Hammer On

Now that you are familiar with picking and strumming and reading tabs, lets practice some very important techniques. The hammer on is one of the easiest and most important techniques one has to learn before becoming an expert. The basic concept of a hammer on is to play two notes with only one pick. Impossible? Not really.

The two frets we will be working on for all these techniques will be on the 3rd and fourth frets (3rd fret= one with first marker). Also we will be working on the E string (thickest). First take your index finger and place it on the 3rd fret. Next pick the string and without removing your index finger, take your middle finger and jam it down onto the 4th fret. If done correctly, you should get two different sounding notes.

Pull Off

A pull of is very similar to a hammer on in the basic concept however instead of jamming a finger onto the string, you will be pulling it off quickly to get the sound of that note. First take your index finger and place it on the 3rd fret and then place your middle finger on the fourth fret also. So now you should have both your fingers on the two frets. Now pick the string and pull your middle finger off quickly and at a downward angle. This should give you the sound of the 3rd fret by only picking once.

Vibrato

A vibrato is very simple and can give a nice sound when done correctly. The object is to bend the string up and down after picking it once. Lets try it. First take you index finger and place it on the 3rd fret. Now pick the string and move your finger down and up to get a vibrating sound.

Bend

The final basic technique I will show you is the bend. The bend is a bit more challenging because you need finger dexterity and strength. First take your index finger and place it on the 3rd fret. Next pick the string and bend the string down with your picking hand. This will give you a sound of 1/2 the fret. You can also do it upwards to. I prefer to do the top three strings downwards and the bottom three strings upwards.