Guitar Lessons: Harmonics

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Taylor Gamble returns with a trio of lessons showing you how to use harmonics to color your compositions.

By Taylor Gamble

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!