Natural Harmonics are available at certain areas of the guitar fret board. They are sounded by fretting directly above the fret and only press, or lightly hold the finger above the string - don't fret down / press down all the way to the fingerboard.
The strongest place to go for natural harmonics is the 12th fret. This is the place on the guitar having natural harmonics with the highest volume, and strongest harmonic sound. Other harmonics frets include five and seven.
Amp Settings For Best Harmonics
Another important thing about playing pinch harmonics: You'll find that they sound best and are easiest to get when you have your amp set for a high amount of distortion.
Pinch harmonics (sometimes called artificial harmonics) are much more versatile than natural ones. They can be used in more places of a song and can be played anywhere on the neck. For these reasons they are probably more popular on the electric guitar.
The Key To Harmonics
The key to playing good pinch harmonics is to fret the note as usual, then when picking, brush, rub / tap your thumb against the side of the string immediately after picking. It's really done in the same motion: pick and touch the string lightly with your thumb as part of the picking movement.
When playing pinch harmonics, it's very important the location along the string that you do the picking. You'll experiment with different locations along the strings and you'll find three or four "sweet spots" that will give you great harmonic sounds. You can use your pickups as a guide to help you remember the locations of these harmonic sweet spots.
