16th note triplets pull offs and hammer ons (pentatonic)

Aim of the exercise: Practice hammer-ons and pull offs on cool licks used in rock music, focusing on 16th note triplets.
Exercise type: Legato
Starting tempo: 40 beats per minute
Duration: 10 minutes

Sounds a bit like Kirk Hammett or Randy Rhoads

In this exercise you'll be performing pull-offs and hammer-ons on 16h note triplets. Playing 16th note triplets means that you have to put 6 notes into one beat - that's quite fast, so you'll start with the metronome on a slow setting.

A hammer-on is a way you play a certain note on a guitar. You perform a hammer-on by sharply bringing down a fretting finger on a string so that a note sounds without picking it with your picking hand.

The opposite of a hammer-on is a pull-off. You are fretting two notes on the same string and then strike the string. After the sound is made you pull the string with the finger that frets the higher note and lift it off the fretboard. The lower note on the same string and fretted by a different finger will sound afterwards!

You will practice three licks on different patterns of the A minor pentatonic scale.

The fifth pattern

Here's the fifth pattern of the A minor pentatonic scale. Take a good look at it. You'll be playing three licks on this pattern.

D
E
G
A
C
D
E
G
A
C
D
E

Here's the first lick. It's played on two strings so be very careful when switching strings. Whenever you switch a string you will play it with the pick. You're only doing two pull-offs here so make sure to follow the downstroke and upstroke symbols in the tabs and get them right. Start off slow, then speed up.

pattern 5, lick 1

The second lick is an ascending run that goes from the 6th string to the 2nd. Remember to finish this one off with a slide!

pattern 5, lick 2

The final lick is a descending run, from the 1st to the 5th string. Here you're actually playing lick #1 on multiple strings but in key (the fingering is different on other strings, so that it conforms to the scale). Have fun with it!

pattern 5, lick 3

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Start practicing! How much time do you have? In minutes.

GO!