To produce an artificial harmonic, a string player (such as a guitarist) holds down a note on the neck with their left hand, thereby shortening the vibrational length of the string, and uses their right hand to lightly touch a point on the string that is an integer divisor of its vibrational length, and also pluck the side of the string that is closer to the bridge. This technique is used to produce harmonic tones that are otherwise inaccessible on the instrument. To guitar players, this technique is also known as a pinch harmonic.

This technique, like true harmonics, works by canceling out the fundamental tone and one or more partial tones by deadening their modes of vibration. See node.