The SECRET to Mastering Pinch Harmonics!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- Perfecto De Castro shows me how to step up my pinch harmonics game... and how to nail them every single time!
Reaper skin is "Fusion Beta"
Subscribe to SpectreSoundStudios and help the channel grow!
More subs=more of the most honest music gear reviews on TH-cam! bit.ly/1SfU1m4
Pinch Harmonics Timestamps
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:42 Talking Technique
00:01:17 Perfecto´s Perfect Pinch Harmonics
00:01:44 Showing the technique
00:03:02 Glenn testing Pinch Harmonics
00:04:23 Gelnns wisdom about learning
00:04:39 improving technique
00:06:22 closing the video
About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
![CAMPปลิ้น | EP.75[2/2] คุยแบบนี้แล้วจะจบกี่โมงพ่ะย่ะค่ะ!!!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/N6E8njWH7Zg/mqdefault.jpg)
I have a feeling of pride watching Glen improve his guitar playing. It‘s like looking up to your cool older brother, and being amazed at his new skills!
Eww
🤣
He wins, we win.
Best way to learn to pinch with consistency once you have grasped the basics is to practice unplugged or using an acoustic. If you can pinch clean then once effects are added you will scream - rather than adding gain and treble and hoping it works if you learn to do it with consistency you can pinch with any guitar and any tone.
Perf De Castro is an absolute legend!
wrote the best pinoy guitar solos in songs such as 214, Awit ng Kabataan and Kaleidoscope World.
I love how Glenn is always pushing himself. Keep killing it friend!
That was actually the way I learned it. It's so interesting to see different approaches and why certain techniques work better than others.
Great video. Glenn. It's good for people to see someone who's a really good player show they struggle too. It's a great lesson for everyone. It reminds me of when I was giving the son of a friend of mine, who was about a million times better player than I am, a lesson in how to do pinch harmonics. It was funny to me because I was doing it in front of his bandmates during a practice session and I was the "old guy" at 40-something and they were snickering at me, and (worse) ribbing the kid about not being able to pull off pinch harmonics. I pulled a few squeals, including that "No More Tears" riff and his bandmates were like "Daaaaamn..." and were asking for tips. By the end of the lesson, the kid was markedly improved. I made a point to his bandmates (kept it cool, not a lecture) to never be afraid to ask for help or discount who it comes from.
Deep respect to you Mr Fricker! Yeah, I started learning pinch harmonics about 7 years ago! Its FUCK frustrating when you are TRYING! Stop trying! You know what you want, you kinda know how to do it, stop thinking about it and practice without thinking! I am no shredder, more a Pentatonic Blues grandpa, but, throw some pinch harmonics into your pentatonic blues and you suddenly become a guitar hero in your own lifetime!!!
I’ve been playing for 15 years and I’ve only just started to grasp pinch harmonics. I can do a bevy of other cool tricks but I’ve always had trouble with pinch harmonics for whatever reason.
I'm the opposite. Got PH pretty much straight away when learning guitar, I just can't grasp things like sweeping at all even years down the line 😤
@@PC85X Hey man, only thing I can sweep is the floor.
@@TylerJohnstonGuitar haha, glad the struggle is universal ✌️😂
Pinch harmonics are like snowboarding. At first you'll struggle with them and find them tremendously frustrating, but then all of the sudden it will just "click" and it'll be as though you have always known how to do them.
God I hope you are right! 😂
Same for slap on bass guitar! 😀
Same technique I've been using for years. You can get some mean harmonics that way. I would practice it on an acoustic guitar when I was first learning how to do them. If you can pul them off on an acoustic, you can get them to scream on anything.
I feel like perfecto is a good teacher and you being as descriptive as you are taught me watching this once.
I also like to think of the harmonic nodes as the fretboard extending all he way to the bridge. There's no physical difference between pinch harmonics and natural harmonics, only the way you hit the actual node. Touching your thumb to the string does the exact same job as if you were playing a natural harmonic at the 12th fret, 7th fret, 5th etc, and I see so many people explaining pinch harmonics as "You just touch the string with the fleshy part of your thumb, bro" and people being utterly confused as to why it isn't working, leading to them thinking they're muting the string with their thumb and pulling away as fast as they can thinking that is the problem.
