Welcome to Gaia! ::

if that is wat they are called, i have been playin for 2 years and still i cannot pitch harmonic, you know, that thing that they do on welcome home by coheed and cambria, and dragon force does alot,.

anyway if im naming it wrong , its that thing you do to make your notes come out really high pitched

wat is the easiiest waqy to do this thx, darkharvets01

Yeah no one usually comes to the theory threads... sweatdrop

But what you're talking about is called a Pinch Harmonic, also known as an Artificial Harmonic. The theory behind it is simple, it's just hard to pull off if you've never done it before. I think it's easiest to start on 7th fret on one of the low strings, try A or D. What you have to do is after picking the note, use the edge of your right thumb (left if your left handed) to lightly touch the string. The trick is where you place your right hand, because you can only sound the harmonic if you get a "node."

Think of it as just playing a normal harmonic on forth fret, the same harmonic can be found at 9th fret, 16th fret, and somewhere just over the pickups (if you measured it would be the exact same distance from the bridge as the distance between forth fret and the nut). So a pinch harmonic is basically you just playing a standard harmonic with your other hand, if that makes sence... And as you're using the other hand, you can use your normal hand to fret a note giving you the option to add a bend or a vibrato to the harmonic (like in welcome home).

That's Dimebag's trick. =P

best advice i can give you is my advice as to how to do a pitch harmonic ( just a thought, most times, they sound REALLY good with alot of gain.

1. first would be the pick. you're going to want to bite down on the pic with your fingers so that there's just barely little more than the tip of the pic poking out from your fingers.

2. when you have a good note fretted, you're going to want to hit the "sweet spot" or " node" as mentioned earlier, that will ring the harmonic. if you use a dual- humbucking guitar, this is usually about in the middle of both pickups. if that doesn't work, try near the middle of the neck humbucker.

3. when you pick it, you have to quickly tap the string with the edge of your thumb which stops the initial note's ring, but leaves the harmonic to ring. usually, the pinch harmonic won't have much sound to it, so add a little vibrato, and your note will really sing.

4. just an after note, this works best with your3rd (g in standard) and 4th (d in standard) strings.