Guitar technique, is without a doubt a important as the the song you choose to play. Just playing the all the right notes in the right order at the right time is like music by numbers. A good guitarist should strive to learn all the techniques he/she can master, and the benefits will surely become obvious. Most of these types of techniques get labeled as “lead guitar techniques,” but the truth is that every guitarist should have these as part of their repertoire.
There isn’t one technique mentioned here that can’t be found in a rhythm part in a number of different songs. Even if you only play rhythm guitar for a band, it is still important to have a firm grasp of how to use these techniques.
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Pull-offs & Hammer-ons
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are two methods to the same general technique. Used to allow the guitarist to play 2 or more notes on a single string, instead of picking and fretting each string on its own, the fretting hand is used to sound the note. The Hammer on comes into play when the note is higher up the string and the guitarist must fret the note with sufficient force to produce the appropriate note.
The opposite of this is pull-offs, which are used to move back to a lower note. Before doing a pull-off, the new note must already be fretted. To perform a pull-off you must use your fretting hand to to actually pluck the string, pulling you finger away to sound the note. Hammer ons and Pull-offs are best used when you have a fast sequence of notes all of which are close together.
Bending
Bending is the act of changing the pitch of a note by pushing a ringing string along a fret. Doing this changes the tension on the string, and allows a smooth transition from one note to the other. 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. A lot of lead riffs and quite a few rhythm riffs are pretty heavily based on this technique.
However, this technique can be difficult to learn. You do need to be able to hear when the string has reached the pitch you want when bending. 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.