Maybe a better way of saying it is that Pinch harmonics are just harmonics not starting with an already ringing string, or on an already ringing string to change it's note. Harmonics are whole number divisions of the string length, so the most obvious one is the open string divided by two, so a perfect octave of an open string is right over the 12th fret give a few hairs forward because of compensation for intonation. Over the 24th fret, 4 divisions, the next higher octave. That makes the touch point a "node" in a wave, and since at the 12th fret you now have two full waves on one string length it makes a harmonic with both in unison, at the 24th, 4 waves. Any other pure divisions between any length of string which of course changes when fretting notes, can be broken into equal divisions of note intervals and octaves thereof. The more accurately touched or pinched (same thing) over a node, the more likely you will get one to ring loud and clear. If you are a bit off, the string will naturally settle into equal divisions,but with a tiny delay and less energy, but too far off you don't get one, which is less of an issue closer to the bridge.
To find them you can literally use a tape measure and basic math. It really gets interesting and musically sweet/wicked when using off octave divisions (3,5,6,7,9...) and since there are higher number divisions much closer together near the bridge they come in higher octaves, and it's easier to get one aiming randomly, but harder to control which one you get (surprise surprise!). It gets much harder to intentionally get a specific harmonic on demand over an area you have no good visual que like a fret to aim for, for that you need to have a consistent picking hand position, and lots of practice so it gets stored in muscle memory. It's how Perfecto is able to just pump out a series of harmonic notes and octaves thereof on demand, as if it was no big thing.
Also: You can get the desired harmonic at any node, so a division by 4 gives you 3 nodes, over an open string, that's one over the 5th, 12th, and 24th fret, any which one will have the very same effect. Once you have a harmonic ringing, you can change its note by touching the string at a node of a different note, so change a 5th into a 7th or 9th...
funny thing for me was that when i first started practicing pinch harmonics this way i had the same issue and got frustrated and figured out i could get the same sounds using the palm of my picking hand to hit those sweet spots as i picked the string. now i've mastered it to the point that i've never used the regular way of pinch harmonics. still cant do them to this day but i can do my technique in my sleep lol. thats the beauty of the guitar, you can get so many sounds out of it just by experimenting!
That's way too complicated, just throw a capo on whatever fret you'll be playing and find exactly where to pinch with your left hand
You can’t get a natural harmonic on every fret
@@tommilitello198 Where did anyone say you could?
Hey Glenn, after you get the picking technique down right don’t forget to put some elbow grease into bending the string properly to complete the clean and wide sounding vibrato effect. Cheers!
Perf is one my early guitar heroes. However, it was only sort of recently that I really appreciated his being such a virtuoso and a technical master. And it came at the perfect time, when I was relearning guitar, and trying to learn in a more formal manner.
Glen, I learned this by myself when I was 9 years old, jamming in my living room. You can have it mastered in like 30 seconds.
True, but mastering pinch harmonics isn't as easy as it looks. Throwing a pinch harmonic into alternate picking, especially the upstroke, is particularly difficult.
Pinch harmonics are easy. Good pinch harmonics are hard.
I learned how to pinch harmonic by accident way back when. I was learning the opening solo to wish you were here when I was a kid and I kept pinch harmonicing one of the strings and I thought it sounded better that way. Then I realized i could recreate that everywhere.
The biggest help for me was finally realizing that other people choke up way higher on their picks than I do. Moving my thumb closer to the end helped a lot.
This was a great vid. I've always played pinch harmonics by digging in and it did definitely interrupt my picking flow. Tried this a few times and was actually blown away by it. Love it and now I'm practicing this technique actually tried it at my bands gig last night and nailed a few awesome squeals. Thanks for the great content.
Awesome video Glenn!
Whoa Glenn, that's so awesome you got Perf Castro on your show. He's like the Guthrie Govan of the Philippines man.
Perf is awesome!
What an exceptionally good episode.
Thank You.
Great episode. Just working on pinch harmonics myself. I’m trying to make them happen when I want not by random chance. This was the best explanation “how to” I’ve come across do far.
Which is funny because it's not a dedicated video for it
WONDERFUL !!!!! Subed Perfecto
PERFECT VIDEO IT FINALLY HELPED ME UNLOCK THIS SKILL!! ILL WORK ON THEM A LOT FROM NOW ON
This helps alot. Thank you!
No one ever taught me pinch harmonics so I had to figure it out on my own in my 1980s bedroom and I found the most natural way for me is to use the first joint of my index finger. It seems more fluid with a downward pick slant to me.
Brilliant!
I couldnt thank these gentleman enough. This did it for me.
Great information. ❤
I definitely needed to see this
Playing with a Dunlop stubby 3mm for a couple hours helped me get that pick/thumb action down.
The drone shots were amazeballs!
Great video, subbes to perfecto. Thanks for the tips.
Just finding that sweet spot...whoooooa! Awesome.
i like that harley benton is standing next to engl think is gonna be one of the best YT video ever ! 3:22 secret HERE!!
Hey Glen, I love your videos, especially your brutal honesty haha. A comment very off topic that I've been trying to restrain myself from doing but have to. I have the same watch as you do! or at least looks very similar. Mine is a Timex Ironman Triathlon T5E901. I've loved the Ironman Triathlon since about 1999 when I got the first one. I'm wearing my third one now. I like that they are tough but not as bulky as the Casio G-Shock that are so popular. They have bigger numbers (when you enter your 40s you really start appreciating that), and the Indiglo lighting is amazing. Anyway, that's the comment off topic. Keep up the great content! Oh and Perfecto is really cool, I found his videos when I was looking for a budget multieffects pedal and saw his video about the NUX MG-30 that I ended up buying last year. Cheers!
I have watched so many damn fucking videos on pinch hermonics and could never get it but as soon as I tried resting the pick on the next string after stoking the note I got it. Bro thank you
That’s so cool ❤
Oh, good, this is how I hold my pick, and how I do pinch harmonics. I have it down, already, but I watched out of curiosity. Listen to this man, his method works!
Cool of Henning to rent this island from its owner, whose main gig is presumably as a villain in a James Bond movie
Glenn you beast!!
Jaja! Niice! I accidentally discovered this technique when I was starting out at 15, and it helped me stand out from the rest of the beginners.
Glenn! Now in stereo!
I would honestly recommend to learn how to execute the Pinch Harmonic technique without the aid of a pick
and yes, it is possible
That way if you Drop your only Pick on Stage just before your Solo Shred, You'd be able to carry on just as seamlessly with your Invisible Plectrum and your Audience and Bandmates wouldn't be able to hear the difference.
COOL Thanks fellas
Good job Glenn! Keep at it and you'll get your rhythm. When you do the vibrato, try not to do the traditional up and down bending on it. Try using more of the middle/middle right edge of your finger. You'll get a wider vibrato and longer sustain. Keep it up dude!
tbh I didn't think that the technique behind pinch harmonics was such a mystery. The only hard thing at first (and in my experience it varies a bit on each guitar) is to find the right spot on the string to really let the harmonic ring.
I like to point the thumb a bit more downwards when doing a pinch harmonic, makes it kind of easier for me.
Oh nice. This was how my guitar teacher taught me pinch harmonics oh so many years ago. I never understood why some of my friends struggled with the technique. Now I think I get it. They learned or were taught a harder way to pull them off.
Hey Glenn, I've been thinking about that cover you did of N.I.B in a video, and thought it would be a cool idea to turn that into a series. Sort of a tone hunting series where you take a look at albums and recreate tones with speakers, cabs, effects, etc.
Why not check out the Circle Of Tone channel? He does that for a bunch of metal albums.
@@rk28984 oh neat, I'll check it out
It also helps to have lots of gain when pinching. Keep it up and you'll be a regular Zakk Wylde. It becomes difficult to resist the urge to pinch.
I must say I was quite surprised that I do my pinch harmonics the way described in the video, I was expecting to be doing something wrong (I usually am when it comes to guitar lol).
Good to see Glen improving and listening to other players input to progress in his playing journey.
Glens house the whole next month. Pure harmonics. Lmao 😅😅. Love it.
no fucking way did you get it that fast ! well even if you did have a day to practice , dude my hats off to you , im going to watch this again plus checking out this cat cool shit thankss
Now lets see Glen attempt to play La Grange.
Nice
I know the Tagalog word is not "quack-quack" 🤣
Glen, pinch harmonics are like good quality meterials and pickups, they don't matter! Remember? All you need is a stick glued to a cracker and a good speaker! Then your harmonics will rock!
½ of the signature of the Dimebag scream is engaging a wah to capture high sonic frequencies, the other half is the "dump and flick."
Love a good pinched harmonic ❤️
To change the timbre of the ring out, try angling the pick in different ways, all the way from flat against the string, to 90 degrees.
Wow! This has been my technique since I first started doing pinch harmonics! At least I'm doing something right! Lol 🥴
That guy's swing form is perfect. Ah yes, these two were awesome too.
Just catch a bawhair of the thumb right after the pick. That’s using Scottish terminology. Pinch harmonics are one of life’s greatest joys 🥳
i used to play natural harmonics with hammer on bends to squeal. had to trade that technique to a master shredder to learn pinched harmonics properly.🍻
Great video! Whenever I try pinch harmonics, it seems like my success is dependent on how the quantum state of the string feels like at that moment lol
Nice! I find there’s a timing of when you hit the string and the fret as well so the left hand has something to do with it as well. It’s a LOT tougher to perfect than people think.
There is always that timing, whether pinching harmonics, or just picking a string for a note. You can't get the desired note unless your fretting hand is fretting the note already, which even if a micro second of difference has to come first. The fretting hand establishes the root note, and the harmonic, whether pinched or just touched is any whole number division of the remaining string length between the bridge and held fret, and so either an octave, a 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, or 11th note. See music theory and the circle of 5ths.
@@Bob-of-Zoid honestly I’ve also found some cool results by sometimes picking the string right before I press the note like a millisecond or less. But yeah I’m not a guitarist haha.
@@CreativeMindsAudio Picking a note, and then fingering one higher up while it's still ringing is called a "Hammeron", because instead of picking you are using the force of your fretting finger to get the note at a good volume. The opposite is a "Pulloff" because you are pulling a finger off a fretted note to get a lower one. Both allow one to play notes you can finger faster than you can pick, but also don't have the picking sound, and therefore have a smoother transition. Look for a video of the 80's band Cocophony with Jason Becker playing guitar with one hand and playing with a Yo yo with the other at the same time! It's all hammeron's and pulloffs. Paul Gilbert is the other guitarist of this shred band, and both are utterly amazing players, even if you don't like hair metal. Shortly after that Jason was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and lost all ability to play guitar, and has since lost all control of his deteriorating muscles.😢 He can't even breathe on his own anymore, but is a trooper for sure, and has written music for others to play.
@@Bob-of-Zoid ok first off i think you misunderstood what i was saying. as i'm well aware of what a hammer on and pulloff is. I'm just not too talented lol. I started playing guitar in the 90s myself, just never kept up practicing or lessons cause i got very into audio and distracted by it hehe. and i really only learned guitar to play my original songs i wrote on the computer.
also jason becker is an insane guitarist! so sad about the ALS, been following him since the myspace days or earlier.
Glen, would you be doing a shootout between a guitar with a Bridge+Neck Pickup vs just a Bridge Pickup? I heard that it makes a difference in sound due to the magnets of the other pickups.
It'll come! Now you just need to learn how to do a soulful vibrato instead of the fast twitchy one. Cool vid! Thanks!
Hey glenn. Could you review the new Ephiphone's Korinas? They realesed a V and a Explorer. They look great and ive seen good reviews, but id like to see your take! Its 1300USD for a Epiphone so its a little bit on the pricer side of things.
I always catch it with the base of my nail on my index finger. That's how I did it the 1st few times and that's how I've done it for 20 years.
I actually usually use my third finger for "pinch" harmonics--just resting it slightly on the string while I pick.
I was searching pinch harmonic vids out of curiosity because nobody ever taught me how to do them, I discovered it by accident and that thumb method I keep seeing looks like it would be seriously hard to get used to.
I use the part of my finger nailed just before the rest of my finger (in the direction of the knuckle)
Think about how you hold your pick and the direction your hand and fingers move with the pick.
You can catch the string with that part of your nail on your index finger with relative ease.
I can squeal on an acoustic and I scream on a dirty channel.
Masterrr Perrffff and Master Glen \m/
Using a pick like a Jazz III or one with avery sharp point will make it easier as well.
Woop WOOP, I use that exact same technique. I accidently figured it out....fuck 22 years ago, in high school.
first time ever hearing someone else describe it like this
Hey, Glenn, could you maybe do a video on Active vs Passive pickups? I know you already did a video on debunking tone from pickups, but i just want to see you explore the claims of people saying that Active pickups are better for metal because they sound tighter and produce less noise when put through high gain. Is there any truth to that? Thanks🤘🏼
Much love and fuck you Glen! Good job on those harmonics! I’m learning from this too.
