Pull-offs question.

[Varient]

G'day all, I've started working on my legato after a little over a years playing seeing as I completely neglected it when I first learned to play in favour of pure alt picking and while I've finally gotten used to incorporating legato into my playing I was wondering how everyone else uses their fingers when playing pull-offs.
For example, when I started off I'd have all the fingers needed for the pull off put down at once,say for a 9p7p6, I'd have my index, middle and little fingers all on the fretboard and pull them off in order until I got to my index. As I got into playing legato I found this bloody awkward to incorporate into fast playing and felt it'd be better to get used to only putting down the necessary finger to pull off to just before I needed it. E.g, if I were playing the 9p7p6 I'd pick the 9, then put down my middle finger, pull off to it and then put down my index finger and pull off to that. I find this to be much more fluid and easier for general playing than having to have all the fingers down in the first place.
Anyways, I was just wondering really how everyone else does it, I'm self-taught (with help from iBreathe :)) and I'm just curious which method is more common, and whether anyone has any better suggestions on pull-offs.
Thanks for your time and so forth :)

[Padawan]

of course your method is right, otherwise you couldn't play fluid legato runs.

[Silhouette]

If I understand your question - you said that you fret the lower note, when doing pull-offs, just before the pull-off -right? If that's what you do and it feels right, then why not? I do so too, I find it more convinient when improvising (maybe cause i know that each mili-second i might change my mind about the next note... :p )

[vaiaficionado]

heyo. haha. as liberally said, if it feels right then just keep on doing it. i basically ran into the same problem since i used to practice only trills for my legato skills, i couldn't play smoothly since i had to cut the notes short right when changing strings since i needed all my fingers on the frets on the string i was going to play next. this also hampered my improvisational playing so i basically started practicing wat u're practicing now.

[UKRuss]

I see that method more as hammer ons fro nowhere if I understand you right, almost that the pull off to the next note doesnt matter so much as you atre hammering on the lower note just as you need it.

I seperate that in my mind from pull offs where, IMO the lower note is already fretted.

I tend to do a lot of hammer ons then pull of ascend/descend type licks in legato which lends it self better to the method of laying the fingers on, keeping them all on and then pulling off whereas i can see your method being much better for descending only.

It's not something Ive got to the same standard as the other method and hence I struggle with the opening phrase of Vai's...errr...song...

Damn! The name escapes me! Anyone?

"Just go for it"!

[Ben]

Jiboom :p

[UKRuss]

That's the one.

Ta

[joeyd929]

G'day all, I've started working on my legato after a little over a years playing seeing as I completely neglected it when I first learned to play in favour of pure alt picking and while I've finally gotten used to incorporating legato into my playing I was wondering how everyone else uses their fingers when playing pull-offs.
For example, when I started off I'd have all the fingers needed for the pull off put down at once,say for a 9p7p6, I'd have my index, middle and little fingers all on the fretboard and pull them off in order until I got to my index. As I got into playing legato I found this bloody awkward to incorporate into fast playing and felt it'd be better to get used to only putting down the necessary finger to pull off to just before I needed it. E.g, if I were playing the 9p7p6 I'd pick the 9, then put down my middle finger, pull off to it and then put down my index finger and pull off to that. I find this to be much more fluid and easier for general playing than having to have all the fingers down in the first place.
Anyways, I was just wondering really how everyone else does it, I'm self-taught (with help from iBreathe :)) and I'm just curious which method is more common, and whether anyone has any better suggestions on pull-offs.
Thanks for your time and so forth :)

I viewd an instructional video and read some excerpts from an interview with Alan Holdsworth. He actually says that he does not "pull" down or twist off to the side. He simply lifts his finger off of the string.

He says that rather than lifting or pulling he just "relaxes" his fingers, which naturally removes them from the string. I have not mastered this technique, I can't get the power and speed he gets so I pick the notes...

Joe