Hammer Ons and Pull Offs

These two things refer to techniques employed by the left hand to sound notes without the direct aid of the right hand. A 'hammer on' is when a note is sounded, and while it is still ringing, a left hand finger is used to quickly press down a fret that is on the same string, and close to the original fret. This will result in the sounding of the second note, even though the right hand did nothing but sound the first note. The vibrations that occurred from the sounding of the first note will be carried on to sound the second note. Here's an example. We can place our index finger on the 3rd string, 5th fret, and sound that note. While the note is still sounding, and without moving our index finger, we can use our ring finger to come firmly and directly down on the 7th fret of the 3rd string. This note will then sound, probably not as loud as the first note, but it will still sound. This is a hammer on.

A 'pull off' is basically the same thing, but backwards. We can use a finger to fret a note, and then sound that note. While the note is still sounding, a finger can be placed directly behind the first finger, and then the first finger can be 'pulled off'. In doing this, it is in effect the same as plucking the string with a finger, it creates vibrations. And now the note that is being fretted directly behind the first finger will be sounded. For example, we could place our index finger on the 5th fret, 3rd string AND place our ring finger on the 7th fret, 3rd string. We can play the note on the 7th fret, and then 'pull' that finger off the string, which at the same time, will sound the note on the 5th fret. This is a pull off.

The main difference between hammer ons and pull offs is that pull offs generate vibrations, while hammer ons generally don't. In other words, in performing a pull off, it would be possible to make the second note louder than the first. In a hammer on, we wouldn't be able to do this, because the sound will have died away slightly when we hammer on. Hammer ons and pull offs have a number of uses. They can be used to make a passage sound smoother. Sometimes we don't want to pick every note, because the pick gives a different tone than hammer on or a pull off will.

They can be used to make a passage easier to play. This is true for two reasons. The first is that we can usually do a hammer on or a pull off faster than we can pick two notes in succession. The second reason is that while we are hammering on or pulling off, with two or our left hand fingers, we can use our other two left hand fingers and our pick to do something else at the same time.

They can be used to perform 'trills'. A trill is the rapid succession of two notes. For example, if we placed our index finger on the 12 fret, 3rd string, and then sounded it, we'd get only one sound. But if we continuously hammered on to the 13 fret using our middle finger, and then immediately pulled off back to the 12 fret, we will get a continuous stream of notes, without even using the pick except for the first note. It is because pull offs generate vibrations that we are able to do this. Trills are a good way of ornamenting notes.

Like we said, we can perform trills. If we can perform trills with two notes, why can't we use hammer ons and pull offs between more than two notes? We can. With a lot of practice, we can learn to use hammer ons and pull offs with speed and accuracy, and with this skill, you can learn to play very fast. It's easier to hammer on and pull off to a note than it is to pick every note just as fast. We'll look at some of these uses of hammer ons and pull offs in further lessons. Things to remember from this lesson:

1. Hammer ons and pull offs are a means of using the left hand to sound notes with out using the right hand to sound them.

2. A pull off can generate vibrations(sound), but a hammer on will only carry on the left over vibrations from a previous note.

3. Uses of hammer ons and pull offs include smoother passages, easier passages and trills. Also, with a lot of experience using hammer ons and pull offs, one can use them to play very fast.

Comments

[tomdabomb]

bbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttt

[bassest123]

this is an easy technique any one can pick it up.

[mms093]

this is a great aticle thanx

[Merlin]

Stranger its called shut your mouth and pay attention to what advice is being directed to you...

[Betty---Boop]

Thanks, this article helped my sorry dumb mind alot!

[Dodd]

Hey fu(K every one else this article is great I learned alot from it and I have been playing for a while keep up the good work thanx alot!!!!!

[PaRaBoLaTooL420]

This is a good article, always did just fine with hammer ons, but never really understood pull-offs.. no lessons, books, or anything. So this helped me a lot. Now I can actually play some of these damn solos.

[thomas_wh]

great, pretty basic though

[nofxexjrg]

(um yeah ill pretend now like i understood what was on the article) great article your talents of a writer amaze me man..dude...now write one about hammer on and pull offs exp(2hp3 or 9h11p9 that means what)......end.

[Xenophus]

great article, if only the first posters would stop being so immature, grow up ffs!

[cobain_rules]

finally, someone explains it to me in terms i can understand

[Stepheren Ryan]

This help me.. even the other things are hard to understand....tnx...

[Stepheren Ryan]

This help me a little,, i understand some f the lesson but some of them are not... tnx ....

[Aegil]

This is a good lesson. Its a lot better than the one on my site that i am building as a school project. And you need to be able to do this well so you can do the really fun stuff like really fast mega cool metallica solos, and awesomely fast tapping which is very kewl when you can do it at speed.

[AnthonyEric33]

Thanks, I couldn't figure out what they were. This really helped me. Thanks again.

AnthonyEric33

[phlip]

Thankx i really need that
AnthonyEric33:Thanks, I couldn't figure out what they were.
Same here

[ilovemymusic]

Finally someone who says it in pure English. Every other site i went to was really confusing and made no sense whatsover. Thanks a lot dude
ROCK ONwards

[Balamory]

okeiz

[Streaker]

nice.

