Guitar Technique: Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
Hammer-ons can be the one of a few simplest guitar technique to learn, since it does not involve a lot. The hammer-on is the most used technique, which a guitar player needs to relay on while playing.
A hammer-on should be the first technique you master and try to develop your own since of style with this technique, because you want to make your own sound with hammer-ons. Let’s get started below:
Here is what the tab version would look like for a Hammer-on:
E:———–or——-or———-
B:———————————
G:—————————-h—-
D:—–7h5——7^5———7^5—
A:——————————–
E:——————————–
To achieve the hammer-on technique:
- place your index finger anywhere on a string and fret
- take either you middle finger or ring finger and hammer down on the string
I usually tend to use my index finger and then hammer down with my ringer finger, usually skipping at least having a fret in the middle of both fingers.
Pull offs:
The pull off, is the complete opposite of a hammer-on. Here is how to achieve the pull-off:
- Instead of hammering onto a note , your going to take your ring finger, or whatever finger you choose and pull off the string, so it rings out.
- Also, make sure that when your pulling off the string you keep your index finger press down, if you do not then this technique will not be achieved properly.
Here is the tab version of a Pull-off:
E:———–or——-or———-
B:————————–p—–
G:—–7p5——-7^5——-7^5—-
D:——————————–
A:——————————–
E:——————————–
Steve Vai, and other great guitarist like him have made the hammer-on very unique to his guitar playing. It takes these simple techniques and applying some creative genius behind them comes up with this:
By watching Steve play, you can see how he uses the hammer-on technique in many different ways, not just the simple hammer-on describe above!
1 Comment
Guitar Technique: String Bending | Flick Of The Pick
Friday, 12th June 2009 at 10:43 pm
[...] last lesson we learned how to do hammer-ons and pull-offs, which are essential techniques you need to learn and master. I am going to show you and explain, [...]
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