The techniques of "hammering on" and "pulling off" on guitar are two of the most important skills to master after the beginning foundation of technique and practice approach have been established. These techniques are sometimes referred to as "legato", or "ligado", or "slurs". Whatever we call them, they are not only essential in more advanced playing, but they are technically more difficult than normal playing, where each note is given a separate attack.

All the reasons for the extra difficulty, and a complete explanation of the anatomy of hammers and pulls, as well as how to correctly practice them, is given in the GuitarPrinciples publication "Hammers & Pulls According To The Principles". What I want to talk about now is one of the most common problems people have once they do gain an understanding of the finger mechanics of these techniques, and begin to work up speed on them.

I don't think I have ever seen a student who has not developed this problem as they began work in this area, including me! That problem is unevenness in the rhythm. Because a hammer is done by sounding one note and then hammering on with a left hand finger to sound another note, everyone assumes that the hammer finger must move as fast as possible to sound the note. While it is true that the finger must move faster than normal in order to set the string into vibration at a new fret, it is not true that it must move sooner! If you are playing 8th notes in hammers, those notes must be in the same even rhythm, each note receiving exactly one half beat, as if you were striking each note. What actually happens is the student just thinks "fast", and plays the hammer finger too soon. The result is that the first note is cut short, and the second is too long! With pull offs, the same thing occurs. The pull finger pulls to soon.

This problem happens to virtually everyone right at the beginning, and must be rooted out right at the beginning by a very vigilant teacher. It is extremely difficult for the student to have the self awareness to hear this themselves, because they are still struggling to deal with the physical demand of the technique. The answer is to follow the course of action outlined in my book "Deeper" for achieving "knowledge of results" during practice, where we constantly record our playing on a micro-cassette recorder, and listen back at half speed for rhythmic accuracy. (See "Deeper" p. 37 for a full explanation).

Anyone using my book "Hammers & Pulls" should be working up the speed on the basic left hand fingering patterns using this approach, and monitoring their playing at each speed for rhythmic accuracy. Here are a couple of samples to give you an idea of the difference in sound between even and uneven hammers.....

uneven 16th notes at 60bpm          even 16th notes at 60bpm

hammers at 120-140-160 bpm

From "The Deeper I Go, The Deeper It Gets"

"Now, there is a mental process that all great players are good at, even though some may not know it. It is the process of analysis. Analysis is a two step process: finding the WHAT, then finding the WHY.

Equally important is knowing how to play. Even though the two exist side by side for us guitar players, it is still important to understand the difference between them.


Work and play are both forms of activity, but there is a big difference. Essentially, work is activity that is done in order to obtain a goal that exists in the future. Play, on the other hand, is activity whose goal is in the present;  there is no concept of, or concern for the future, in play. In play, the goal is the moment itself, and all it contains.


This is why children are so good at play, it is the natural condition of the child to be in the present. The challenge for children is to learn the value of work, the value of engaging in activity that is done for the sake of a future goal. It is often difficult for children to learn this, because so many of the goals they are forced to work for are not goals they themselves really care about. I have met many children who truly have no future oriented goals  of their own choosing which would impel them to discover the value and joy of true work. They often remain, even into adulthood, in a childish or adolescent state of only exerting effort when forced to do so, by someone else, or by life's demand to "make a living", and resenting any kind of authority that has the power to make them do things they don't want to do.

The lucky child who is able to choose goals that are reflections of their true nature will learn how to combine the pleasure of play with the power of work. A life of satisfaction and achievement is then possible. The pleasure of play comes from the fact that through play we express what we are, and self-expression is necessary for psychological health. The satisfaction of work comes from the use of our own power to bring about change, and all people need to experience their own power. Whatever you may be doing in your life, if there is no element of play in your work, it is because it is not your work, it is someone else's! They are probably enjoying themselves, but you do not own your work, they do; you are working to achieve their goals! This does not mean that you cannot work for someone else's goal, and have it be your goal as well, but if you are not enjoying yourself, it means this is not what is happening. You have never set goals that are reflections and fulfillments of your true nature, and engaged in the activities that would bring you to those goals. Some folks may even feel unable to conceive of goals that would be reflections of their true nature, but that very serious problem is beyond the scope of this essay. At the very least, we should all understand where we are, and why we are there. 

Through play, we express what we are; through work, we change what we are. Both are essential, and both feed each other. As guitarists, we have an ever present and powerful motivation for keeping our ability and desire to express ourselves in play in tip top shape! This is because there is no end to the satisfaction that a musician derives from making music, and that is because of the divine nature of music itself. There is also no end to how far any of us can go in increasing our abilities as guitarists. In play, we express what we are, but by our work, we create more of ourselves to be expressed! Through work, through activity designed to change what we are and what we can do, we intensify the whole enterprise, our play as well as our work. 

And this is why we must know how to work, how to engage in activity with the guitar that will achieve future oriented goals. We normally call this "practice". Unfortunately, for many people, their "work" never "works"! They put in the time and effort, but nothing changes. Then of course, the pleasure and desire begin to go out of their relationship to the guitar. That is why GuitarPrinciples focuses so much on teaching students to work, to practice. The urge to play is quite natural, we don't have to learn it, we just have to prevent ourselves from un-learning it! And when the ability to do true work is never learned, the urge and ability to play begins to disappear. When we learn how to work, we empower ourselves to play as well.

As guitarists interested in enjoying ourselves to the fullest, we must make sure we know how to play, how to work, and how to bring the spirit of play into our work. There must be times when we do nothing but play for the sheer joy of playing music, and there must be times when we practice, when we work to improve our abilities. If we are able to actually enjoy the effort of practice for its own sake, if we are able to "play within our practice", we will find ourselves growing at quite a rapid rate. The element of play does indeed begin to come into our practice as we learn how to practice correctly. When we find that we can set goals and accomplish them through practice, the setting of goals, and the constant experimentation and discovery that accompanies correct practice becomes like an exciting game we look forward to playing.

As guitarists we must keep what is valuable from our childhood, the urge and ability to play, and add to that what is valuable and necessary for the adult world. We must know how to work, how to play, and how to combine the two in relative proportions appropriate to our situations. Practice is often work, it is activity that is done for the sake of a future goal, but because that goal is of our own choosing, there is great satisfaction in using our power to achieve it. As the work we do in practice gives us more playing ability, it enhances the quality of our play. We have more to play with, at those times when we wish to engage in that free activity know as play, where, like a horse running for the sake of running and not to get somewhere, we play for the sake of playing, and not to achieve anything beyond the moment.

As guitarists, we have a special opportunity to bring work and play into this harmonious balance. Sometimes, in reading posts in our GuitarPrinciples Forum, I can tell when someone has achieved this, they tend to say things like "can it get any better than this!!?"