Strumming Behind the Nut

How to Strum Behind The Nut

You can file this one under “curious special effect”. It doesn’t have a huge amount of practical musical usage, but it can be an interesting special effect in the right circumstances.

Note: this effect may not work the same under amplification, as most of the sound is coming from near the headstock, instead of the usual place near the soundhole—and most amplification systems are intended to pick up sound coming from the soundhole.

There is no easy way to change or influence the pitches coming from behind the nut. You could use the guitar tuning machines, but obviously that would affect the tuning of the instrument. You could also pluck the string behind the nut and then bend it on the other side of the nut, but that might hurt alot.