Video:What Are Pull-Offs in Guitar Tab?
with Omar SaadPull-offs are a useful technique in playing guitar that allow you to play multiple notes without re-picking the strings. Here are instructions for recognizing pull-offs when reading guitar tablature.See Transcript
Transcript:What Are Pull-Offs in Guitar Tab?
Hi, I'm Omar Saad, here for About.com, and today, we're going to take a look at what pull-offs are in guitar tab.
How to Play Guitar Pull-offs
If you're learning to play the guitar and are using guitar tabs as your guide, you'll no doubt run across a handful of specific play techniques outside of a simple listing of what notes and chords to play. Among the most common of these techniques is the pull-off. Here's a closer look at pull-offs in guitar tab. A pull-off is a common guitar playing technique, that's almost the exact opposite of the hammer-on. The pull-off involves playing a note on a certain string and then playing another note, also on the same string, with our re-picking that string. For example, we can play the fifth fret on the third string and then, without repacking, pull-off our second finger to the third fret on the third string. This will allow us to play both notes. Let's take another listen. As far as what pull-offs look like in guitar tab, they are depicted in several different ways.
Recognizing Pull-offs in Guitar Tab
In ASCII style guitar tablature, the most commonly found version online, pull-offs are depicted with the letter "p" in between the two notes to be played. In formal guitar tablature, such as the kind found in magazines, the pull-offs are written as slurs with a curved line placed over the top of the first and second notes, as seen here. Let's take a look at how to play a pull-off as depicted in guitar tab. Here we have an example of two different types of tablature from About.com's Guitar site. We can see that in both cases, we pick the eleventh fret on the third string and then pull-off to the ninth fret on that same string. Let's play it. Tablature is an easy way to start learning how to play the guitar. Understanding what the different characters mean along with the techniques behind them, such as the pull-off, will only help to improve your playing proficiency.
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