Play Guitar In 7 Days!

Lesson Four: “For The Kids”

Droning is a technique in which an open string (a string with no fingers on it) is played along with a fretted string (a string with a finger pressed down on it). Usually the finger moves up and down the fingerboard in some kind of pattern; U2’s guitarist The Edge made a fortune off this very technique.

“For The Kids” combines a droning B-string with a deceptively easy double hammer-on/pull-off lick. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are basically the right hand taking a lunch break and leaving the left hand to do all of the work. This may sound harsh and unfair, but is actually much easier than picking every note, since instead of coordinating two hands, one hand slurs the notes together and a smooth, speedy effect is achieved. Care must be taken not to become lazy and slur everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will recall from Lesson 3 the above notation system is called tablature (“tab” for short). Pick the open 2nd string and let it ring out as you play the notes on the first string, in third position.

POP QUIZ: Do you remember what a position is? Hint: We also covered this in Lesson 3.

While the 2nd string is ringing, pick the 1st string on the 2nd fret, taking care not to quash the 2nd string: this is your drone note! You want them to ring together (this is called harmony (sorry for all the terms in bold; we’ll cover harmony in a future lesson!)).

Now comes the trick: you are going to pick the 1st string once again, but play five different notes with only your left hand moving. Whoa! Hammer-on your first finger, then your third finger; now pull-off your third finger, and then your first finger, ending on an open ringing string where we started.

Congratulations: you have just performed a double hammer-on/pull-off!

Measure 2 is a repeat of Measure 1 (which happens a lot in pop music, or folk music, or EDM… not so much in jazz or classical), but note the series of 3-note chords in m. 3-4. Now you are droning on the 1st string, so, again, care must be taken to not accidentally dampen it: keep your fingers arched, like you are holding a tennis ball in your fretting hand. (If you don’t play sports, substitute an imaginary apple, orange, kumquat, etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the open 1st string and fretted 2nd and 3rd strings, these close clusters of notes produce a chiming bell-like quality, much more pleasing than if you played them on, say, a piano. This makes the guitar a more idiosyncratic instrument which, in our opinion, is a good thing.

 

Exercise 1: Try to play notes on the guitar without using your right hand at all. (Left-handed folks, please transpose hands, as you often must do.) Now do you see where hammer-ons and pull-offs might come in handy?

Exercise 2: Play notes on the guitar using only your right hand. (Left-handed folks, see italicized note above.) How is this working for you? Do you feel limited in your tonal palette? Now, which hand do you feel is more important?

 

In closing: Would you be mad if we told you this was the easy version? The more advanced version will be covered in Series 2. Trust us, you are not ready for Series 2, so don’t even ask.

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