Help with hammer-ons and pull offs!!!

[Zero]

I seem to be having trouble with hammer-ons and pull offs. I am having trouble with:

a) getting a loud note on the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings with a hammer-on.

b) getting anything even worth calling a sound, let alone a note, on the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings.

c) pulling my finger off quickly enough to cause the sound to continue, and even then, the note is still weak.


I do finger exercises, and i have quite flexible fingers, so i do not think it's a matter of just being too stiff to do some of these things, but i know i can always improve.

Also, it doesn't seem to help when i hit the strings harder, i do not improve sound volume very much, and i just end up bumping other strings and either muting them when i do not want to, or making them ring when i want them quiet.

I am going to go look in the techniques section again, maybe i can see something i missed before.

Suggestions, anyone?

~Z~

[SteelSlider]

Hi Zero.

Here is a link that may help.

http://www.cyberfret.com/techniques/hammer-ons-pull-offs/index.htm

When you hammer that string, do it like you mean business. Don't let your finger land on the fret, but right behind it. Use that callus that you have worked so hard to earn. When your finger is coming down, make sure it comes straight down on it. Hold that second note, the one you just hammered, nice and firm.

Pull offs are tough animals to tame.
Keep practicing the way that is shown on that link. It's the way that is taught by professionals, and is the proper way. There is a fraction of a second when your finger is in contact with the string, while the string is raising up from the fret that you are pulling from. That itty bitty length of time is enough to deaden or mute the sound. It is probably that little bit of time that your having trouble with. Speed on a pull off is a bit more important that a hammer.
It's one of those little things in playing a guitar that needs some special attention over a length of time, like learning how to get your hands to change chords quickly without having to pause.

In a pinch, you may want to try this, as a last resort. It's no easier than the classic method to learn, fact is it may be a bit harder, but it works.
I noticed that my hammerings would ring nice, but my pulloffs were kind of dull, mellow sounding or not at all.
Lets say your picking the E string on the seventh fret.
Your third finger is holding that B note down. When you pull off you want your first finger on the fifth fret. Again, making sure you don't have your finger on the fret wire, but right behind it.

Like this, 7--P--5.

To make that A note on the fifth fret sound alive, I cheat. It works for me and a few other who I know who use it, cuz we could never get the pull off's second note to sound clear.

As soon as I pick the E string with my pick, I pull off my third finger from the seventh fret. The B note has rung, now, (this will take a bit of practice, but it works quite nice) as you pull off that third finger, brush it down toward the floor using the callus to extend the sound of the pick plucking the string. You need to work both pick and pull off finger together to do this, that's why I say it takes some practice. Once you get that pull off sound you'll rarely tell the difference in the 'right' way and the cheating way.
I'd practice the right way though first.
Some top artists use this tech also,
Buddy Guy, Johnny Guitar Watson, Muddy Waters and more. If you watch them carefully, you can see it.
For some reason, some of us have trouble with pull offs. I just tried it again and still get a lesser tone that I should. It should ring as if the second note were picked instead of the first.
Hammers and pull offs are something that must be learnt though cuz every one uses them, and it's like salt and pepper, they add to the flavor of the song.

[GuitarHitman]

They both took me a while to get right. I found Hammer-Ons pretty easy but I found pull-offs harder to master and I still can't do pull-ofs 100% correctly.


Practise makes perfect.