Welcome to the latest edition of the Wood&Steel guitar lesson, featuring session player and music educator Taylor Gamble.
For this batch of lessons, Taylor demonstrates a deceptively simple technique that has broad applications across playing styles: harmonics. With their beautiful, bell-like sound, harmonics are useful as creative accents in your playing, but can also be repurposed in chords and fingerstyle arrangements.
Beginner: Intro to Harmonics
Taylor starts out the lesson with a demonstration of how to play basic open harmonics on the fifth, seventh and twelfth frets, including where to pluck the strings depending on which harmonic you’re using.
Intermediate: Open Harmonics and Chords
Next, Taylor shows off a way to incorporate harmonics into chords, adding a striking, unexpected texture to your playing style.
Advanced: Fretted Harmonics
Finally, Taylor dives into advanced fretted harmonics, a more challenging technique that yields a harp-like response at virtually any position on the fretboard.
Check back next time for another batch of Wood&Steel guitar lessons!