This technique is commonly used among technical rock gods and by pioneers like Jeff Beck. You can use these notes to play melodies and you can use them to create "dive bombs" in rock and metal.

Remember that these are "natural" harmonics, not pinched or tapped, just rest your finger lightly on the string at the fret shown (you will have to guess a bit for the notes between two frets, like 2.6, which is slight further forward than halfway between the 2nd and 3rd fret).

It can be fun to try and work out melodies that use these notes, and you will be able to see how the technique of tuning with harmonics works too!

The Basic Idea

To use this properly you need to know what notes are found at what frets. This chart shows you most of the harmonics available on the guitar neck. There are a few more, but these are the commonly used ones.

Fret

12

9

7

5

4

3.2

2.6

2.2

2

1.8

1.5

1.2

Division

1/2

1/5

1/3

1/4

1/5

1/6

1/8

1/9

1/10

1/11

1/12

1/13

Interval

Root

3rd

5th

R

3rd

5th

b7th

R

2nd

3rd

5th

b7th

E String

E

G#

B

E

G#

B

D

E

F#

G#

B

D

A String

A

C#

E

A

C#

E

G

A

B

C#

E

G

D String

D

F#

A

D

F#

A

C

D

E

F#

A

C

G String

G

B

D

G

B

D

F

G

A

B

D

F

B String

B

D#

F#

B

D#

F#

A

B

C#

D#

F#

A

E String

E

G#

B

E

G#

B

D

E

F#

G#

B

D