Based on Lesson No.29 from Greg’s Bass Shed on YouTube
These 2 left hand techniques will really enhance and add style to your basslines.
Hammer-on
A Hammer-on is played by tapping the fretboard with a finger of your left hand, without plucking with the right hand. You need to apply a fair amount of pressure for the note to sound as strongly as a plucked note.
You use a hammer-on to play a note above the one you have just played. Technique wise it is important to keep the previous note held down in your left hand while playing the hammer-on note.
EXERCISE: Play a C on the G string which is the 5th fret and then hammer-on the D
above which is the 7th fret. Keep your finger down on the 5th fret while you
play this. Try to have the D sound at a similar volume to the C.
This is how this particular hammer-on is written
Pull-off
A Pull-off is the opposite of a Hammer-on in that it goes in the opposite direction. You first play a note as normal and then play a note below. You play the note below by having that note already fretted and then plucking that string with a finger of your left hand.
EXERCISE: This time we will play a D on the G string down to a C. So get your fingers
ready with finger 1 on C and finger 3 on D. Play the D by plucking with your
right hand and then pluck that string with finger 3 of the left hand. The C
should sound as it is already pressed down.
This is a tricky technique to master but with practise you can perfect it.
This is how this particular pull-off is written:
Follow the link on the top of this page to see the video lesson and download the PDF with some very useful exercises to help.
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