Here's a fun way to coax an array of piercing, octave-displaced harmonics from your fretboard. Coupled with high-gain distortion, this technique turns your guitar into a harmonic porcupine, ready to punch through any mix.

Drape and slur. Lay your picking-hand index finger lightly across the 12th fret. Make sure that your finger is poised directly above the fret. Now try Ex. 1, which involves hammering notes on the 5th and 7th frets, and pulling off to open strings. Thanks to your 12th-fret overlay, all those hammered and pulled notes are instantly transformed into prickly harmonics. You can rip into this line any time you're playing in the key of G major or E minor.

One of my pet porcupine phrases, Ex. 2 lets you stretch out a bit and experiment with call and response.

Up a notch. To produce a similar, but even higher spray of harmonics, place your picking-hand index finger across the 19th fret, and hammer at the 12th and 14th frets while pulling off to open strings. For starters, mimic the moves in Ex. 1, then combine both positions to create new variations.