Guitar Techniques
As important as it is to have a good song to play in the first place, proper use of guitar technique just adds an entirely new layer to a guitarists playing. Your guitar playing will lack heart and soul if all you do is replicate the notes as they are written down, even though you do hit them in the correct order. A good guitarist should strive to learn all the techniques he/she can master, and the benefits will surely become obvious. Don’t be fooled into thinking these techniques sound too advanced for the beginner, you don’t have to be playing lead guitar to master them.
There isn’t one technique mentioned here that can’t be found in a rhythm part in a number of different songs. So it follows therefore that even rhythm guitarists need the talent to pull off these so-call ’special moves’.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are two methods to the same general technique. If you want to play two or more notes on the same string, rather than fretting and picking each one individually, the guitarist literally sounds each note with their fretting hand and skips picking the note each time. If the note is higher up the string, then the guitarist hammers-on the new note by fretting it with enough force to sound the new note.
If the second note is further down the string then you perform a pull-off. The name is a misnomer, you don’t simply pull off the note, you actually pluck the string with the fretting hand as you pull your finger away in order to sound the note. These are very useful for rapid sequences of notes that are close together.
Bending
Bending is the act of changing the pitch of a note by pushing a ringing string along a fret. This allows for a smoother transition between note by changing the tension in the string. This movement through the microtones of two notes can be very effective in slow bends. A string can also be unbent back to the original note for a smother transition back. This is very popular technique with a lot of lead and rhythm riffs making use of it.
However, this technique can be difficult to learn. You need to pay attention to the pitch of the note while performing the bend. If you get it wrong then the note will sound flat or sharp (depends on whether you over or under bend the string). However dont let this put you off, once mastered this technique is very satisfying. It really does make a huge difference to the sound you can produce.
