How to Hit Those SCREAMING Decimal Point Harmonics! 

Fun fact: You can play the entire Sweet Child o Mine intro using only the natural harmonics on 12th 7th and 5th frets

“Don’t overuse harmonics” Kerry King: 🙁 Ps (love slayer)

Fun fact : when going under 2, you don't need a tremolo to make dive bombs because your neighbours are actually going to drop a Bomb on your house.

Dimebag’s biggest secret was using his wah in a cocked position when doing really low harmonic squeals. Having the wah cocked all the way up for some reason EQ’s the signal to hear those lower harmonics better. he never wanted people to know that secret, because he purposely avoids telling us in his squeal lesson saying you’d have to pay him for more information or something.

You should've explained why the natural harmonics are where they are, and why e.g. frets 5 and 24 have the same note. Even for a beginner, that would have made it a lot easier to understand natural harmonics. Then again, after I've written all of the below, I realized this would've been a much longer video... The reason why natural harmonics work: Natural harmonics are at all "fractions" of the string's length. For example, the 12th fret is exactly halfway (1/2) along the string's length. If you play the 12th fret normally, the string is vibrating between the 12th fret and the bridge. The string is exactly half the full length (compared to when playing the string open), so it's an octave above the open string. When playing a natural harmonic at the 12th fret, you make a "dead" point on the string, so the string is not moving at the 12th fret, but it's vibrating between the 12th fret and the bridge, as if you were fretting the 12th fret normally. But the string is also vibrating between the nut and the 12th fret. So, both halves of the string are vibrating, with a dead point where you were touching the string at the 12th fret. After playing a natural harmonic at the 12th fret (and raising your finger off the string), you can touch the same spot again, and the harmonic will still keep playing, since that part of the string isn't vibrating anyway. It might get a bit quieter when you touch it, because your finger will touch the string a little bit around the dead spot, and not exactly on it, but it will still keep playing. If you touch the string anywhere else (e.g. the 10th fret), the harmonic will stop playing (or you might play a different harmonic, if you touch at the 5th fret, for example). If you play a natural harmonic at the 5th fret, that's exactly 1/4 (one quarter) of the string's total length. That's another octave above the 12th fret, since you've halved the length of the string again. Now the string is vibrating in 1/4 pieces (quarters), and there are dead spots at the 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4 spots along the string (the 5th, 12th and 24th frets). So, you can touch any of those spots, and the harmonic will keep playing. If you play a natural harmonic at the 24th fret, it's the exact same note as a natural harmonic at the 5th fret, since they both set the string vibrating in 1/4 parts (quarters). The note of the harmonic is the same as if you fret the 24th fret normally, since that also plays 1/4 of the string. The same is true for the natural harmonics at the 7th fret and at the 19th fret. They're the same note, because they both set the string vibrating in thirds (1/3 parts), with dead points at 1/3 and 2/3 along the length of the string (the 7th and 19th frets). The note of the natural harmonic is the same as if you play the 19th fret normally (not as a harmonic). The natural harmonics at the 4th fret and 9th fret are also the same, because they're at 1/5 and 2/5 of the string length. Because most natural harmonics (all except the 12th fret harmonic) create more than one "dead" spot on the string, you can actually play a natural harmonic by touching more than one spot on the string. For example, you can play a natural harmonic by touching above both the 9th and the 12th fret, and that makes the same natural harmonic that's found a bit past the 3rd fret (around fret 3.2). Touching 2 spots on the string can actually be easier than touching just one, because some natural harmonics are very close to each other. There are many natural harmonics between the 3rd and 4th frets, so you might play the wrong one by accident. Natural harmonics exist at any fraction of the string's length: 1/2 (12th fret), 1/3 (7th fret), 1/4 (5th fret), 1/5 (4th fret), and so on. Any multiple of those fractions is the exact same harmonic, so the harmonics at 1/5, 2/5, 3/5 and 4/5 are all the same. The highest multiple of each fraction (e.g. 3/4 for 1/4, or 4/5 for 1/5) always falls on some fret, and that fret is the note (and octave) of the harmonic. For example, 3/4 falls on the 24th fret, and the note at that fret is the note (and octave) of the harmonic. However, anything past 3/4 doesn't "fit" on the fretboard, since it's going past the 24th fret. Still, that harmonic falls on some "imaginary" fret. The 1/5 (4th fret) harmonic is the same as 4/5, and that falls on the (imaginary) 28th fret (G# in regular tuning). EDIT: One more thing: if the "dead" spot of a harmonic falls exactly on top of the pickup, the pickup won't see any movement on the string. So, if you have a hard time playing some harmonic, try switching to a different pickup (although usually pickups aren't placed on those spots).

"Throw one or two in, if it's appropriate." Me when I first learnt how to Dimebag squeal: throws one or two into every section of every song, no matter how inappropriate it might be.

Internet has surely made our lives so much easier! Access to so much of free content.

FYI the 3rd fret harmonic on G is the one used in Kirk's Master of Puppets solo 👍

I've been waiting for this lesson for a long time! As a bedroom (and learning) player I can't just put the volume and gain at max, but I know that soon I'm going to try those (I don't have a whammy bar, but who cares).

