Holdsworth's All Hammer-on Legato

[Jburd77]

@Tom_Gilroy

There are other instances I have noticed in his playing however where the lower note does not seem to be already fretted and the lower finger in rapidly making contact with the string. To me, this looks and sounds like a true descending hammer. He might be very quickly loading the lower finger into fretting the lower note for a slight pull-off, but I don’t feel that is what is happening in many cases

Perhaps I’ll resurrect this post 3 years later lol. First off, Tom you probably need to be hired by the CtC team lol. Your insights are truly inspiring.

So there is a technique that I do pretty often with pull offs that I have never seen or heard anyone talk about. I assume this is common, but maybe no one has ever analyzed it: I call it a jumping pull off. I will pull a note off, let’s say 3rd finger to 1st, without having the 1st finger loaded behind. The first finger will be in its rested state above the frets, and as the 3rd finger pulls off, I will fret the 1st finger. It looks like a reverse hammer on or just normal fretting motion, but I am getting the articulation of a pull off.

As I’m writing this, it seems too elementary, like everyone would know this and employ it. But again, I have never heard anyone mention this as a technique.

So perhaps the motion you’re describing is that pull off technique?

[carranoj25]

Read all the threads and made a thread about this in the past I think. I really want to get Descending Hammer Ons and Hammer-Ons from nowhere down because I think they could be really helpful. Im excited to start practicing these a lot and as a means of not being able to contain my excitement, I started a new thread haha. Just want to compile all the best tips and effective practice strategies for these techniques in one place. Ive watched the Marshall Harrison, Brett Garsed videos and probably more but it’s kind of hard to imitate from a video. Stoked to hear all your tips. Since Im used to picking a lot of notes, I definitely have to be more aware of lighter picking to even out with legato playing. Also, of course have to find the right tone and string height to do this properly. Thanks in advance for responding to a repetitive thread

[jzohrab]

I put some initial thoughts in Descending problems. How are YOU picking descending scales?

Cheers! Z

[Tom_Gilroy]

I wrote about descending hammers in this reply, which was well received:

Holdsworth's All Hammer-on Legato

Hi Everybody. Allan is one of my favorite players and I’ve studied his playing and his technique very carefully. I’ve been focused on developing high level legato technique for several years now, including the “all hammers” approach. There are a few conceptual difficulties people often have when they first hear of descending hammers, and how it can be physically possible. This can be dispelled via physical reasoning. Suppose we are performing an ascending hammer on. Suppose for the sake of di…

[aliensporebomb]

Just so you know at least as far as it was discussed by AH it was never all hammer-on only legato. By his own words it It was hammer ons with lift offs. Not pull offs. He described not enjoying the sound of pull offs as it tended to bend the note sharp slightly creating a “meowing” sound. This lead to the lift off technique which actuated the note elegantly in a way where the note wasn’t bent. This was described in a technique section of “Guitar for the Practicing Musician” issue in 1984 interview with Allan where it was one of the very few places I ever saw it discussed (I collect AH interviews some of them from obscure places). This was the issue with the transcription of “Road Games”. I’m aware of Marshall’s opinion on this subject and his approach obviously works for him. However, it’s my opinion that if you want to study the man you should try as many of his techniques as possible to see how it works for you to understand. At any rate, there’s many videos online showing AH playing and you can see how he does it.

[Tom_Gilroy]

@aliensporebomb

This was described in a technique section of “Guitar for the Practicing Musician” issue in 1984 interview with Allan where it was one of the very few places I ever saw it discussed (I collect AH interviews some of them from obscure places).

I would say the “lift off” is mentioned, not really discussed. We’ve talked about this before.

Holdsworth's All Hammer-on Legato

Hi @aliensporebomb. I’ve read most of the interviews with Allan that have appeared in print or online, including the one you’ve mentioned. While the interviews are certainly helpful, I don’t think anything Allan has said regarding his technique should be taken as gospel, for several reasons. As we’ve seen in CTC interviews, few players have a thorough understanding of their playing mechanics, and there are usually discrepancies between what a player is doing and what they think or feel they a…

[jax]

Do you have vid examples of this legato

[aliendough]

I was re-reading this thread - some great insights on here.

I’m curious - is it better to use a heavier gauge or a lighter gauge for legato? I know that Holdsworth used 8s, but then you have Daniele Gottardo who uses 11s and a scalloped neck and he gets an incredible sound.