To produce an artificial harmonic, a stringed instrument player holds down a note on the fingerboard or neck with one finger of their frettinghand and uses another finger to lightly touch a point on the string that is an integer divisor of its vibrational length, and plucks or bows the side of the string that is closer to the bridge. This technique is used to produce harmonic tones that are otherwise inaccessible on the instrument. To guitar players, varieties of this technique are known as a pinch harmonic, tapped harmonic, and harp harmonic. "This gives both the electric and the acoustic guitar quite a bit of versatility and sonic flare ." This technique, like natural harmonics, works by canceling out the fundamental tone and one or more partial tones by deadening their modes of vibration. Seenode. It is traditionally notated using three simultaneous noteheads in one stave: a normal notehead for the position of the firmly held finger, a square notehead for the position of the lightly pressed finger, and a small notehead for the resulting pitch. "The usual notation for an artificial harmonic is a solid note for the thumbplacement with a diamondshape note...above it," indicating the node. The most commonly used artificial harmonic, due to its relatively easy and natural fingering, is that in which, "the fourth finger lightly touches the nodal point a perfect fourth above the first finger.," followed by the artificial harmonic produced when, "the fourth finger lightly touches the nodal point a perfect fifth above the first finger," and, "the third finger lightly touches the nodal point a major third above the first finger. "
Detailed explanation
Overtones
When a string is plucked or bowed, the string vibrates at several frequencies. The vibration along the entire length of the string is known as the fundamental, while vibrations occurring between points along the string are referred to as overtones. The fundamental and overtones, when sounded together, are perceived by the listener as a single tone, though the relative prominence of the frequencies varies among instruments, and contribute to its timbre.
Harmonics
s are produced on the instrument by lightly touching a string at any of several points along its length. The fundamental tone will not vibrate; specific overtones, however, will, resulting in a chimelike tone. Harmonics produced by this method based on open-string fundamentals are termed "natural." If the string is fretted, the harmonics are termed "artificial." Natural harmonics may only be sounded at the strings' nodes. The nodes for natural harmonics fall at the following points along the guitar's neck:
