More places to play natural harmonics on the bass

The most common places to play natural harmonics, are at the 12th fret, 7th fret, and 5th fret. Practice playing the harmonics on all of the strings at these frets. There are more places to play harmonics, and you will be learning them soon enough. But work on getting a good sound on these first.

Tips on getting a better sound when playing natural harmonics

• Try to use as small a part of the tip of your left hand finger as possible.
  
• Flip to different pickups and see which one sounds the best with harmonics on your particular bass.

How natural harmonics work

OK, now you have a basic understanding of how to play natural harmonics. Now lets take a look at how they are created, and some other places that you can get natural harmonics to ring.

Normally when you play the note at the 12th fret on any string, you are shortening the length of the string that is ringing and getting a higher pitch. The string is only ringing from the fret bar that your are pressing down at, to the bridge. On the other hand, if you are playing the 12th fret harmonic, the string is actually ringing on both sides of where you are touching. The only part of the string that is not ringing is where you were touching the string. The point of the string that is not ringing is called the node. The string is ringing in 2 divided sections.

Page 2, How harmonics look in tablature and standard notation

Page 4, more places to play natural harmonics on the bass