[crazysnake]

i like it

[cupid_psyche274]

now i know how these h and p's in tabs are! Thanks dude!

[parrottjake]

*cough*too bad im 13 and my tiny brain cannot comprehend some of the larger words in the article that are not in my vocabulary... ok, mayb i dun tak like dat but hoo da fu|{ cares anyways, i read da article and its good but i think i should write an article too.... hee hee, WRITE AN ARTICLE?!?!?hoo am i kidding, no1 aparently.

[thewho4u]

cuz im as free as a bird now

[blacksabbath666]

F U N

[gary666]

ok

[Prankster549]

Hey dude thanks this aricle really helped me. Ive been playing guitar for awile and Ive been pretty good but just at the basics. Now thanks to this article Im learning how to tap and play faster with the hammer-ons and pull-offs.. Sweet Article

[Nirvana l3oy]

THis aricle helped me thx man

[shizaman]

that helped alot thanks

[gc4life487]

I still don't get the pull-off but the hammer-on part was pretty good, lol um I still think the hammer-on is hard but w/e who cares what I think

[kevbo3000]

this is an excellent article for someone who didnt know what hammer on or pull offs were, thanx alot

[ndfcartman]

thanks dude, i now understand hammer ons and pull- offs, sweet ^_^

[wannagethi]

PLZ MAKE A LESSON ABOUT TRILLS PLZ I WANT TO LEARN ERUPTION!!!..

[barrock]

RRR..AAA..MMM..SSS..TTT..EEE..INNN..

[megadeth111]

u guys are ***ing queers.....i could do this when i first playing .....***ing sucky ass wannbes

[megadeth111]

oops i meant first started playing.....*** u

[megadeth111]

u should call this lesson techniques for stupid ***s

[STERIOGRAM134]

This lesson is great i know hammer ons had a little bit of trouple with pull offs i got them now but I NEED HELP ON HARMONICS i have no idea what they are or what they do anyone help me please post something where i can e-mail you or just tell me right here in the comments thanks

[ystl]

alot of people here who complain that this lesson sucks when actually they are the one who didn't get or know what the lesson is all about, if you don't know anything about the lesson then why criticize something you don't even know...

[jcwear]

the UG stranger does nothing but spam up the whole website, I hope he was kicked permanantly

[JeffJefferson]

i like this lesson, before it i had no idea what this technique was about, now i have a rough idea. cheers dude!

[warbdaniel]

not bad, cheers :

[ash948]

it didnt help at all....

[fenner]

Weirdo's...

[chicanorocker]

it helped me....it should help u all

[bitterbanana]

I still don't understand pull-offs. Try playing tantric-breakdown with the lesson, it doesn't sound good...

[metalted]

thanks,but you cant do trills on an acoustic!!

[skinnygav]

NICE ARTICLE

[crazymoose]

thankz! did help alot although still a bit confuffled! practise makes perfect right?!

[geezon]

thankz!

[Alex Guitar1990]

thanks

[risingtide]

nice, just learning and this article helped-
thanks alot

[rockergirl1122]

nice article. it really helped me out thanks

[hashleafgoth]

Thanks!
I FINALLY understand!

[nithinforever]

Thanx dude...was very simple..but gud for newbs..and also cleared my confusion about some terms.

[mhotie11]

man tnx 4 ur lesson.now i rily understand hamer&pull off!!!tnx a lot!!!!mhotie

[metallica king]

dis lesson is fockin.....GR8!!! it rocks thanx because now i can understand a lot more metallica songs now!!woooo rock on

[superjonti]

cool tnx

[puppetmasterjjk]

hey man good job great article this helped me alot!

[Darryl]

some one tell me why when i pull off from the 15th fret to the 12th fret it dosn't sound

great lesson!!!!!

[emorhys]

This lesson was really helpgul, thanks alot.

[diskore]

this article explained what I was trying to learn

[green_day9]

dude, how long does it take to be able to play sweet child of mine?

[goodeygoodey]

Gr8 cheers!!!!!

[Killswitch.2K]

this article is really great :P

im playing guitar now for 3 days and it helped me alot

keep on going ^^

[jammoe]

A pull off can generate vibrations(sound), but a hammer on will only carry on the left over vibrations from a previous note.

Isn't it sort of the reverse of this? Aren't hammer-ons almost like left-hand tapping, whereas pull-offs decay quickly.

[spiderpool]

Nice one cheers

[motioncity1218]

i get it!
kinda

[grecus]

thanks a lot !!!!!

[Mosseydebassist]

thanks gr8 lesson understood hammer ons b4 but now get what pull off is as well tanx

[The Spoon]

Awesome lesson. Never understood pull-offs too much. I love UG!!

[Suffocation]

I finally know what this means

[arianalexis]

That was incredibly helpful. Thanks!

[StylinProfilin]

This was great for me.

