Guitar · Chapter 19 of 23
Hammer-Ons, Slides and Bends: Country Blues
Blues guitar sounds like a voice because the notes bend, slide and slur into each other. Four left-hand techniques do it, and a steady thumb holds it all together.
These four techniques let you play two notes with one pluck, or glide between them. They appear in almost every style, but the blues made them famous.
Hammer-on and pull-off
Hammer-on (H)
Pluck a note (often an open string), then bring a finger down hard on a higher fret of the same string. The string keeps ringing, now at the new note. Snap the fingertip down just behind the fret.
Pull-off (P)
Pluck a fretted note, then pull the finger off sideways, slightly plucking the string as it leaves, so the lower note (open or held by another finger) sounds.
Slide
Pluck a note and, keeping the finger pressed, slide it up or down to another fret. Only the first note is plucked. A slide into a note starts a fret or two below, with no particular starting note.
Bend
Push the string across the fretboard (toward the ceiling, on the top strings) to raise its pitch. Use two or three fingers together on the string for strength. A ½ bend raises it a half step (one fret’s worth), full a whole step. Bends are easiest on steel strings and up the neck.
The steady thumb
Many early blues guitarists of the Mississippi Delta and the Piedmont played without a band: the thumb was the drum. It plays every beat on a bass string, never stopping, while the fingers play short answers on the top strings. Practice the thumb alone until it runs by itself.
Dry Creek Blues
A fingerpicked twelve-bar blues in the style of the early country blues: steady thumb on the open bass strings, hammer-ons from G to G♯ on E and from G to A on A7, and a turnaround that walks down the 4th string.
Remember
- Hammer-on up, pull-off down: one pluck, two notes.
- Slide: keep pressing as you move. Bend: push the string to raise the note.
- In country blues, the thumb never stops.