I'd think another reason harmonics won't sound when the pick strikes a certain position is when you're trying to pluck where one of the nodes is located.

Thank you for explaining the decimal harmonics! I remember seeing 2.7 on Smashing Pumpkin Zero and wondering how the hello kitty you do that lol!🤘

Love the sound of those harmonics!

The fact that you are one hell of an artist, teacher, music guide and of course that’s one kick ass guitar. Nothing comes close to your tshirt man. That is so cool. Big fan from Mexico compadre!!!!! Keep it up cabron. 🤘🏻🇲🇽🤘🏻🇲🇽🤘🏻🇲🇽🤘🏻🇲🇽🤘🏻

I remember I had a chemistry teacher in high school who played the guitar and I tried to teach him about natural harmonics besides 12, 7, and 5 but he wasn't having it because natural harmonics at only 12, 7, and 5 corresponded to some chemistry principle I can't remember now. He just refused to believe there were other natural harmonics and muted the strings at the other frets to prevent the harmonics.

Again and again this channel seems to frequently be in my wheelhouse for the concepts I'm interested in learning. Huge thanks again.

I was always so confused about the transcription and I never figured it out, thanks for helping out

love your videos man!

yep know that story, I learned them from the Surfing with the Alien book. This is a great find in the early formative years and was exciting

I was blown away when i first figured out about harmonics it's one of those unique guitar sounds

Great tutorial. Love screaming harmonics. Doesn't suit my style but they sound great, even overused if executed well lol. Always good to know these things. Great channel 🎸👍

Happy to see you’re still rocking with the kirk Hammett guitar

Absolutely a great help

It's 3:40 AM, and my neighbors are about to get a really sweet wake-up call.

Thanks Mike, nice work 🤘

Great lesson!!!

Very helpful tutorial. Thanks!

That guitar is really cool! I love the Spiders and bats on The frets, and the White Zombie themed body! And the headstock is a sharp ominous shape. Amazing!

Very well explained.

Killer Lesson ! I was playing 2.6 at 1.6 much better now!

Can't stop looking at your new axe

Insanely Golden Lesson I love you! 😍

All your guitars are the guitar of My dreams 🥺🤘❤️

Omg !!!! 😮😮😮 This helped me a lot. Thank you very much 🤘🎸 Such a cool video !!!

amazing video

i never thought of this but it makes so much sense.. I must see how far i can go with it.

I had no idea those intermediate ones existed. Wow, thanks.

I always play those harmonics, sadly I don't have a whammy bar, but I'm so obsessed over Dimebag's techniques, that I've learned where those super high notes are, all by myself. Great video!

This is really cool!

I enjoy dime squeals and doing them from his old guitar world lessons made me learn to grab them in very high registers as well as down the neck. Hitting squeals at the 15th and up is great fun. Very little practical use in songwriting of course though! 😅😂

One interesting thing I learned from a Sam Coulson video is that all those harmonics are mirrored from the 12th fret to the bridge, if you want to create them up there

lots of harmonics near the bridge also-- tons all over the place--satch made a map of them all in his guitar secrets book which im lucky to have

You're the best!

It's wild that the further down the fretboard you go, the harmonics get higher in pitch. Thanks Mike, for the lesson! Rock on my friend! ♥🎸🤘😝🤘

awesome guitar dude

Dude! That was my first tab book too! Had to have been '92 or '93 when I bought it🙌

This is a wonderful topic to me. Rock On! 🤘🤘🤘🎸🎸🎸

I'm pretty sure 2 is the EVH Horsie winnie sound.

Sweet guitar

Cool video, Daniel-San.

I remember not understanding how pinch harmoics work back when I was 13 and into Slipknot, so I just played something about 3.2 or 2.6 natural harmonic instead of that pinch one in Psychosocial.

This is all relatively simple mathematics(just dividing the string into shorter fractions, just like each fret goes a little bit higher). The closer you get to the nut(or the bridge), the shorter the vibration of the string, the flesh of the finger is simply creating a node point. And not to dismiss what the video creator said "there's a few more", but rather to expand on it. Technically there are an infinite amount of harmonics and sub harmonics. One could theoretically make any pitch within the audible spectrum and even beyond... Think about a dog whistle for example, we can't hear them but they're piercing to a dog because they are able to hear higher pitches than we are.

Awesome video (as usual)! Could you maybe do a video about level 2 practice routine in the future?

I think the most famous use of harmonics (To me) is "Tubular Bells" by _Mike Oldfield_ . The start of Side B is all harmonics. Probably the greatest 70's Album, full stop.

good video...i can use this a lot...

Flying in a Blue Dream? Cool. That was the very first CD I ever bought.

charlie watts ... r.i.p.

When hearing guitar screams , it always takes me back to twisted metal head on extra twisted addition

It's a great way to tune your guitar

3.2 is also a pretty cool one. That's what Dave Mustaine uses in the galloping riff towards the end of Holy Wars.

