Need help with pull-offs

Ive been playing guitar for a looooong time, and Ive had this problem for a loooooong time. Basically, I have a lot of trouble with pull-offs. When I pull off of a note, my finger always hits the string under it, and I always get extra "noise". The only way for me to be able to pull off and not touch the string below is to pull straight off the fret. This of course is not right because it isnt a pulloff, its just taking your finger off the note.

Anyone else have trouble with this? I don't know if its my fingers or what, but the skin on the bottom of the finger tip (opposite your fingernail) is always in contact with the lower string when I pull off.

Try pulling off with the finger and hitting the lower string just hard enough to stop it dead. This will stop the string below from ringing out by actually muting it. Another way is to mute the lower string with one of the fingers on your right hand, I do this all the time - mute everything but the string you are picking.

usually I will pull-off with my 3rd finger while my first finger is holding down the other (lower) fret.. my first finger is naturally resting against the string under it, thus muting it..

Im actually using the right hand muting technique that Superhuman mentioned. Kind of hard to get used to though, and it is even harder to do if your doing a lot of pull offs in a row while switching strings. I never thought about using my first finger to mute the lower string. Ill work on that too.

I see Superhuman's technique working best on single string pull offs, and light's working for switching strings.

It sounds like you have worked in a bad habit. Try to slow it right down and just do one pull-off. Can you do one really slowly without hitting the other strings? Maybe try and just lift your finger off at first and then gradually work in the pull-off.

Also, I find by pushing the finger on the string that you are going to pull-off to very slightly in the opposite direction to the pull-off helps to increase the loudness of the pull-off and increases your control. It's sort of like push-up/pull-down at the same time. But watch your pitch you don't want to bend the string.

Hope that helps.

Like a few others have said, the best way to avoid noise from other frets when doing a pull-off is probably muting the strings below with different techniques. What works for me is pulling off with my third finger, slanting my other fingers to rest on the strings below. This prevents any noise. Let's face it, when doing a pulloff it would not be necessary for more than one note to play at once anyway.





Ron Belluso is founWiser-rocker der and contributing writer of

I'm not a musician, but when I do a pull-off, I pull it off in an upward fashion. I don't have any problem with hitting the upper string. I call it mountain rag pull-off.

Like I said, I'm not a musician.

um try to mute the strings u are not playing. like place your first finger on top of all the strings u arent playin gently, then when u pull of it wont make the string below sound

this is a very common problem that is due to incorrect left hand placement that's picked up in the first day of playing and never corrected. Except when playing barre chords, the left hand should hold the guitar neck - thumb around the neck, not behind it. This gives the first fingers a good angle to naturally mute the lower strings without having to even think about doing it. The pull-off should be performed by pulling downwards not upwards.

Watch some of the solo videos on this site and notice the thumb and angle of the fingers.

Well I have shorter than average fingers, so having my thumb at the top of the neck (holding the guitar, not behind the neck) is not an option. If I did this, my fingers wouldn't be able to reach the higher strings.

The advice mentioned before has been working out for me so far.

Oh that's totally fine, I do it too and I don't think many people can reach the higher strings like that. That's not a problem because you still get a good angle when fretting those strings, but you want the same kind of angle when fretting the lower strings - thumb around neck. To explain it better, I always hold the guitar so the bottom of the neck is resting on the finger joints just above the palm (the back of the knuckles) and twist my wrist a little when doing a bend/vibrato on the lower strings so the neck sits on the joint of my index.

Try practicing this and you should progressively ear the noise disappear with your pull-offs