Why does it sound good when you get a little fingernail on the string while picking?

[sharks]

It makes a great sound, can't really describe it. I know I have heard Robbie Robertson do it, and Billy Gibbons. Not sure if this is a well known technique or not but I've been doing it a lot lately and love the way it sounds. I use the fingernail of my middle finger on my picking hand, just kind of lightly resting it right behind the point of my pick so my fingertip/nail will be ever so slightly touching the string when I pick. First, does this have a name? Second, why does it sound so good?

[russ6100]

I think it's something nearly everyone discovers - that you can gain control of all sorts of nuances by progressively choking up on the pick, and when done to the extreme, you get the various "pinch" harmonics.

Sometimes I feel a bit jealous that sax players have so much more nuance / articulation available to them, but pinch harmonics are exclusively a stringed instruments domain (or are they?)

[Sensible Musician]

yeah i get jealous of the dynamic range most wind instruments have. still wouldn't trade guitar tho

btw wind players use similar phenomena of physics to get their harmonics for every tone - they have to select "partials" with their embouchure. it's just easy on guitar - i imagine they are jealous of us on that one : )

i love how strings react so much to different materials and touches. i recently switched to v-picks from tortex jazziii and it makes such a difference in the sound quality.

something i want to experiment with more is different damping materials. e.g. i use a foam scrap of a typist's hand rest under the strings of my main bass for a synthy sound - it's so great and low tech. i want to experiment more with all of it

oh yeah - as to the OP's why. i have a guess: i wonder if the second contact doesn't dirty up the uniform vibration of the string. like the way a pinch harmonic isolates a particular harmonic node...

i bet there's a physics guy hanging around here who can fill us in...

[2leod]

What you are hearing falls into the catch basin quality of sound known as timbre, and more specifically the attack of the note -




Attack is a big part of what we hear when listening to music, if you take waveforms of the same note by different instruments and chop the attack, they become tougher to distinguish one from another. I'm a big fan of the little scritch fingernails bring to the party, a pick feels limiting a bunch of times when I play!

[buddastrat]

Pick harmonics, are everywhere. Most use their thumb. But you can do it in the classical style or like you're doing by hitting the node with a finger behind the pick. I like them when they half come out, like Gibbons or in the Sweet Home Ala. solo. It gives a squawky sound. But how it's done is to just keep picking in the same place and then it's random, some are hit, some missed and some half assed, which gives a mixed effect. Learn where those nodes are, you can hit those sweet spots every time, and then learn to do it with upstrokes as well as downstrokes for fast runs in all harmonics!

[JonR]

If this really is about "pinch harmonics" (which is not quite clear from the OP), the science is that you are bringing out partial vibrations that already exist in the string, by masking other more prominent ones.

The "nodes" - the points you touch, not the points you pick - are always a precise fraction of the vibrating string length; ie the length from bridge to whatever fret you're playing (not the full string length). When you touch those points, you prevent the string vibrating in its normal full manner, but allow it to vibrate in whatever fraction the node point represents, either side of the point where you're touching - which produces a higher note, often much higher (but always fainter).

So the node points vary depending on the fret. That's why players tend to just feel around at random for them - you can't be measuring string lengths and fractions by eye all the time!
The pitches produced by each "partial" (overtone or harmonic) vary. Some will be octaves (1/2, 1/4, 1/8 string length); the others are all different notes, and they are all out of tune, to varying degrees, with tuned pitches. This doesn't worry pinch harmonic aficionados, they just like the squeals they produce: that dramatic effect is more noticeable than any out-of-tuneness.

Here's a list of harmonics of an A note. The harmonic number is the same as the string fraction, so the 2nd harmonic is 1/2, 3rd harmonic is 1/3, etc. (Yes, the "1st harmonic" is actually the full string vibration, the "fundamental". The "2nd harmonic", the octave, is also known as the "1st overtone".)

1x = A (fundamental pitch)
2x = A, octave up
3x = E, 2 cents sharp, octave + 5th up
4x = A, 2 octaves
5x = C#, 14 cents flat, 2 octaves + M3
6x = E, 2 cents sharp, 2 octaves + P5
7x = G (sort of), 32 cents flat, 2 octaves + m7
8x = A, 3 octaves
9x = B, 4 cents sharp, 3 octaves + M2
10x = C#, 14 cents flat, 3 octaves + M3
11x = halfway between D and D#, 3 octaves + 4/#4
12x = E, 2 cents sharp, 3 octaves + P5
13x = halfway between F and F#, 3 octaves plus b6/M6
etc....

