What is this technique?

[Kayak Jim]

I play uke not guitar but a guitarist I follow is Gabriella Quevedo. In this video about 2:20 she switches from picking over the sound hole to picking over the fretboard, interspersed with passages way up the neck. What is the effect of the different picking position- changing the tone or ? Just curious....

 

[ploverwing]

I think at 2:20 she's playing harmonics?

You can actually try playing different places on an ukulele too: normale is over the sound hole, ponticello is close to the bridge, tasto is over the fretboard. This clip discusses the different sounds produced (and when you might want to employ them) with these different positions:



If you try on the ukulele, you'll find out for yourself, it does sound different depending on where you play.

 

[Canada Jim]

At the spot you mentioned, she's playing an artificial harmonic. This is a harmonic on a fretted string. To do this, you touch the sring with your right index finger (assuming you're playing right-handed) exactly half the length of the string from the saddle to the fret that is being held with the left hand. Then you pluck the string with your right thumb.
She is interspersing this with some natural harmonics. The harmonics give a bell-like chimey sound.

 

[Kayak Jim]

Yes I know about harmonics thanks. It's a bit after 2:20 that she starts the picking over the fretboard that I'm asking about and ploverwing has given me an answer.

Cheers

 

[Canada Jim]

Yes I know about harmonics thanks. It's a bit after 2:20 that she starts the picking over the fretboard that I'm asking about and ploverwing has given me an answer.

Cheers

The reason she moves her right hand over the fingerboard is because she needs to have her right index finger at the mid-point of the vibrating part of the string in order to produce an artificial harmonic.. If you know about harmonics you will know that this is the only way to do that.
(I just noticed that Ploverwing did mention that she was playing harmonics at 2:20. )
While you don't need to change the positionof your right hand for natural harmonics, it is neccessary for artificial harmonics.
You can definitely get a twangier sound by moving close to the bridge and a mellower sound by moving close to the fingerboard, but that is not why Gabriella Quevedo is changing position at 2:20.

 

[Yukio]

I like what Jim said. It is magical how she is shifting her fretting hand to keep the bass figure going while finding artificial harmonics to chime melody notes at the same time. A stunning arrangement of a great melody.