Some of you have asked me how to do a hammer on guitar, so this lesson is going to address that.
A hammer on is very simply hitting a guitar string without plucking or picking it at the same time. So you’re just using your left hand for this one. It is a fairly simple technique, but you can use it in some very advanced ways once you’ve got the hang of it.
Hammer on guitar riffs sound pretty cool, and you can also use hammer ons to throw in chromatic passing notes all over the place.
Definitely something worth practicing and mastering…
This guitar lesson is a pretty basic one, but hopefully it still contains some useful tips for you.
I wanted to talk briefly about ‘sliding’ on your guitar… I’m NOT talking about using a ‘slide’ on your guitar, in the sense of putting a metal or glass tube around your finger… that would be a very cool topic for a different day.
However, today we’re going to look at how you can slide between notes, perhaps as a way to get into a riff, or to get out of a solo, or for whatever your brain can concoct as being a cool idea.
I’ve decided to start a series of videos for the guitar riff lessons. Hence the name “Cool Guitar Riffs #2.” Mostly because I’m running out of things to call them, so why not start giving them numbers?
I once had one of those Siamese fighting fish as a pet, and I wasn’t sure if he would live very long, so I named him Louis, in case I needed to start a dynasty…
Anyways, guitar riffs are a lot more fun than dead fish, so back on topic here! Today I’ve got one for you that uses fourths, and the A pentatonic minor scale. That’s the first riff in the video, and I’m sure you’ve heard this style of riff all over the place. It’s a pretty classic sound. Keep in mind that these riffs can sound very different if you simply turn off the talent button and play clean for a moment, or if you just change up the timing a little bit.
The second riff comes out of the A diatonic minor scale, root 5 -- also known as the Lydian scale if you like being technical about it. I find it more intuitive to talk about these scales in terms of what they are (A minor diatonic) and where they start (root 5 = 5th string… think about it… that means you’re starting on the 5th string, 12 fret, where you find the A). I’ve never related well to the technical terms like Lydian, Dorian and all the rest, and by and large I don’t find the terminology particularly helpful.
But there’s my rant for the day -- go ahead and hit play, watch the lesson, and then leave a comment below the video when you’re done!
Here’s another lesson for you riff-hungry rocksters out there!
One cool way that you can start looking for new chords to use is to examine the top few strings of the bar chords. Here’s a tip -- if the notes are used in a chord, then they’re going to sound great together in a solo!
In fact, using different intervals that come from chords is a great way to break out of the rut of sticking too close to the scale when you’re improvising.
So without further ado, here’s today’s guitar tip.
