Learn To Play Blues Guitar

Whenever I have a new student come to me, telling me that they want to learn to play blues guitar, it always makes me smile.

I love the blues, and consider it my primary style. One of the things I enjoy doing with students is giving them a list of listening material to introduce different techniques.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs are one of my favorites, as I get to recommend Albert Collins, a veritable master of this killer technique. If you want to learn to play blues guitar, I suggest you pick up some of his recordings, as nobody manages this technique better. The combination of his slightly over driven telecaster, and cranked up treble just add to the phenomenon.

Just What is a Hammer-On?

A simple definition would be a note played without picking, a left hand only technique that sees a sustained note being cut off and replaced with a new note, by hammering down another finger higher up the neck on the same string.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Well quite frankly it is, most people only need to be shown the technique once to get it down. As A quick tip, make sure you pick strongly on the preceding note, the hammer-on is going to slightly dampen the string as you perform it, so you need plenty of sustain.

Finger strength comes into play here, a good player with strong fingers can perform a hammer-on without even picking, just the force of the finger hitting the fret board will cause the string to vibrate.

How to Pull Off a Pull-off

A pull-off is the exact opposite of a hammer-on; the note will be changed by removing a finger from the fret board, whilst another finger is in place behind it further down the neck.

The cool thing about a well executed pull-off is that you do not necessarily need to pick the preceding note strongly.

By slightly bending the string with the finger that is being pulled-off, kind of pinging the string like an elastic band, you will be able to sustain or even increase the vibration in the string.

Hammer-on + Pull-off = Trill

By repeatedly hammering-on and pulling-off notes quickly, you will create what we call a trill, usually just a basic two note trill, but more advanced players can play a whole passage without once using their right hand.

These two techniques are a staple of the blues player’s bag of tricks and need to be mastered by anyone who wishes to learn to play blues guitar. The uses of these two techniques are quite endless, especially during improvisation, when the creative juices are flowing.

Next time you are listening to your favorite blues recordings, try and listen out for hammer-ons and pull-offs, you will be surprised at how many are played, did you really think that a guitar player actually picks every note?

Personally I play a huge amount of these, I’m a lazy picker, my right hand has never been as fast as I wished it was, so my left hand technique makes up for this shortcoming.

Filed under: Learn To Play Blues Guitar