch harmonic: the G string at the 7th fret, then the D string. Same fret, same string, but the second one squeals.

At the intermediate level, the harmonic lands at the end of a phrase from the A minor pentatonic. Two phrases, each ending on a held pinched note: D, then A.

           PH        PH
e|---------------------|
B|-----5-8---8-5-------|
G|-5-7-----7-----7-5---|
D|-------------------7-|
A|---------------------|
E|---------------------|

At the advanced level, the harmonic slips into an E minor metal riff in sixteenth notes. Your palm mutes the low E, lifts just long enough for one pinched note, then drops right back.

   PM----------  PM------PHPM----------      PH
e|---------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------------------|
D|-------------------------------------------2-|
A|---------------------------------------------|
E|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-0-5-0-0-0-0-0-0-7-5-3---|

Licks

A shuffle blues lick in the A blues scale: a bend, a squealing G, the blue note (E flat) and a pinched A to finish.

         PH              PH
e|-------------------------|
B|-----5-8-5---------------|
G|-7b9-------7-5---5-8-7---|
D|---------------7-------7-|
A|-------------------------|
E|-------------------------|

A rock lick in A minor: the same opening twice, a hammer-on on the D string, and a pinch harmonic each time, the second one higher.

         PH              PH
e|-------------------------|
B|-----------------------5-|
G|-----5-7-5---------5-7---|
D|-5h7-------7-5-5h7-------|
A|-------------------------|
E|-------------------------|

A metal lick in E minor at the 12th fret: sixteenth notes going down and back up, a bend, and one last pinched note.

                                       PH                                  PH
e|-15-12-------15-12----------------------------------------------------------|
B|-------15-12-------15-12----------------------12-15-------12-15-15b17-12----|
G|-------------------------14-12----------12-14-------12-14----------------14-|
D|-------------------------------14-12-14-------------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Practice routine

Set your metronome to 60 bpm.

1. One harmonic per beat on the G string, 7th fret. Count how many come out in eight beats. Until you get six out of eight, don’t speed up: sweep the picking zone instead.
2. In eighth notes, still at 60: the plain note on the beat, the pinched note on the “and.” Same motion, only the thumb changes. Go up 5 bpm at a time to 90.
3. The intermediate example at 70 bpm, then up to 100, its full tempo.
4. The advanced riff at 60 bpm in sixteenths, then up to 100. The harmonic has to come out without the muted notes dragging.

Then change frets: the higher up the neck you play, the closer the sweet spot moves toward the bridge. Find it again at the 5th, the 7th, then the 12th fret.

Common mistakes

Variations

• With a bend and vibrato. Pinch the note, then bend it up a whole step and add vibrato: the squeal rises with the note and starts to sing. It’s the most famous scream this technique makes.
• Changing the pitch. On the same note, move your picking spot a few millimeters: the harmonic jumps higher or lower. Players pick their squeal the way they pick a note.
• Inside a riff. Between two palm-muted notes, lift your palm just for one pinched note, like in the advanced example.
• With the whammy bar. Pinch a note, then push the bar down and let it come back up: the squeal dives and returns. A metal classic.

Acoustic or electric

On electric guitar, it’s right at home. Bridge pickup, gain fairly high: distortion boosts that small harmonic and makes it sustain. A humbucker makes it even easier, but it comes out with a single-coil too.

On acoustic guitar, the harmonic is there, but it stays very faint: you hear a little whistle inside the note, and that’s it. For harmonics that sound great on an acoustic, look at natural harmonics.

Going further

• The Pinch harmonics lesson in the intermediate course, to put it to work in a lick.
• The lesson The amp: dialing in your tone: gain and pickup choice do half the work.
• The Bend, Vibrato and Palm muting pages, which often go with it.
• The E minor pentatonic, to write your own screaming riffs.