Jeff Gunn is Juno Award nominated guitarist, songwriter and producer for his work on Emmanuel Jal's The Key (Gatwitch/Universal). He is the author of the Hidden Sounds: Discover Your Own Method on Guitar (Mayfair Music Publications) and a regular “guitar tips” contributor in print and film with Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Guitar World, Canadian Musician, Overdrive (Thailand), and The Guitar Mag (Thailand). He co-wrote the song "Scars" with Jal and Nelly Furtado for the ... (more)
Jeff currently offers 51 guitar lessons at JamPlay, with 51 intermediate lessons.
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This comprehensive course was designed to focus solely on harmonics, 'Discover Harmonics for Advanced Players' teaches guitarists how to include harmonics as a mainstay in their performance through multiple genres. Guitarists will learn how to take a variety of harmonics including natural harmonics, artificial/harp harmonics, percussive harmonics and pinch harmonics to the next level using a range of fingering hand, strumming hand and picking techniques.
Jeff Gunn takes an in-depth look at the world of harmonics. This course is designed for the intermediate to advanced player that is looking to spice up their playing with the addition of harmonics.
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Our first lesson focuses on a variety of approaches to sounding natural harmonics at the 3 most common positions including the 12th, 7th and 5th frets.
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Of course, some natural harmonic locations are not as common, and in this lesson Jeff explores how to sound natural harmonics in other positions including the 2nd, 4th, 9th, 19th frets and over the soundhole
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Now let's take some of the natural harmonic locations we explored in the first two lessons and create a melodic passage from them, using Jeff's song 'Starlight'.
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Artificial harmonics are all about getting used to certain distances on the guitar. In this lesson, we will explore the 12 fret, 7 fret and 5 fret distances required to sound artificial harmonics and the technique used to sound the harmonics.
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Now that we have explored the various distances needed to sound artificial harmonics, will learn how to move between artificial harmonic strumming hand locations in order to develop a sense of fluidity in their movements and musicality.
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Just like we did with natural harmonics, now let's create a melody using artificial harmonics. For this lesson, we will use Jeff's song 'Candle Lanterns'.
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Let's up the challenge of creating melodies with artificial harmonics with Jeff's song 'Luminescence'.
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Artificial harmonics can be used in a variety of different genres. Including pop music as Jeff demostrates here using his song 'The Key'.
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Let's move into some percussive or 'slap' harmonics. This lesson gets you familiar with the technique, and gives you a few different ways to execute it as well!
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Now take the percussive harmonic technique one step further by adding rhythmic accompaniment. Again, we will look at sounding locations at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets.
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This techniques is acheived by executing a 'tapping' motion on a single string above your harmonic locations. Let's look at 12, 7 and 5th fret distances.
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Now Jeff adds rhythmic accompaniment to the single string natural percussive harmonics. It's easy! Keep the beat while tapping on your harmonic locations.
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Putting this technique to practical use now, Jeff explores how to create a melody using percussive natural harmonics by using his song, 'Beginnings'.
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As you might have guessed, it's time to explore artificial percussive harmonics. We start by learning to execute them on a single string.
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This lesson looks at achieving a smoothness and fluidity with your percussive artificial harmonics as you move between the various locations.
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Time to add some rhythmic accompaniment to your percussive artificial harmonics. This will help you to integrate this technique into a more musical and song-like setting.
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Not only can we play single notes with our percussive harmonics, but this technique works great on chords as well! Jeff also adds in some rhythmic accompaniment, to bring this to a more musical place.
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Jeff uses his song 'Angelicus' to demonstrate how you can use percussive artificial harmonics to create melodies in songs.
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Now let's switch over to the electric guitar! Using amp tone and effects can create a fantastic atmosphere in which percussive artificial harmonics really thrive! Jeff uses his song 'Stargazer' to demonstrate.
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Pinch harmonics are generally associated with electric guitar, so let's stay on the electric! Jeff turns up the gain and demonstrates how to get these tricky harmonics to sound!
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Not to say we can't sound pinch harmonics on acoustic guitar! Although a little harder to achieve, Jeff shows that playing pinch harmonics on acoustic is possible!
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Pinch harmonics can add a lot of flavor to your riffs and solos. In this lesson, Jeff plays a few riffs on the electric using pinches along the way.
