Mike Moxcey ©2005

LeftHand Effects

There are special effects the lefthand does to make more sounds when frailing.

Two of the basic ones are pull-offs and hammer-ons.

A pull-off is where you fret a note, pluck it and then pull your lefthand finger off the fret making two distinct notes.
A hammer-on is the opposite. You pluck an open string and then hammer the lefthand finger down on a fret to make two distinct notes

The tab below shows how two Boom strokes are turned into four notes with pull-offs and then with hammer-ons on the 1^st string 2^nd fret and then the 2^nd string 3^rd fret (two very common places in G-tuning).


              Boom    Boom    |     Pluck-Pull    Pluck-Pull    |    Pluck-Hammer    Pluck-Hammer

This Old Man

This songs uses very few “frails” (shakas) but does use a couple hammer-ons to get the melody.

Mama Don’t Allow

Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms

Play the tab above and replace the 3rd and 4th lines with these:

The Basic Frail

Modifying the Boom-Shaka

LeftHand Special Effects

Playing with Special Effects

Techniques Index