Hello,
How does one hit the high notes? I am working on Paganini caprice V and the transcription lists frets 25, 27 and 29 in the intro section. I’m not quite sure how to do this, I imagine it some kind of harmonic, what gives?

Thanks,
Eugene

You could play higher notes with Harmonics.

What are the notes, on frets 25, 27, and 29? I assume you mean, on the high E string?

If so, the notes would be F G and A.

The Harmonics could be played a number of ways. But, I'll try to explain a way that is useful no matter what "position" you're playing in.

So, we'll use "Harp Style" Harmonics.

This is a 2 Handed technique. You fret a note with your normally fretting hand (Your Left Hand, for a Right-Handed player), and with your other hand you place a fingertip over the "Node" and pluck with another finger of that same hand.

EX:

Fret the 3rd. Fret, High E String. This is a "G" note.
Now, with your Right Hand (Left Hand, if you play Left-Handed), lightly touch over the 15th. Fret of the same string.
While still lightly touching the string, use another Right Hand Finger to pluck the string.

This should produce a Harmonic of the "G" note, 1 Octave higher than the 3rd, Fret note. It should sound like the note you would normally fret at the 15th. Fret.

Now, you can repeat this technique at a lot of different points along the string. The 3 easiest places are 12, 7, and 5 Frets above the Fretted Note.

12 Frets above = an Octave (Like our Example. G to G).

7 Frets above = An Octave plus a 5th. (G to D plus an Octave).

5 Frets above = 2 Octaves (G to G plus an Octave to an even higher G note).

For the F G and A notes I'm assuming you're talking about, you can use the 2 Octave Harmonics. 5 Frets above the Fretted Notes on the 1st., 3rd., and 5th. Frtes.

EX:

Fret the High E String, 1st. Fret. Apply the Harp Technique to the 6th. Fret, High E String. This should yield the desired "High" F Note.

Fret the High E String, 3rd. Fret. Apply the Harp Technique to the 8th. Fret of the same string. There's your High G Note.

Fret the 5th. Fret of the High E String. Apply the Harp Technique to the 10th. Fret of the same string. There's the High A Note.


This Technique works on every string, at every point along the string. The "+ 12 Frets", "+ 7 Frets", and "+ 5 Frets" locations will always yield an Octave, an Octave + a 5th., and 2 Octaves, respectively.

So, you could try some other locations, and get the same results.

How many can you find?

Anyway, good luck and I'd love to hear if this helps you or not.
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Or, you could just get one of those Hamers, with the 31 frets!

It would be pretty cool, to show up and jam on some Paganini with a Danelectro! They "Go To 36"!

Thanks for the tips E-D Ray Swain,

I will let you know of my progress as it develops. It may take a while as this is a challenging piece for me. Currently I have about half memorized at half speed. I have not attempted the intro with the high notes yet, but will soon.

Happy New Year to all,

Eugene

Cool. I'm glad it's helpful.

You can get the same Harmonics in different places on the guitar. So, you may want to experiment some. I think that you might want to do them higher on the neck, if you're already playing in the upper registers. The least amount of movement, the better.

I spent a lot of time with these years ago. 5 is really cool, but I liked 16 the best. That one was fun to play.

I've got a recording of elliot fisk playing all of them, and it's really insane. Get that if you don't have it.

There's a Jason Becker one on youtube that's really cool. He's not sticking to 5 note for note, but it still rocks.

Later, PaulC

I guess you could just bend up to those notes. That's probably what I would do. When you mentioned Harmonics, I just went straight to that. Thinking back, why not just bend up?

LOL

Over-thinking, again. DOH!