Chords for Introductory bouzouki technique - the bouzouki hammer on

[Bm] I haven't put up a video for a while and I think I'm just going to put up a little techniques
video because I have had some questions about particular bouzouki techniques and I just
want to start with two.
Two bouzouki techniques.
So the first one is the bouzouki pull-off.
In guitar circles people often talk about the hammer-on pull-off and the hammer-on pull-off
is where you hammer on a finger [Eb] _ and then [D] you pull off. _
[Eb] So you make a note with both the hammer-on and the pull [G]-off with only one, in fact you
don't necessarily need to pluck the [Eb] strings at all, you might just go, _ _ _ _ [D]
that's a pretty
standard guitar technique.
On the bouzouki there are lots of hammer-ons but [Ab] pull-offs are not as common.
That doesn't mean you don't hear it, especially modern bouzouki players, they basically mimic
all the techniques in guitar playing, even [A] arpeggios.
[D] _ _ _
[E] You see [G] everything in the modern bouzouki playing that you'd see in guitar.
But the classic guitar, _ one of the most important bouzouki techniques is a hammer-on, not the
pull-off, in a particular combination.
So you [Abm] hear it all the time.
The pop western bouzouki music that you hear on, _ I don't know, movies with Greeks in them,
but also the authentic real Greek music, you hear the same technique.
It's a very characteristic style, I don't know where it originally comes from, but it's
very characteristic to Greek music now.
And so this is basically what you do.
I'll just show you in slow motion right up at the high end of the fretboard so you can
see everything at once.
So the technique is, [Dm] _ _ [Cm] it's obviously quite simple once you break it down to slow speed,
but to get a really good sound out of it requires a lot of practice.
So here's just the technique, just so you get a sense of the sound, just so you're familiar
with it if you're new to bouzouki.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ You might do it with your, you might hammer-on with your [Eb] second finger, _ [A] or your third finger.
_ _ And you could even do it with your [C] fourth finger if you're, but I wouldn't [A] say that's
very common in bouzouki music.
It's usually, [Em] _ _
_ _ [E] usually your second finger or your third finger, that's what you're hammering on.
And the sequence, if you look at the relationship between your left hand and your right hand,
is pluck, [Am] _ [Dm] _ _ [B] [F] hammer. _
_ _ Pluck, hammer.
Pluck, hammer. _ _
[A] _ _ _ [Db] But the important thing is that you're going, you're not just going down, [Ab] your right hand
is not just going down, [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ you've got to be going down and up, and [N] all the while muffling out
the sounds you don't want too.
That's how it's a crisp hammer-on.
So it's a crisp hammer-on because you're going up and down with your right hand, [E] but also
because you're muffling out the sounds you don't want with your right hand.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ Remember, it is a hammer-on, it often doesn't sound like that, but it is a single hammer-on
[E] with no pull-off, just _ [D] breaking _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ it [F] down slowly again. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G]
Okay, so that's the one thing I wanted to show you.
What was the other thing?
Okay, I just remembered what the other thing was.
So _ [A] it's [N] like a_
You start at the high note and it's kind of non-committal.
You just touch it.
You just touch it and you're off it right away.
[Am] _ _ _ [D] _ _
It's kind of, I don't know how to [N] describe it musically.
I don't know anything about music theory, but I know what it feels like when I hear it.
It feels kind of like the guy's really reaching.
A bazooka player's really reaching and he's going there and he's just teasing you a little
bit with a note.
So it sounds like a bit of a tease. _
[D] _ [E] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Okay, so the [Ab] technique is, let's say on a given scale [D] here, I'm in the D, [N] which is what?
Re, for Greeks, re, re minore. _ _ _
_ [D] So something like_
[N] Usually you do it with a pinky finger or the third finger.
So here I'll just do it with my third finger here.
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [A] _ [E] And again, I'm muffling between notes to get a really crisp sound.
[D] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [Am] _ Oh, and the [N] little thing here, I'm just_
Quick little touch hammer-on.
_ [A] _
[N] That hammer-on has a couple of effects.
First of all, it just leaves that little hint _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [N] of_
And then when I'm back again, _ _ _ see that? _ _
_ It's so subtle.
If I'm playing fast, you don't even know I'm doing it.
_ [D] _
_ _ [N] But it also stops the_
Keeps the note clean.
So you're playing this legato style when you're playing a bazooka.
It's kind of this, in theory, loose sounding style, but bazooka is so crisp.
Players are so crisp.
Good players are so crisp.
And they're crisp often, it's one of the benefits of playing this kind of back and forth style
where you're hammering on all the time, because the hammer-on gives you a chance to stop the
string from ringing.
And it keeps the notes_
Keeps the separation between notes very discreet.
And then you don't have this kind of_
Like electric guitar music, _ often there's this kind of _ over_ Nothing's clean.
It's all blended together and you get away with it in electric guitar.
And even the acoustic guitar to some degree too.
With the bazooka, it's gotta be clean.
And part of the cleanness comes out of little things like that, which are both an embellishment,
but also serve this purpose of keeping the notes clean.
[G] _ _
[Am] _ _ [E] _ [Am] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ _ [Gbm] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [B] _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ [N] _
_ _ _ So again, I'm using the hammer-on to get [D] that _ _ [Am] little _ _ _ bit of a tease, but _ I'm also keeping
the notes crisp that way.
[Ab] Because if I didn't do that, if I [D] went_
[Eb] It's just not as crisp.
[Dm] _ _ _ [N] I can't even_
I play the bazooka so much, I can't even go down the fretboard without [G] hammering on as I go.
I just can't help myself, because I'm so used to doing it.
And it's such a central, such an important technique in bazooka playing.
So [C] I went over two things.
I've said, first of all, I showed you the basic idea behind how the hammer-on works
in Greek music. _
[G] And I showed you a particular application [D] of it _ in _ _ [E] a bazooka riff.
So just to show you that riff here.
_ [D] _ _ _ [Ab] Okay?
_ [N] _