Whats the name of this technique and where's a good video to learn it?

Matt300ZXT

Matt300ZXT

Well-known member
I've seen Eddie do it some and a bunch of other guys. Basically they'd be trilling a note, like a 0-2 hammer/pull thing to fill in a section of a solo, but the right hand has your finger sliding down the string towards the neck with the palm facing the body of the guitar and it's making harmonic sounding noises.
 
Sykes and Satriani do it as well… big hair 80s trick. The key is to keep your left hand trill consistently timed or it sounds shitty.
 
Dunno what it's called, but that's exactly the technique.

You're hitting harmonics as you very lightly slide your finger down the string while trilling or doing pull offs.. Just like playing an open string harmonic- that's the amount of pressure you're using.
 
Make the trill as percussive as you can, hammer and pull it hard. I use just my right pinky to slide up down, you want the harmonics to pop so you want just the right amount of pressure. Also the harmonics are better at certain places on the fretboard. You can often find a short section on the fretboard that has a bunch of cool harmonics all close to each other. You can just go back and forth over that section.

Also, try a three note pull off too. So 5-2-open or something like that. I think that’s the one at end of the solo to Somebody Get Me a Doctor.
 
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I think Vai once referred to it as "ponies on ice" in a Guitar World article? Maybe it wasn't Vai, but I read that expression somewhere
I use a light touch with the palm my picking hand, rather than the fingers...
 
So however the right hand is positioned, it's the flesh of the finger, not the pick doing anything? And it's light pressure, just like I would use with my left hand to sound a natural harmonic? I think I can play around with that bit of info today and see if I can get it to work. Hopefully my modded Marshall patch on my Katana has enough gain for that....I can't exactly crank my tube amps on the apartment 😔
 
Matt300ZXT said:
So however the right hand is positioned, it's the flesh of the finger, not the pick doing anything? And it's light pressure, just like I would use with my left hand to sound a natural harmonic? I think I can play around with that bit of info today and see if I can get it to work. Hopefully my modded Marshall patch on my Katana has enough gain for that....I can't exactly crank my tube amps on the apartment 😔
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Not the pick (though you can fake a phase/flange effect by moving your pick hand and not quite hitting the artificial harmonic).

You want to to use light pressure, just your finger or the "meaty" part of the palm of your hand (the part that hits the desk when you lay your hand down)
 
Not an official or ‘dictionary’ term, but I always remember guys calling that ‘rolling harmonics.’ I love the Vai ‘Ponies on Ice’ reference!

I find the meat of the side of my hand near the palm / wrist is wide enough that I’m choking the harmonics out as fast as I’m hitting them. No good. I found the best results doing them like SpiderWars explained. The side of the pinky is a thin enough area that it triggers the harmonics without simultaneously choking them out.
 
Panhead5 said:
I see guys do that effortlessly and I can’t seem to master it.
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There are certain techniques that sound so horrible when you’re experimenting that it’s hard to just pound away at it for a long time. This is one of them. Meanstreets intro is another.
 
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