Basic Left Hand Techniques

Until now, we were just fretting strings and playing. Now we will look at how to perform three very commonly used left hand techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.

Hammer-on

Play the 1st string open. Right after playing, Hammer your pointer down onto the first fret. Note the sound it produces. If it doesn't produce much sound, then maybe you aren't hammering hard enough, or your fingers haven't grown strong enough.

It will sound like a very smooth transition from E to F, unlike the sound produced by picking both notes individually.

Now try this: fret the 1st string on 2nd fret and play it. Now hammer your ring finger down on the 4th fret to produce another note.

Hammer-on is represented in tab form with an 'h'. Here is the tab form of the above two exercises:

E-0h1---2h4------------------|
B----------------------------|
G----------------------------|

Pull-off

Pull-off can be said to be the opposite of hammer-on. As its name tells, you will play a fret, and pull your finger off the fret. Try this simple exercise: Play the first string on fret 1 (fret the string with your pointer). Now pull the pointer off (a little towards the floor), sounding the open 1st string. Remember, you aren't supposed to just lift your finger off, you are actually using the pointer to lightly pluck the string. Pulloff is represented in tab form with a 'p'.

A complication arises when we are supposed to do a pulloff on strings other than 1st string. Such pull-offs require a little more practice, as you can accidentally play other strings. Here is an exercise for practicing pulloffs and hammers:

E-----------0-1p0----------------------------|
B-----0-1h3-------3p1-0----------------------|
G-1h2-------------------2p1h2----------------|
D--------------------------------------------|
A--------------------------------------------|
E--------------------------------------------|

Slide

Slide, as its name tells, means when you play a note, and slide your left hand finger to another fret (without lifting it up), retaining the sound. Try this, play the 1st string on fret 3. Slide the finger that has fretted the string to the 5th fret. Remember to keep the string pressed down. Now slide it back to 3rd fret. Notice how the note 'slides' into another note.

Slides are also very commonly used in almost every style of guitar playing. They are represented in tab form using an 's' or a '/' or '\'.