Tiny Robin on a Loar .....

[Bluesnote]

I don't know of its origins, I'd never heard it done until Chet Atkins.
Artificial harmonics are as old as the hills but something was added to the process.
Firstly, pick an interesting chord, 6th add 9th or something. Generate a harmonic, say on the 6th string using thumb and first finger and then pick 2 strings up with middle or 3rd finger. Repeat this with a harmonic on the 5th string etc until you run out of strings .
Having said that, Chet does more that I haven't yet twigged, either that or he has a guitar with 29 strings. Huge cascading runs of harmonics at lightning speed.

I just dont know how they get the speed. I had a Martin Taylor video describing the technique, I kind of learned it but gave up in disgust when I could'nt achieve the speed needed for the right effect. I think you need a really good fingerpicking style, a talent I for one do not possess no matter how much I've tried over the years, it evades me
I first heard it done by Lenny Breau years ago.
Its one of these things that you can only use every so often and if you cant pick it up quickly, you soon lose interest.
Well that was the case with me

[ecca]

I'm still mystified by how Chet does it.
There are no videos that I know of and I feel I've just scratched the surface, got the basics.

[donna plasky]

Dear Ecca: That was a beautiful performance of Tiny Robin. I really enjoyed it. And what a lovely guitar.

I was wondering if I could ask you a question...coming from my perspective as a beginner. How did you learn how to play that song? In other words, did you get sheet music from somewhere? Did you have chords only? Guitar tabs only? Or, did you just instinctively know how to play it because you are both an experienced player and someone who is familiar with the song?

It will likely take me years to be able to play something without it being accompanied by an avalanche of papers containing sheet music, tabs, chords, anything-and-everything I can get. I really admire how you were able to play that song so beautifully and seemingly so effortlessly. It was really nice.

Thank you, Ecca.

Kind regards,
Donna

[ecca]

Why thank you Donna, in fact I gave Mick the Marmaliser 10 fags and he taught it me on his 3 string banjo some weeks back.

[AlanMcKillop]

Tommy Emmanuel also plays a lot of harmonics (Chet style) and there are DVD's available if you're good at spotting what he does.

[alanbakewell]

Why thank you Donna, in fact I gave Mick the Marmaliser 10 fags and he taught it me on his 3 string banjo some weeks back.

Perhaps when conversing with our cousins in the U.S.A. one should use the term "Cigarettes".

[dave robinson]

Just seen this - great stuff and we're looking forward to maybe hearing it live tonight at t'Hankies . . . . .

[ecca]

Couldn't get any cobs Dave...... perhaps some bugger else has ?

[Nels]

Tommy indeed does this with great effect. He appears on a program called Woodsongs where the host asks him exactly how he does these harmonics. Tommy then demonstrates his technique. It's the best video demo I have seen of this

Cheers

Nels

[donna plasky]

[quote="alanbakewell
Perhaps when conversing with our cousins in the U.S.A. one should use the term "Cigarettes". [/quote]

Thank you, Alan - that is cute. And it was nice of you to use the word cousins and not something else, like dummies.

Even musical vocabulary is different over here. Most of my musical knowledge (whatever amount I might have) is from this Forum, and secondarily from my various Cliff and Shads biography and tablature books, all of which came from the UK. For example, when I was in the guitar store, I had to remember -- mid-sentence -- that in the USA we are supposed to say "pick guard" and not "scratch plate." I said something like, "Oh look...on the wall over there...there's a Fender Jaguar, a sunburst one with a tortoise shell scrrrrrr.....uh, pick guard." Another funny thing is, despite the fact that this store has a huge wall full of Fender Strats (dozens of them!), almost every colour in the rainbow, the one colour scheme you won't ever see is red-and-white. I asked about red, and they said they could probably get me one in Candy Apple Red so I just bought the three-tone sunburst one and named it "Jet." It's a Squier, not a real Fender any way.

Kind regards,
Donna