This is the first lesson in my series discussing the Open Hammer Pluck technique. It is a key factor in my thumb playing. It is what I am using most of the time when I'm playing fast with my thumb or using it to go through chord changes. You will see that this will allow you to use less effort to play faster. This is because we will be using both hands to produce individual notes not two hands to produce only one note. I use this technique a lot in the song "Sinister Minister" and I will write out some of those parts a little bit later. I know that I have only scratched the surface with this technique so I am relying on you to take it deeper and further. I hope that you enjoy this.

"Open Hammer Pluck": A concept of hitting an open string with your thumb, Hammering a note with your left hand and then plucking a note with your index finger. "Open Hammer Pluck" (OHP) is just a name and like all names they can be changed. It could also be called "thumb hammer pluck" or "right, left, pluck" or any other name but the concept stays the same. Throughout all of the different ways that we will explore this technique over the next few lessons, it is good if we can keep the concept the same. "Simple". This will allow us to keep our "thinking" simple as the technique gets more complex. To get us started, here is an example of the basic OHP. (Ex.1) It consist of three notes or three "attacks" (since some of the notes can be played as muted notes). Start with this and get comfortable with it. Practice it at different speeds and with different levels of dynamics but make sure that each note stays clean and distinct. Make sure that you can hear each individual attack. That will allow us to move it around much easier later.

Always keep in mind that each of the three notes can be changed at any time. For example, the first note doesn't have to be "open". The second note can be "hammered" anywhere on the neck causing the pitch to change. It doesn't even have to be a "hammer". You can also "pluck" any note you want to. You can "pluck" two notes if you want to, as we will explore later.

-Victor Wooten

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