Want to Play Guitar Like the Pros? Part 4 - Basic Guitar Playing Techniques

If you really want to learn the guitar, you should know by now that it isn’t just strumming and plucking. Guitar is much deeper than those techniques, and it has many techniques besides the two simple ones. I will be explaining the more complex techniques such as: hammer-on, hammer-on pull offs, pull offs, slides, bends, and vibratos.

Let’s get started with the hammer-on. The hammer on is alike to what it sounds like, a hammer- on. Basically, you play whatever string you like, but you hammer your finger on to the fret. When you hammer-on, you play two notes. Usually, the 2nd one is played quickly. Hammer-ons are one of the easier guitar techniques.

Now for the pull-offs. Pull-offs are also similar to what they sound like. You play the string AND fret, and then you pull off of it. The pull-off can be pulled off to a fret, or to an open string. For the pull-off to be pulled off to an open string, then you will have no finger to be pulled off to. In other words, you just play the fret, and pull off the string. For example, let’s say you were playing the 2nd fret of the 1st string. You would play the 2nd fret, and then just pull off the string not playing anything else. Although pull-offs seem easy, they can get very difficult. A pull-off can be pulled off to a fret. So if someone were to say play the 5th fret and pull off to the 3rd, then that would require playing the fret and pulling off to another fret. For example, you would play the 5th fret, but at the same time you would keep a finger solid on the 3rd fret so you would be able to pull off to the 3rd fret. Think that was hard? Well, then your not in too much luck because pull-offs only get harder. They can also have 2 or more frets to be pulled off too. For example, let’s say someone said to pull off from the 5th to the 3rd to the 2nd. That would mean you play the 5th fret, while keeping a finger solidly on the 3rd fret and 2nd fret. You would then pull off of the 5th fret on to the 3rd, and then pull off of the 3rd fret on to the 2nd.

Now for the hammer-on-pull offs. This is basically self explanatory. They are the two techniques put together to form a hammer-on pull-off. Let’s say you were told to hammer on the 4th fret and pull off to the third. You would play the note before, then hammer on to the 4th fret, and pull off to the third.

Moving on to bends and slides. They are both very similar, but very different at the same time. A bend requites to play the note, and bend the string upwards or downwards. In most cases, when someone says to bend, then it will be a whole step (2 frets). But, if they say bend UP half step then you would bend the string up so it produces the same sound as the fret above. Bending down will produce the sound of the frets below the note. Slides also involving playing a note, and going higher or lower. To play a slide, you play the original note and then slide to the note that you are supposed to. For example, sliding from the 3rd to the 5th fret would mean playing the 3rd fret, and literally slide your finger from the 3rd fret to the 5th fret so you play ALL of the notes from the 3rd to 5th fret.

Last, but not least are the vibratos. To me, this is fun and easy. All you do is simply play a note, and give it small bends up and down, to “vibrate” the sound. So if you had to do vibrato on the 3rd fret, all you would do is play the 3rd fret and move the fret up and down.

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David Woodford is a professional writer who specializes in beginners guides for a variety of subjects. He is currently writing this series of guides on learning to play guitar for novices and ‘false beginners’. More information can be found on his site at www.info4u-services.com/guitar

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