How do guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai play super fast and smooth? The answer is that they’re using legato (smooth) techniques called Hammer-ons and Pull-offs. The exercises in this guitar lesson will help you develop your legato technique.
Hammer-ons
A hammer-on is where the 1st note is plucked then the 2nd is sounded by hammering a finger onto the guitar fretboard. This creates smooth legato connection between the notes and also allows you to play these notes faster as you don’t have to coordinate the guitar pick to pluck the 2nd note.
Depending on the gauge (thickness) of your guitar strings you may have to hammer quite hard onto the fretboard to ensure that the 2nd note rings out. If you’re playing on an electric guitar using a bit of overdrive or distortion can make it easier to play as it gives the notes more sustain. However ultimately you should be able to play hammer-ons using a clean tone or even on an acoustic guitar.
Hammer-on Exercise #1
The exercise below is great to practice as it uses all 4 fingers and will develop the strength required to play hammer-ons with all 4 fingers. Ensure that you practice this exercise on all 6 strings.
Try this exercise with a metronome starting at 80BPM and then speed it up as you get comfortable with the exercise. Use a metronome when practicing all the other exercises in is guitar lesson too.
Hammer-on Exercise #2
The next hammer-on exercise to practice uses all 4 fingers together. Here you only pluck the 1st note and Hammer-on each note one after another. Joe Satriani uses this technique in many of his songs including Always With Me, Always With You.
Pull-offs
A pull-off is the reverse of a hammer-on. A pull-off is played by picking the 1st note then the 2nd note is sounded by flicking the string as you pull your finger off the fret board. Check out the guitar lesson video below demonstrating the hammer-on and pull-off technique.
Pull-off Exercise #1
This exercise uses all 4 fingers and will help build the strength required to play pull-offs with all fingers. Again ensure that you practice this exercise on all 6 strings.
Pull-off Exercise #2
The next pull-off exercise uses all 4 fingers together. Like hammer-on exercise #2 you only pluck the 1st note but now the following 3 notes are played as pull-offs.
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs in Scales
Another way to practice your hammer-ons and pull-offs is to use them in scales. An easy one to start with is the E minor pentatonic scale as it uses all the open strings.
Next try A minor pentatonic as with this scale pattern you get to practice your hammer-on and pull-off technique using fingers 1, 3 and 4.
Finally try using hammer-ons and pull-offs in the G major scale. Here you will need to play 2 hammer-ons and pull-offs on certain strings.
By the time you’ve mastered these legato exercises you will be well on your way to incorporating hammer-ons and pull-offs into your guitar playing.