Here’s my latest ‘show’ for you all. The Tip of the week is on the lick factory’s YouTube Channel (youtube.com/thelickfactory).
All sorts of tips are planned, but the first one is nice and simple for you newbies :).
Enjoy!
\m/ Kris
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Hello Internet,
I’m Kris Petersen and I’m the founder of the Lick Factory.com.
Now what were going to be doing today is starting a new series of videos for the LICK FACTORY blog as well as the LICK FACTORY YouTube Channel and we’re going to call this the Tip of the week.
And in this video, what I will show you is…a tip of the week…
Now each week there will be something different and what were going to do is grab a technique or an idea around guitar playing and give you a run down on how the whole idea works.
Now today what were going to do is have a look at hammer on’s and pull off’s. Now I call this a Level 1 technique and that sits about just here on my graph. Now whether you’re a beginner, so down here at level 0 or coming all the way up to Level 5 being an awesome guitar player, each of these techniques will fall into one of these areas.
Now if you’re a lick factory student and your not actually up to this technique yet, that’s alright because what your going to find is that this video will give you enough information for you to start using the technique and then when we get up to it in the complete course, we’ll really be refining it and getting into the nitty gritty of what’s actually going on.
If you’re not a lick factory student, not to worry because this will be more than enough information for you to be able to utilize this in you’re playing immediately.
So as I said, we’re looking at Hammer On’s and Pull Off’s today, lets jump over and get into it.
O.K. so Hammer On’s and Pull Off’s. Lets start with the hammer on…
Now as the name suggests a hammer on means that what we’re going to do is slam a finger down onto the fret-board to create a note, like so.
When we say a hammer on, what you need to do is get some really strong actions in your individual fingers to be able to make sure that the note is sounding.
The idea being is that you don’t want to be using your picking hand at all. We’re taking this out of the equation with these two techniques, the Hammer on and the Pull off. When you master these techniques, it’s going to make your scale runs a lot smoother because you don’t have to pick as much. You still can pick and get some alternate picking runs in there but the idea being is that your going to have a smoother way of using scales in your arsenal that you can use whenever you want.
So anyway as I said, the Hammer on, what were going to do as an exercise is start with your first finger… Lets take the G on the 5th fret on the D string, so on the 4th string.
What were going to do is then hammer onto the 7th fret with your 3rd finger. So you start by picking that 1st note, the G and then slamming that 3rd finger down onto the A. Like that.
Now after that we’ll slam it down onto the Ab, so with your 2nd finger on the 6th fret. And then the Bb on the 8th fret.
Now a simple exercise that’s using these, its very easy to do and what it does is strengthen all your fingers individually. So you’d start with each individual finger like we just did and then you can start actually running it in sequence.
You’d pick the 1st note, hammer onto the 2nd, hammer onto the 3rd, hammer on to the 4th fret within the sequence so the frets are actually 5th, 6th 7th and 8th frets, and your using your 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th fingers.
All right. Now in direct contrast to that, we have the Pull Off. Now what were doing in a pull off is actually picking the string with your Left (fretting) hand. So what you’d do is pick the first note, Take that hand out of the equation then sound the next note.
Now what I’m doing is as I take this finger off, the 3rd finger off to bring that G into play. What I’m doing is pulling my finger down and in effect using this finger here as a plectrum to pick that note.
You want to be careful not to pull that finger off with too much aggression, because if you do, what you can do is bend the string out of tune, like this. Which can sound cool sometimes but not every time. You want to make sure that it’s nice and clean. So you’re really getting a police siren of ambulance sound happening there.
Now combining the two techniques, like we were just doing then. There’s another simple exercise. You start with the 1st finger, on the 5th fret up-to the 3rd, but you can bring every other finger into the equation as well. So basically you’d go from picking the first note, to the 2nd, then pull off, hammer on on the A, then pull off back to the G. Hammer on to the Bb. Then pull off and keep repeating the process.
Then that way, what you can do is just pick the 1st note. Then this hand can do whatever you want. You can sit there and wave, you can point at the audience. You can put your hand up in the air, whatever you want to do to enhance your performance, while your still getting quite an impressive legato run. And that is what the Hammer On and Pull Off is used for.
Now if you have any other questions about Hammer On’s and Pull Off’s, please use the comments just below the video, or you can drop me a line on the THE LICK FACTORY forums.
Until I see you guys again next week… I am Kris Petersen, I’ll see you later.
