PREMIERCLINIC
F INGERSTYLE
Stephen Bennett’s FingerstyleFinesse
Fingerstyle Harmonics
This month, we’re going to revisit the tune “Burnside,” which we
learned in full last month, but we’re going to use it to explore
the world of harmonics. You should consider harmonics just
another spice in your musical stew; when used sparingly, they
can add some delicious variety and texture to your music. A
complete understanding of harmonics requires a bit of knowledge about the mechanics of sound, so we’ll just touch on the
basic principles here – if you’re truly interested in learning the
ins and outs of harmonics, a simple internet search will turn up
thousands of resources.
Simply put, when you hear a note played, you are actually hearing
a sound wave, which consists of several frequencies moving simultaneously. Each of these frequencies has a mathematical relation-
ship to each other, and they are called “harmonics.” All together,
they are called a “harmonic series.” When you strike an open
guitar string, you are hearing what is called the “fundamental,”
or the lowest frequency of a harmonic series. Other harmonics of
this note are present as the string vibrates, but your ear cannot
distinguish them.
Because of the design of a guitar’s string, we are in a unique
position to eliminate the fundamental, and only hear the upper
harmonics, which sound pure and bell-like when done properly.
You can remove the fundamental and create harmonics on your
guitar by lightly touching a string directly over certain frets
(again, it’s all math). At the 12th fret, you can hear the second
harmonic, which is twice the frequency of the fundamental and