You had me at Dimebag

I am going to practice the shit out of this at 3am

Try the natural harmonic on the 10th fret G string. It gets super high. Tricky to hit though. Gotta dip the bar a little bit.

Doing this with my schecter with a sustaniac and floyd is awesome

more gain and a good gate , and dime would dive then let the trem back up while very smoothly using a whammy pedal to raise about 2 octives, you can slso flick the string with you fret hand in position ond just barely touch the string in the first 3 fret area, i can get harmonics all over the strings, nut to bridge.btw , the bridge pickup works better

That's great! I was 19 when that album was released. Great album! My first was VH ll

The squeals in the beginning have a quality similar to Paul Gilbert’s Portland were wolves song.

Could you do a video on the relationships of the harmonic positions to the string they are on? For example is the 5th fret harmonic the flat 3rd of the string its played on (purely an example, not tried it)? What about 2.4 or pinch harmonics too? Id like to be able to know where to fret or pick to get an in key harmonic without it being trial and error or just knowing after 20 years of ear training. Thanks dude you are a great teacher!

Omg I wish a had that guitar 😭

Theres a video of dimebag showing a different way to do them without picking. he just drops the wammy bar all the way down until the strings are floppy, flicks the G string with his left hand, then taps it and pulls the wammy bar up to sound the harmonic.

Jesus dude, i saw the KH signature white zombie guitar at a guitar center in boston, its my favorite one of hammett's guitars, I'm jealous lmao

Ive been trying to grab those decimal harmonics for ages not realizing decimal harmonics existed. I was kinda just adjusting by feel and my ear and figuring something was "off" about my guitar that they werent over a fret.

I remember the first time I saw decimals was in the tab for The Smashing Pumpkins “Zero”. Pre-internet me didn’t know what to do 😆

For those who want to do it with just the bar, dive the bar down then with your fret hand, grab the harmonic. It'll take a bit of practice, try doing it slow first

My favorite harmonics although they're so hard to pull off cause you have to very very lightly touch the strings but 3rd fret b string and 1st fret high e string. Try it,they're high pitched af and with some tremelo bar they fricking scream

Next up - shifted harmonics in the middle of death-metal riffs, where you hold down a fret with the index finger, and play a shifted natural harmonic with the ring-finger or pinkie (or as a pinch harmonic), then bend with the index finger... still don't have that down as much as I'd like.

Frets 4, 9, and 16 has the same harmonic pitch if I'm not wrong. But altogether, this was a great summary. I didn't know about these 2.4 and 2.6 type of things.

"All valley" nice nood!

Great lesson and shirt 👍🏻lol

Huh. I honestly watched this just for the hell of it, but I actually learned something, and was able to immediately apply it, albeit only in theory. Not able to do so in practice atm. But, I remember when looking at tabs for the Killswitch Engage cover of Holy Diver, I saw little numbers in parentheses where there were harmonics, i.e. a 3 and then a subscript (4.5), though typing that out, I'm confused all over again... Maybe I just misread the tabs and need to look again. Back to Nik Nocturnal's vid, I guess lmao Edit: did misread, but only in that it says 3(5 4) and I can't see a decimal? Either way, I'm very confused, once again

Exxxcellent ! How u get that looong sustain ...? !

You can also harmonic on the 20th fret.

7 minute abs I mean lesson videos. That’s a fun premise. Try this and go explore. 👍

Thanks for the video very informative and easy to understand, is there a particular guitar which is suitable for playing the screaming and what effect is recommended, thanks

showin off the new geetar

Always liked 3 g from dokken unchain the night such a killer harmonic

Teaching a kid how to do this is a surefire way to get them permanently grounded from ever playing guitar again. Also, a great way to teach them decimals in Math.

"Use the tremolo bar..." Me playing my telecaster..."what bar again?"

damn thats so high

Hi Mike, can you do a review of rattlehead by megadeth

I didn’t even know those unique kinds of harmonics were that scientific ! 🤔🎸

Like your chuck Norris top

I think Cemetery Gates is on the 3rd fret for the final note, isnt it?

Fun fact: for the Bon Jovi fans 12th 7th 5th frets are the harmonics before the solo for Livin on a prayer

One of my favorite one is 17th fret of the G and B string together hit with the bar dropped and slowly raising the bar! almost sounds like a siren for referance it was used in the solo for Hellhounds on my Trail by Cob Here it is: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9qSIupWxKc8.html

You can also bend your guitars neck while hiting harmonics to do wierd shit with it. Check Rollin cover I did. Great videos man, I enjoyed your channel!

I have a cat that protests and sits on me when I practice pinch harmonics.

Haaaaaa….. I got the SAME book!!!!!!

Mike, you have perfect, clear, soloing high gain here. May I ask for the signal chain, please?

Darell used wha to extend the pitch

Great explanation and although I learned these myself as well, I would like to see you talking about how to set up your guitar to get the super high pitched ones 3, 2.7, 2.5, 1.7 because I seem to have a problem executing those on command. Is my guitar not set up correctly? I have 3 guitars and in one guitar I can hit the high pitched harmonics, but not on my other guitar. Can anyone shed some light on this matter. Very much appreciated if you do.