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Can pinch harmonics be an element in your composing? Absolutely! Jeff shows us how we might purposefully use pinch harmonics when composing riffs or songs.
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As we near the end of the course, let's put all of the techniques we've learned into one piece. Jeff's song 'Beginnings', serves as the vehicle for all of our harmonic techniques!
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Of course, these techniques can also work on the electric guitar as well. In the last lesson of the series, Jeff shows us how to effectively play various harmonic techniques on electric, and how they can take on a new and exciting flavor!
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Perhaps more than any other sound, harmonics reveal the beauty of the guitar. 'Discover Harmonics on the Guitar for Beginners' explores how to sound a variety of harmonics including natural harmonics, artificial/harp harmonics and pinch harmonics using a range of fingering hand, strumming hand and picking techniques.
Perhaps more than any other sound, harmonics reveal the beauty of the guitar. Jeff will discuss the course objectives in this introduction as well as discussing pre-requisites needed to achieve success.
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Let's start with the basics of harmonics! The easiest and most common location to sound natural harmonics is at the 12th fret. Jeff shares a few exercises with us to get this technique down!
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The second easiest and most common location is at the 7th fret. Let's do a similar set of exercises for this location so we can practice how to get that great harmonic sound!
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The 5th fret harmonic location is simply an octave above the 12th fret location. It is however a little tricker to sound. Let Jeff show you some tips and tricks for getting a nice clean sound at this location.
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This lesson focuses on the not so common natural harmonic locations on the guitar. Mainly, the 2nd, 4th, 9th and 19th frets. And although trickier to execute, can really come in handy when you're searching for just the right harmonic sound!
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Now let's look at integrating natural harmonics into a song setting. Jeff will break down a simple chord progressions that includes some natural harmonics, and will give you a chance to practice this with him!
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Let's move on to artificial harmonics! This is a very different technique, and luckily Jeff is quite an expert at it! Join him as he will take you through the basic technique, giving you some 12th fret distance exercises to practice.
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In this lesson, Jeff continues with the 12th fret distance on artificial harmonics, this time in combination with regular notes.
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This technique moves from plucking individual artificial harmonics to strumming across the entirety of the strings to grab our favorite chords!
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Now let's practice grabbing artificial harmonics while changing positions on the left hand.
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Just like with natural harmonics, the 7th fret, or 7th fret distance in the case of artificial harmonics, its one of the more easily accessed points on the guitar. Join Jeff for several exercises to get the technique under your fingers.
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Now let's explore the 7th fret distance while also using regular fretted notes. Just like with the 12th fret distance, this combination technique opens lots of possibilitites on your instrument!
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And also just like the 12th fret distance, we now move to accessing chords as artificial harmonics.
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We rarely if ever stay in one postition on the guitar, so it's important to learn how to move between positions while still accessing your artificial harmonics. The exercises in this lesson will help you grasp this idea!
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Let's move on to our artificial harmonics with a 5th fret distance. These can be tricky but very rewarding as it takes the register of your guitar to a rare level!
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The super high octave of a 5th fret distance provides a chime or harp-like effect. Even more so when combined with regular notes on the guitar.
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Here's a challenging one! The 5th fret distance requires a good touch when accessing your chords. Give this a try and see how you do!
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And finally for the 5th fret distance, let's switch up our left hand locations while still grabbing those artificial harmonics.
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Now, let's combine all of our major fret distances, 5th, 7th and 12th, and grab the artificial harmonics as single notes. Being able to visualize the distances quickly is key to mastering this technique.
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As in the previous lesson, we're going to work on grabbing the 5th, 7th and 12th fret locations, but this time let's grab chords and a combination of regular and harmonic notes.
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Now it's time to move our artificial harmonics into a song situation. This illustrates how artificial harmonics can be used in your own arrangements or original compositions.
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In this lesson, Jeff gets out his electric guitar to illustrate the concept of pinch harmonics. This can be played on acoustic or electric, both with different sounding results!
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Pinch harmonics are very effective when playing riffs. So turn up the gain on your amp and join Jeff to get that harmonic flavor into your electric playing!
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In this lesson, Jeff shows how pinch harmonics can be effective in a song situation.
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Great job making it to the end of this course! It's back to the acoustic guitar, where we will put together all of the main techniques we have learned.
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