Guitar techniques:

The unique nature of fretted stringed instruments such as guitars and basses allows for specific articulation techniques to be used and written in music for these instruments. For more information on guitar notation see Unit 3 Lesson 1. I have included the description of the techniques below and then in the examples section I have included various videos that demonstrate these techniques with tab.

Bending: Bending involves playing a note and then bending the string up to raise the notes pitch by either a 1/2 or a full step (i.e. by either a semitone or a tone). Guitarists can also utilise this technique to add microtonality to their playing. String bends on tab and notation are shown by an arrow curving upwards with either 1/2 or full written above it to indicate the destination note.

Hammer-ons & Pull-offs:: Hammer-ons involve a player plucking a string and then sharply pressing a higher fret on the same string with another finger to play two notes by only plucking the string once.

Pull-offs are essentially reverse hammer-ons and involves using your fretting hand to 'pluck' a note by pulling your finger off the note and whilst having your other fingers pressed on a lower fret. Fast combinations of hammer-ons and pull-offs can be used to create trills. See the pictures on right for notated examples of hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Harmonics: Harmonics involve playing a note in a certain way in order to bring out specific higher frequencies within the note. There are numerous ways of doing this however they are all notated in a very similar way. For tab the fret number will be encased within a box or brackets and for traditional notation the note will be diamond shaped. There will also be abbreviations to indicate the specific type of harmonic (e.g. PH for pinched harmonic).

Palm muting: Palm muting involves placing the soft edge of the palm of the playing hand (normally the right hand) lightly over the bridge of the guitar to mute the strings slightly. This is shown by the abbreviation PM.

Vibrato: Unlike traditional stringed instruments such as violins and cellos, vibrato on guitar involves a lot move effort due to the frets on the instrument. Vibrato is created by pushing and pulling the string whilst playing the note to rapidly alter the pitch of the note. The more aggressive the player chooses to play the vibrato the more aggressively the pitch will shift. Vibrato is shown as a wavering bold black line over the top of the notes

Examples:

Pink Panther: This song demonstrates how hammer-ons and pull-offs are both written and played. You can see the use of the slur between the notes to show that the notes are to be played legato and that they are tied together. Above the score you will notice the letter H and P. These indicate hammer-ons and pull-offs respectively. If you watch the musicians hands you will see how he will only pluck the starting note and then perform the hammer-on/pull-off.

Free Bird: This song demonstrates how bends work during the solo section (4:56). You can clearly see the arrows curving upwards with 'full' written above them. This indicates that a full bend takes place which tells the musician to bend the string more. Some of the bends also have wavy lines written above the bend indicating that a guitarist should use vibrato whilst bending the string.

Portrait of Tracy: This song shows how both natural harmonics and artificial harmonics are notated. You can see that on the tab the harmonics are written as a fret number in brackets with the artificial harmonics have 2 numbers written above the tab score. For traditional notation, harmonics are written as diamond shaped notes.

Floods: The solo for this song (3:55) is a brilliant example of how Dimebag Darrell uses palm muting, harmonics, vibrato and bends to create a melodic and powerful solo. You can see in the first part of the solo is played whilst palm muting. The pinch harmonics are indicated by smaller numbers in brackets (indicating the pitch of the harmonic if it wasn't played as one).

Why do we use these markings?:

Because fretted string instruments such as the guitar and bass are different to traditional orchestral instruments due to their unique design and blend of electronic and acoustic elements, they have access to a variety of different techniques that cannot be done on other instruments. These have to be notated in order let guitarists know that these techniques are used. For example Dimebag Darrell has a very specific way of playing pinched harmonics in order to create a squealing sound, you can hear this in the solo for 'Floods' (see above). These markings must be written in order to make anyone trying to read guitar music aware of the use of these techniques and recreate the artists intentions.