If your pull-offs aren’t working, the first place to look is in the term: “Pull-Off,” accent on the “off” part of the movement or technique. Perhaps they should be called, ‘pull-downs,’ but that would probably be confusing. And it wouldn’t make matchy-matchy with the Hammer-On, would it?
The idea is that you’re creating two notes from one picking hand motion. The left or fretting hand does the extra work. But if you simply pull your finger away from the first note, you won’t get much of a second note. You have to consciously squeeze off the string with your finger, creating the second note by actually plucking it with your fretting hand. So instead of a motion away from the fretboard, you’re actually sliding or squeezing over in a downward and then circular motion. Your fretting finger will actually end up touching the fretboard before circling up and back into position for another note. Take a look at the video. It hurts a little at first. Some exercises and licks are included below to make it hurt even more.
You should be able to get a note with this technique even without the picking motion of the right hand. So, first you need to have two notes set up – the first one, a higher note, which will be picked with the right hand and then pulled off, and the second note which must be either open or fretted. If it’s a fretted note on the high E string, you have to hold onto it, not allowing the pull-off finger to pull the whole string out of line and therefore killing the second note and probably the first as well. But any fretted note that you're pull off to must be held on to.
Note that in tab or traditional musical notation, there are no terms like “pull-off” or “hammer-on” written into the music. When you see the slur sign, (see above) you’ll usually have two notes, with the slur sign on top of them (as in the examples). If the first note is higher than the second note, it’s a pull-off. If the second note is higher, it’s a hammer-on. Good luck and have fun! -Christian Botta
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