Hey Friend,
The past couple of emails I’ve sent have been a bit long on extolling the virtues of recognizing patterns in your playing (as well as your life).
There are big pattern shifts that can lead to major changes in your life, and there are mini patterns that can provide small, incremental improvements.
Let’s look at a pattern example you can learn and apply today to your guitar skills. This is a tiny improvement that can make a big difference in your playing over the long term.
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
This little riff incorporates the hammer-on and pull-off techniques. If you’re not familiar with these, they’re simple methods to play notes quickly without the need to pick the string for every note.
With a hammer-on, you start with a fingered note that anchors the string. You then “hammer on" the string at a higher fret to produce that next note.
A pull-off is similar in that the string is still anchored by a fingered note, but you start the technique at the higher note, dropping down an interval to the anchored note by slightly “pulling off” the string with a second finger.
So instead of using the pick to pluck the string, you pluck using your fretting hand.
For example, most of the time you’ll anchor with your index finger. To hammer-on, you could use your ring finger to “hammer” the note two frets up the neck.
It’s the same action a piano key uses to produce a note. Pianos use felt hammers to hit their strings.
For a pull-off, you might have your ring finger on a note and you want to quickly drop to the next lower note on the string, which you have your index finger on. You simply give the string a little tug with your ring finger as you pull it away, all the while keeping your index finger in place.
Let’s Apply It
Look at the exercise. Each bar is set to either have you hammer on the string, or pull off the string.
To demonstrate this thing in action, I tabbed a riff that uses both techniques. This riff comes from a song by a one hit 80s band called Steel Breeze. The song is “ You Don’t Want Me Anymore.”
Yeah, cheesy video, but I’ve always loved this riff. It sounds really cool, and it’s very easy to learn.
Simple Can Go a Long Way
Once you’ve mastered hammer-ons and pull-offs, you’ll find them used in all sorts of situations.
You can use them when playing chords, melodic lines and solo riffs.
You can string them together and create a repeating lick - you’ll hear these in MANY Classic Rock and Metal solos.
They’re just good, all-around techniques to help you make your playing more expressive.
So don’t cheat yourself. Try this exercise out and dedicate some practice time to hammer-ons and pull-offs. A little practice will go long way!
Peace~
Dave
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