Advanced Guitar Techniques Tutorial

When playing lead guitar, there are a vast number of advanced techniques that you should learn in order to make you playing sound better. This tutorial is aimed at giving you basic information about a number of these techniques.

Palm Mute

Expressed on guitar tablature as 'p.m', Palm Muting is a technique whereby part of the palm on your picking hand rests lightly on a number of strings in order to give them a dulled tone, or none at all depending on how much pressure you put on the strings. This is one of the most frequently used techniques in both lead and rhythm guitar and its important to make sure you know how to mute properly. Its especially handy for stopping strings from being played that don't need to be in complicated chords.

In lead it is a good effect to master to give your playing a bit of feeling and atmosphere as opposed to playing each note at the same velocity.

A good example of palm muting is in the reverb heavy intro of Pink Floyd's, 'Run Like Hell' where you heard the guitar echo's but no really identifiable notes.

Alternative Picking

Alternative Picking is another technique that you really should get used to as a lead guitarist. Alternative picking (also sometimes called economy picking) is a simple method in which you alternate between up and down strokes on every note you play. The best way to practice this technique is to use a metronome and play up and down a scale, starting with an up attack with the pick on the first note, and then a down attack for the next note. Then up again, and down again with every other note.

Alternate Picking Examples (MP3)

Hammer On and Pull Off

These two techniques are used extensively in legato style playing (smooth transition between notes). They are both very simple techniques but most beginners I have taught encounter problems trying to get to grip with these two techniques due to finger pressure etc.

A Hammer on is where you play a note somewhere on the fret board, and then, leaving your finger on the note, using another fretting finger to thump, or 'Hammer' onto another fret on the same string.

A Pull off is the opposite. You fret a note on the fret board and whilst you have another finger on a lower note on the same string whilst the higher of the two notes is playing. The then 'snap' your finger off of the higher note so that the vibrations in the string start the lower note playing immediately afterwards.

Hammer on Video (wmv)
Pull Off Video (wmv)

Slide

Sliding is another legato technique and another simple one in principle, but again beginners to lead have a tendency to slide to far and past their target notes as they are not used to the friction on the strings.

To perform a slide, you play a note on the fret board, and then whilst keeping the same pressure on that note, you slide your finger up or down to another note.

Slide Video (wmv)

The Bend

Bending, you guessed it, is another legato technique. Again it sometimes proves tricky to master for beginners as most of the other techniques here do.

To bend a note, simply fret a note on the fret board and play it. whilst the note is still ringing, bend the string up gradually until you hear the note you are aiming for. You can do bends slowly for that moody feeling, or you can do sharp, quick bends for slightly heavier material.

You can also strike the note just after you start bending it.

Bending Video (wmv)

The Bend and Release

Exactly the same as a bend, only when you reach the top of the bend, you return to the previous note by lowering the bend back to the normal fretting position.

Mixing Techniques

The following video is a demo of combining these techniques in a solo. Combining Techniques(wmv)