As important as it is to have a good song to play in the first place, proper use of guitar technique just adds an entirely new layer to a guitarists playing. Your guitar playing will lack heart and soul if all you do is replicate the notes as they are written down, even though you do hit them in the correct order. A good guitarist should strive to learn all the techniques he/she can master, and the benefits will surely become obvious. Don’t be fooled into thinking these techniques sound too advanced for the beginner, you don’t have to be playing lead guitar to master them.
Each of the techniques mentioned here can be found in the rhythm section of many different songs. So these techniques should be mastered even if you only play rhythm guitar in a band.
Pull-offs and Hammer-ons
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are very similar techniques. If the song calls for multiple notes to be sounded on a single string then rather than picking and fretting each note indivudally the fretting hand is used to produce the sound. The Hammer on comes into play when the note is higher up the string and the guitarist must fret the note with sufficient force to produce the appropriate note.
If the second note is further down the string then you perform a pull-off. To perform a pull-off you must use your fretting hand to to actually pluck the string, pulling you finger away to sound the note. If you have a rapid sequence of notes all close to gether then then you will likely have to master the Hammer-on and pull-off to play them effectively.
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Bending
Bending literally involves pushing a ringing string along a fret to change the pitch. A great bend will allow for easy movement between notes and uses changes in string tension to produce the sound. This movement through the microtones of two notes can be very effective in slow bends. You can also unbend a string back to the original note for the opposite effect. A lot of lead riffs and quite a few rhythm riffs are pretty heavily based on this technique.
This can be a tricky a technique to pick up because there is an audible component to it. You need to pay attention to the pitch of the note while performing the bend. If you miss it then the note can go really bad, and sound flat (or sharp depending which way you are going). However dont let this put you off, once mastered this technique is very satisfying. It really does make a huge difference to the sound you can produce.