Harmonic Notation

So, in our continuing mission to translate guitar techniques into standard musical notation we get to the harmonic.

…wait, what’s a “harmonic”?!

How to Play a Harmonic

Well, there are many different types of harmonics- but they all have one thing in common: they are all high pitched notes created by touching the string and changing how it vibrates. I explain how to play “natural harmonics” in this bass article- which basically involves touching the string just over certain frets (the actual wires) without pushing the string down.

They are written like this:

Notice two things: these notes are the pitches that the harmonics sound, which isn’t always the same as the fret you play; the note heads (which are usually round dots on the end of the note stem) are diamond shaped.

Here is the same thing in tab:


N.H.
e-<12>--------------
B-----<12>----------
G---------<12>------
D-------------<7>---
A-------------------
E-------------------

Natural harmonics are played by placing your finger directly over the fret wire at the fret specified, and playing the open string. Play the tab above and the resulting sounds should be the same pitch as the ones in the notation above.

Artificial Harmonics

Next we have “artificial harmonics”, where you touch a certain position on a string with one hand, and fret it with the other hand. They include: tapped harmonics, pinch harmonics, and “harp harmonics”.

They are written like this:

The lower, round, notes are the notes you fret, and the higher, diamond shaped, notes are the pitch of the harmonic. The advantage of this is that there is no real standard way to show this in tab- and when you do write these out in tab, it’s not as easy to see which note to fret and which note to sound as a harmonic. So there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of writing things down.

Writing the note you actually fret with a round note head, and the actual harmonic with a diamond one gives you the ability to separate the two. For example, this:

…means that you play the first note, hold it for two beats (assuming ⁴₄ time), then tap the harmonic over the same note, and hold that for a further two beats.

Here is that in tab:


e---------------------
B---------------------
G---------------------
D---7---t<19>---------
A---------------------
E---------------------

So you hold the 7th fret on the D string for the first note, then tap the 19th fret on the D string directly over the fret (and immediately take your tapping finger away) to sound the harmonic. We know we have to tap the harmonic (rather than play it separately) because of the legato mark (the curved line over the notes).

Next week, we’ll be looking at more guitar techniques in standard notation (read it here. As always, post any questions below.

Rob.

August 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm | Music Theory | No comments