Just thinking about how the amp/speaker affects the guitar tone so much, how does that apply to harsh vocals? Listening to "live" takes from Andy Cizek (of Monuments), I can't tell how much is just pure 100% talent/technique/practice and where some of the amp/mic etc. comes into play to give him such a phenomenal range. Highly suggest CARDINAL RED (Official One-Take Vocal Performance) for an example. Love your work
I think a lot of people noticed the funny look on Perfecto's face and kind of the funny way he changed his voice when saying "pinch" harmonics. This may very well be due to how they are often referred to in the pacific and south china sea region. This story isn't going to win any SJW points but it is what it is. This community was not so into pop metal or mainstream stuff so much (even though of course we have notable exceptions like the new Journey singer and piles of Scorpions tribute bands), but were much more into the early versions of proto thrash and hardcore punk. The first time most of us heard artifical or pinch harmonics or whatever, were of course the only people many thought really represented us, East Phillipines'(san fransisco's) own Death Angel. We didn't know what they were called, just the sound the philipino metal bands made.....And then Danzig's Twist of Cain hit the scene. IMMEDIATELY and forever, the sound of this technique was coined, in all tribute to the philipino bands making them "Bukbuk Harmonics". I still hear the term used to this day in Hawaii. One of our rock 'zines asked one of the guys in Death Angel was asked about it and he had hear dit for years and asked "but my grandma speaks tagalog, why would you say bukbuk?" Pretty sure the name is going to stick for all eternity
Back in high School (early 1970s) a friend explained about using the thumb for pinch harmonics. ZZ Top had the big hit with La grange and everyone loved those harmonics at the end of the tune. Play on, Glenn
I learned pinch harmonics 25 years ago, before the wonders of the online instructional video. I actually play mine on the upstroke, and trigger the harmonic with the tip of my middle finger. (I also don't hold a pick correctly either, lol.) Strangely, my pinch harmonics are super consistent regardless. I really want to learn them the proper way, so I can throw them in on both the up and down stroke. The problem is, I'm super inconsistent with them, and get frustrated and quit trying, because I'd rather just play them the way that works for me, than spend the little free time I have to play, learning the proper way to do something I already do well, just differently. Maybe someday when I have more free time on my hands...
I had a roommate who did them much the same way you do and he couldn't do the thumb thing if his life depended on it. Whatever works, right?!
I'm usually choked way up on the pick so there's just a little nubbin sticking out. That way you just rock your thumb towards the neck a little and you're on it.
Though if you're holding your pick in a way other than curled index with thumb laying on top, you might have a bigger hill to climb to get there.
@@rainbowkrampus 100% I almost push down as I pick so my thumb lands on the string and stays put.
0:31 Did he say pek pek ? Perfecto > Pekpekto Lmao
🤘 🎸 nice
Nice axe he’s playing!
Took me 6 solid months of trying everyday for hours. Wanted to break my guitar several times. One day I just could do it anywhere on the neck.
I'm missing something. How do you know exactly where to pick and touch the string for a given note? I can only do it semi-reliably if I touch the string over a fret high on the fretboard while fingering the note a fifth or an octave down. Also it seems weird and wrong to pick right by where your thumb is about to touch... I usually touch the string with my extended forefinger while picking with the side of my thumbnail 2 or 3 inches higher up....
Picking in a particular place stimulates mostly the harmonics where the string has high excursion there, and touching the string there tends to kill exactly the same harmonics, not the ones that have node there. (So, for example, if you pick an open string at the 12th fret, you're stimulating the fundamental and other odd partials, which is basically the opposite of touching the string there, which kills the fundamental and odd partials, and leaves only the even partials, which don't go up and down over the 12th fret.)
Doing it my way, I'm thinking of drawing extra "frets" and fret markers on my Strat pickguard, so I can play somewhat higher up the neck and still see where to touch the string an octave up. But if there's a better system, I'd like to understand what it is and how to actually do it.
I learned how to pull these off messing up learning how to solo😅
Yes.. Yes.. Teach us all the secrets.. We's are hungry for knowledges...
Was this when you visited PH ?
Tommy Victor of Prong is the king of the pinched harmonic.
As someone who spent way to much time listening to Black Label Society when I was really practicing and learning like 15 years ago, I figured this out and now I can selectively squeal just about any note in a riff at whim, even in faster riffs. I forgot this was a thing people have trouble with.
Same, I hear you and I feel you, just good dirty clean fun.
Now to Pinch Harmonics on Bass
As long as ive been watchin you didnt have to go around the world to gilligans island to half learn this.
Pekpekto 🤣🤣
In any case, #InPerfWeTrust
Oh yeah, it's 100% fun seeing your guitar progress. Feel better soon 👍
Would be more useful if there was close-ups showing you how to do it not expecting people to guess
RIP CGS Mike one of the best is gone. LG Detlev
The trick is, learn to tune using those, always tuning, always learning.
wow this is a drastically more effective way for doing harmonics!! Don't have to change your whole form to do them
I would try different pickups. Lol.
Nice, I am not the best guitar player out there these days mainly for the lack of practice but for some reason I mastered pinch harmonics a while back while learning to play. No one taught me it was a total accident how I figured the same technique by hitting the strings with my thumb while trying to play normally.
Same here. My friend who was teaching me guitar was like, "How are you doing that?"