Guitar Techniques

Tapping the guitar means you produce sounds by tapping the string at any fret, instead of plucking the strings. Tapping can be carried out with just one hand, or both hands at the same time, and can be used to give your music a more percussive feel, therefore rhythm and timing is very important.

Harmonics are played every time you pluck a note, you just don’t  hear them most of the time. What you hear is the fundamental (sometimes called the first harmonic), which is the loudest sound you get when you simply play a fretted note. Nevertheless, it is accompanied by harmonics. When you play harmonics on the guitar, you eliminate the fundamental sound, therefore you can actually hear the harmonic.

Just like a hammer on, a pull off is way of sounding a note without having to pick at it, which can speed up your riff. Pull offs are carried out on strings that are already vibrating (giving off sound). As it’s the opposite of the hammer on, the pull off will sound a note lower on the given string, either a fretted note, or the open string itself. 

Learning lead guitar techniques, such as the hammer-on and pull off, is an essential element for any guitar student wanting to learn to play great solos and riffs. Learn these techniques well, and use them on either the acoustic or electric guitar.

Once you know your basic beginners chords, you’ll want to learn how to strum chords. This is the point where you actually start making real music, and you’ll see that its relatively easy. Actually, if you know 3-5 chords, you know how to change between them, and you learn how to strum, you can already play hundreds, if not thousands of songs.