...that's already much higher than any pinch harmonics you are likely to be able to find. As the harmonics get higher, and the string fractions get smaller, they get fainter and much harder to bring out (except maybe by accident). Anything above the 5th or 6th harmonic is going to be tough. The 4th produces a good enough squeal in most cases.
Even for the lower ones, you need a good high level of distortion to give them any usable volume. (You can produce "artificial harmonics" on an acoustic, but not easily with the "pinch" technique.)

[buddastrat]

Good point Jon, there's also the chick'n pick'n dead note sound like in the intro of Funk 49. You can use a finger to deaden the string. But I figured it was about harmonics, since he brought Gibbons.

[TheCount0212]

I know exactly what the OP is talking about, but have no idea what to call it. It's like pinched harmonics, only it happens after the note is struck and not instantaneously with it. I call it "accidental harmonics" LOL

If you happen to catch the string right w/ your nail it will alter the vibration and sound really cool.

Best way to do it is to let your middle finger hang down a bit.

[sharks]

Originally Posted by TheCount0212

I know exactly what the OP is talking about, but have no idea what to call it. It's like pinched harmonics, only it happens after the note is struck and not instantaneously with it. I call it "accidental harmonics" LOL

If you happen to catch the string right w/ your nail it will alter the vibration and sound really cool.

Best way to do it is to let your middle finger hang down a bit.

Yup, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Not pinch harmonics.

Edit: Sounds like 2leod knows what I'm talking about too. I appreciate the long reply Jon, but that wasn't what I was saying at all Very interesting read either way

[JonR]

Originally Posted by sharks

Yup, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Not pinch harmonics.

Edit: Sounds like 2leod knows what I'm talking about too. I appreciate the long reply Jon, but that wasn't what I was saying at all Very interesting read either way

Right - I didn't actually think you meant pinch harmonics, but I wasn't sure; and just followed the track the others went down.

But I don't understand what TheCount0212 is talking about - unless you mean a simple buzz that anything lightly touching the string will produce. (If that produces harmonics, then it's the same as pinch harmonics, in effect. If it doesn't, it isn't harmonics; it's just a buzz or rattle.)

Although it may be something different, I'm thinking of the effect in the opening to the Beatles "I Feel Fine", which is the string rattling against the frets as feedback (and resonance inside an acoustic guitar) makes it vibrate more.

I don't suppose you could post an example on youtube?

[eschoendorff]

Can someone post a demo video so I can make sure I understand this sound?

[sharks]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wDwMQVqCc

At about 3:30 you can hear Robbie Robertson doing what I'm talking about. It's a little squeal like sound kind of. I could've linked to the exact spot but I think you should listen to the whole song, it's one of my favorites.

[brianr0131]

Originally Posted by sharks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wDwMQVqCc

At about 3:30 you can hear Robbie Robertson doing what I'm talking about. It's a little squeal like sound kind of. I could've linked to the exact spot but I think you should listen to the whole song, it's one of my favorites.

Those are artificial harmonics or pinch harmonics

[TheCount0212]

No offense, sir, but I certainly know the difference b/w a musical sound and a buzz or a rattle.

Originally Posted by JonR

Right - I didn't actually think you meant pinch harmonics, but I wasn't sure; and just followed the track the others went down.

But I don't understand what TheCount0212 is talking about - unless you mean a simple buzz that anything lightly touching the string will produce. (If that produces harmonics, then it's the same as pinch harmonics, in effect. If it doesn't, it isn't harmonics; it's just a buzz or rattle.)

Although it may be something different, I'm thinking of the effect in the opening to the Beatles "I Feel Fine", which is the string rattling against the frets as feedback (and resonance inside an acoustic guitar) makes it vibrate more.

I don't suppose you could post an example on youtube?

[JonR]

Originally Posted by TheCount0212

No offense, sir, but I certainly know the difference b/w a musical sound and a buzz or a rattle.

Sure - I'd just like a but more explanation of what it is you're actually doing and hearing. I'm not disputing, just curious.
(And buzzes and rattles can still be cool musical sounds. Why else do we use snares on side drums? Or rivets on crash cymbals? Why else do we use distortion on our guitars, instead of nice clean sounds? )