Home > Lead Guitar Lessons > Pull Offs
Pull Off Technique on Guitar
This lesson we'll be introduced to the guitar pull off technique and
then we'll move onto some all important finger exercises to get all our
fingers involved in the physical aspect of this technique.
But first...
What are pull offs?
Similar to hammer ons, they're a pick-free way of
sounding a particular note/string. You basically lift off the fretted
string as usual, but pull away with your finger slightly so the string gets twanged (excuse the terminology). Therefore, it's like your fretting hand is doing the pick work!
This adds texture to your solos and allows you to create descending runs and phrases smoothly.
Let's go straight into some exercises now...
 Basic guitar pull off exercises
The pull off is like the opposite of the hammer on, so we start on the
fretted string/note and use the pull off technique to make a quick,
smooth descent down the fretboard, to a lower note in the scale we're playing. A finger should already be in place ready to "catch" the pull off...
Let's get all our fingers involved in the different interval movements we'll likely come across when playing scales - First, a half step movement, equivalent to moving down one fret...
Click the diagrams and tabs in this lesson to hear examples
So that's the interval
we're pulling off to. Obviously, as you play a scale, different fingers
will end up using this interval, so the exercises below will cover the
common finger combinations...
1) Pulling off from middle finger to index finger
As
you can hear from the example above, a pull off can be quick depending
on the rhythm you're playing to. Experiment with fast and slow pull
offs - you'll find the slow ones need more pulling force to keep the
string resonating.
2) Pulling off from pinky finger to ring finger
3) Pulling off from ring finger to middle finger
...a bit of a jazzy lick there!
Second interval - a full step movement, equivalent to moving down 2 frets...
4) Pulling off from ring finger to index finger
5) Pulling off from pinky finger to ring finger
 Don't
worry if that last one feels a bit awkward - the pinky finger is
commonly the weakest finger when learning lead guitar. Like any muscle
in your body, you need to exercise to gain strength.
And lastly, a larger pull off interval...
6) Pulling off from pinky finger to index finger
Guitar pull offs - using more than one pull
Once we're comfortable with the basic technique, we can
move onto larger phrases, using more than one pull off in sequence to
create a kind of rolling effect.
Try the exercises below. I've given you the fingering for the first few notes but the rest you'll need to work out...
You can try the lick above (or your own of course!) over this backing track.
...and the backing track.
TIP: You should start slow with any technique and gradually build up speed with a metronome!
Hopefully, after following and practising the exercises in this lesson you should now be pretty confident with the physical side of the pull off technique.
When it comes to knowing which interval to use in a
scale, well, that's a whole different lesson in itself! I'll be
uploading lessons on the main lead guitar page to help you with this,
but have a play around with what we've learned here - you might find it
all comes naturally to you.
For now though, thanks for your time and patience - you can use the links below to jump to related lessons...
Master the Hammer On Technique!
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