Harmonics for Melodies: Bass Guitar Techniques

Video Transcript

CASEY CORMIER: Some pioneering electric bassists have used harmonics not just for tuning but to create entire melodies, to use the bass in a melodic way using these harmonics. Now we can't just be really melodic if we only have, if we played G 5th fret harmonic that counts as a G, this is a D, and this is a G, so we have to have more than just 2 notes and then their octaves. Between the 5th fret of each string and the 3rd fret, we can play harmonics, and we get our pick ups on the right settings, like with some more treble, we can hear it's going on. Now listen, if E 5th fret harmonic, 4th fret harmonic, 3rd fret, the hardest one to get, is actually the sound E, G sharp, A octaves up, way many octaves up. Same thing for each string. A pioneering bassist named Jaco Pastorius has done things such as this and used the melodies, the triads, in creative ways. So once an excerpt of something that he would have played [PLAYS MELODY IN HARMONICS], he start with the 5th fret G, the 3rd fret and then the 4th, no the 4th fret of the D, and then the 5th right here, but he'll be playing an equivalent on harmonics. So try experimenting in making some melodies up using these triad harmonics. You can also find other harmonics on the bass and use these harmonics for melodies.

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