[Fury Deliver Me]

iv been wanting to learn this, and you really helped me out,you did a great job, thanks

[bdaddy]

this article helped me alot i was having a hard time figuring out the hammer and pull off they were giving me a hard time cuz im trying to play alot of complicated songs i was having to skip those parts and now i can play them farly well


peace every one

[guner270]

thnx for the article it help me out some with my band so thnx a ton dude

[Gn'r fan]

wooo thnxb b4 i cud do hammer-ons put didnt get pull-offs gr8 articls

[sk8erjoe]

Great article mate!
helped a lot because im a new guitarist!

[birdman2006]

this is a load of crap!



hehe just kiddin-its brill

[aussie_dude]

thank you sooooo soooo much i knew how to do hammer ons but i didnt get the pull offs thanks heaps ur champ

[bad boy21021]

uh hi

[scotland654]

haha OOK I GET IT... sorta.. im slow.. im gunna play w/ it for a wile and see wat i cant figure out... ne one have ne easy solos or w/e to work this out on?? send me a message if u do... thx

good article man peace

[Underthrone]

good article...every guitar player should know this...and if you don't, don't call yourself a guitar player

[K.B Spades]

ok everone that say this is not helping them well all i have to say to u is u guys no shit about guitars this is right and good work man

[hard rockstar]

thanx man that help alot

[hard rockstar]

[hard rockstar]

i qute that is great

advice

[|T4Z|]

hella good

[dann_blood]

this is a great guide, i did a quick search in lessons for my mate that needed a bit of help and everything i told him meant literally nothing compared to what you guys have done.

[EpiphoneKnight]

Question:

I can do hammering pretty well. Is it THE fastest technique? I would think it would be. Am I wrong?

[rock!ng gtar!st]

tnx dude it help me alot

[try_to_hit_me]

great lesson

[billebob666]

yep this is okay - i just cant trilll exremely fast - i suppose it is just a matter of practeese

[PhL@$h]

gr8,now i can do pull offs !!!

[AndrewMuller]

This was a great article, i had already used the techniques of hammer-on and pull-off but i didn't really know what they were. You are a good writer and put things in terms everybody can understand.

[jcpogi_27]

great!!!! now i understand

[rockmachine666]

gr8 article, good 4 some total n00b, but a bit 3 yrs ago for me.

[thrash minded]

ace thankz m8. now i can finaly understand sum o the tabs in me books.

p.s. ye im a total guitar noob!!

[jordan13]

does anyone know anything about harmonic bends?

[TNTtrev]

Good lesson.

[dschuler36]

ya this is way to easy i could do this like the first week i got my guitar

[teh_gorgon]

Good Lesson, I haven't been able to hammer-on and pull-off since i've started playing (2 months) So, hopefully this'll help me get better with playing and strengthening my fingers and such. Thanks for a great Lesson

[Sabu1992]

i can pretty much do most things but i am a bit confused as to when u do a pull off, are you supposed to sort of play the string with the finger pulling off or just take your finger off the string?

[mitch311]

Good lesson but you didn't explain pull offs well enough. When I pull off I flick my finger down, you don't just take it off.

[xavengedx]

ok, 1, tomdabomb, ur shit if u didnt understand, nice article ^_^

[Mr_BTP]

nice lesson, very easy to understand

one piece of advice abt h/o and p/o though is that if you want less sound diminishing, you have to hit them hard and fast - that really needs emphasized more as that was the problem i had for a while on them

[nathan shadur]

Thanks heaps 4 the lesson, i was stumped the first time i saw h's and p's in my tab sheets lol

[fitzpatrick666]

pile of shit

[Ssr693]

ive been playing guitar for a while now, i totally get hammer ons put when i go to do a pull off i cant get a good sound out of it. when i do get a good sound i end up accidentally hitting other strings and when i mute them it doesnt work! what am i doing wrong? does anyone have ANY tips for me???

[keke18]

that was a great lesson, i totally understand cheers

[Baasoromyuu]

I understand how to do pull-offs now, thanks.

[Mihyaeru]

Yes theyre simple techniques that pretty much all beginners learn but somoene still has to teach the beginners about them so people who r complaining that thisi s simple or they learnt it ages ago 1) why r u reading this article wen u know how to do it and 2) grow up some ppl still need to learn them!!

[flamolo]

boring to read this
shit, thiss for beginners

[Strausser33]

everyone was once a beginner.....people like this helped people like you/me become better guitar players point blank

nice job.....u explained it perfectly

[xpatrickstumpx]

nice explaining at first when i looked at a tab and saw that im like wat the hell now i know wat.

thanx [=

[Gary (Cannibal)]

i still dont understand how to do it...if anyone knows how can u add me to msn and tell [e-mail] thankz

Cannibal

[Twizted134]

Its good at explaining the theory of the techniques but it doesn't really help me with my skill...

[slice101]

thanks for the help, just a review for me tho

[guitarfrk377]

Thanks! I knew what the P and H stood for but was unsure how to do it. Now I just need to put them together...

[filthylittleboy]

uhm there's an issue... hammerons can easily vibrate the string, so i have no idea what he's trying to say about them. if anything they create more of a vibration. if you literally HAMMER on the string... it's gonna vibrate, and you can have a lot more power if you do it that way.

[soul of pj92]

This is a great article ... Thx a lot