about a year and a half ago, i got this total guitar issue with a guest lesson from mr paul gilbert. It had the tab in the magazine and an audio track on the cd which explained how it is played and had also had it played slow and fast.

i do exactly as he says, i.e. picking pattern, which fingers to use etc etc, but i cant get it to sound like him on the demo that was on the cd.

here is the little lick in tab form:

E-5-----------------------5--
B----8p6p5-----h5h6h8----
G------------7--------------

its a kind of hamer on and pull of lick where you only pick the first note and do the rest without picking. so on the e string 5 would get picked.
then on the b string, 8 would get picked and the 5 would be after the 7 on the g string is picked. i hope you get what i mean. i will try and copy the tab word for word when i find the magazine.

neways, whenever i try to play this, the picked notes come out clear, however the hamer on/pull off notes come out really faint and weak. i can hardly hear it at all. on the cd, paul plays it amazingly clean and fluid. it sounds like hes picking all the notes without actually doing so.

does anyone know how to achieve this effect? i feel like ive tried everything, but i cant seem to get it down. does anyone know what causes the weakness and faintness with the hamer on and pull off notes? this is driving me crazy and i cant seem to pull it off.

i've been playing for 1.5 years, i use a esp viper copy loaded with emgs (89/81) going into a pod xt. i use 9-42 strings tuned to e standard. i have only started learning this and can only play it at a slow speed. i have been trying to learn this little lick for about 4 days now, but to no avail

please please please help me out!
any response would be greatly appreciated

thanks alot!
cheers
User01

The faster path, rather than to wait until your legato technique is better, would be to use some effects such as compression. You can tell from how a guitar plays unplugged as to how appropriate the model will be for techniques such as legato.

Maybe give it a try using a piece of clothing tied near the nut to mute the strings... That's a useful tip for begining techniques such as this. Also check that you're using the most efficient picking, and for now, perhaps pick the first note of the legato rather than relying on finger strength. Between all of this, practice the hell out of excercises such as this to improve:

E--7h8h10-12-p10p8p7
B-----------t---------

E--5h7h8-10-8p7p5

Those two should get you started, and provide a decent workout that uses combinations of fingers 1-2-4 and 1-3-4. Doing it on the high E string allows more control to begin with; practciing on the G string is slightly harder, as you have other strings and thigns to worry about.

Anyway... Practice those, and try to keep all your movements to a minimum. Use a metronome/guitar pro etc and make sure each note is played clearly and for the amount of time it should be (i.e. play the whole thing in 8ths so the time does not differ between the notes)

You really have to put force into the hammers.Maybe your action is wonky,it makes it harder.

Maybe try a finger exerciser (you weak piece of shit) I got the gripmaster and it helped.

Really force those fingers down, dont just take them up off the fret.

Keep sucking!
J.R

just sit there doing it as hard as you can until your fingers a dripping blood all over your guitar

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L0L MetAl MoNk3y DaT wAs A FuNi J0k3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Like flies to shit, come the morons to the semi respectable threads...

mmm shit...

While Picking off pick off the string as if you would use finger picking with the left hand...knida hard to explain...

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practice some trill exercises to get more used to legato. remember to work all of your fingers. the routine that i used to do goes like this (numbers = fingers, not necessarily frets):

12121212, 13131313, 14141414, 13131313, 23232323, 24242424, 34343434, 24242424.

repeat on each string. then what i'd do is move up one fret and do it on each string again, just moving up the fretboard. i couldn't go very far though because it will start hurting before long until you've been working on it for a while. that's a good exercise for general finger independance as well.. and i stole it from troy stetin'a speed mechanics for lead guitar book

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yea, i think you guys were right, i was just lifting my fingers off and dropping them on to the fretboard instead of pulling and hammering. i just have to do it a lot harder.
thanks for the help, except problematic, that 10 year old tranny

Trills are kickass for getting your hammers/pulls cranking. It make pulloffs sound a bit louder you should actually pull down slightly, so it kinda plays the note as you are pulling off

You'll get there

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yeah bro.. if you have trouble getting the legato down.. trills help you build up the strenght..... and their fun as hell to throw into solos. ive been messing around with this technique where you do trills while bendind the note slowly. it sounds like your pulling up on a wammy. i love it

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