10 must-know R&B guitar techniques

If you’re looking to add some R&B techniques to your guitar playing, look no further.

In this article, we’ll break down 10 R&B guitar techniques that you can learn and integrate into your playing. If you’re interested in decorating a chord progression or using R&B guitar techniques to take your playing to the next level - we’ve got you covered!

Ready for your first R&B guitar lesson?

#1 – Singability

Fast and complex guitar licks can sound awesome in the right context, but in R&B, the singability of your guitar playing is the most important element.

The idea is that every melody that you play needs to be memorable, catchy, and most importantly, singable.

Here are some tips to make vocal-like hooks with your guitar:

• Practice scales and melodies by learning to sing and play at the same time – this deepens your connection to the instrument and ensures that your playing is always intentional.
• Create short phrases to keep your melodies concise and meaningful – it might seem basic, but a simple, clear melody can go a long way.
• Repetition of melodies and phrases is key, every great earworm has one thing in common – a repeating melody!
• Singability is about mimicking the human voice – this is done through slides, vibrato, or bends to add some fluidity to a melody.

Challenge: Try to play the vocal melodies of your favorite R&B songs. Listen as closely as you can to any techniques you hear the vocalist doing and see if you can imitate them on the guitar.

#2 – Slides

Slides are a great way to smooth out the attack in your chordal or melodic playing. They can be dramatic, or they can be gentle and subtle while approaching a desired chord or note.

There are lots of ways to make slides an effective tool in your ‘guitarsenal’. Check it out:

• When you play a note, slide in from a semi-tone beneath your target note to add a laid-back feel.
• Sliding means that you don’t need to pick every note – make your melody sound smoother by picking less and sliding more!
• Don't be shy! There’s no limit to how far you can slide across the fretboard – dramatic slides across multiple frets can add some energy to a pivotal moment in the song.
• Slide into chords to make them sound silky – paired with hammer ons and pull offs, chord sliding is a cool way to add some flow to your progressions.

#3 – Hammer ons

It’s hammer time!

Hammer ons and pull offs are about generating notes without picking the strings. We use this technique in R&B guitar style to really help a chord progression sparkle!

• Hammer ons can add movement to static chords – if you’re playing a Dm7 for a couple of bars, try to hammer on some extensions surrounding the chord for some extra spice.
• Trills are a sequence of rapid hammer ons and pull offs – they can be really useful for building suspense or adding some flair to the finale of a song.
• Hammer ons and pull offs can create melody within a chord shape –  use notes around the chord you’re playing to add a melodic element.

This technique requires a strong pinky finger. Build strength, flexibility, and finger independence in your fretting hand with these finger exercises.

#4 – Whammy bar technique

The whammy bar has played its part in many genres of guitar playing. From Eddie Van Halen’s screaming guitar playing of the 80s, to the more subtle uses heard in gospel and R&B guitar. The whammy bar offers an incredible array of textures and sounds.

Check out the diversity of sounds and tricks that Mark Lettieri achieves with the whammy bar:

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• All great things in moderation! The whammy bar can be used to create ‘divebomb’ sound effects by fully depressing the bar, but in the R&B guitar world, it’s used with a lot more subtlety.
• The tremolo sound makes a ‘shivering’ effect and is a fantastic technique to integrate into your R&B playing – you can adjust the speed of the tremolo effect as you are playing a chord or phrase by how quickly you move the bar.
• Whammy bars allow you to slide into notes – the whammy bar can be used to bend from underneath a note to create a even smoother sliding effect.
• In R&B, we often hear vocalists *scoop their melodies.

*Scooping is the vocal practice of sliding from one note to another. You often can’t hear the change between the notes so clearly because the slide makes the transition seamless.

#5 – Thumb slap technique

Ever wanted to be a drummer and guitarist at the same time? Thumb slapping is a must-know R&B guitar technique that can add so much to your game!

Thumb slapping is a great percussive technique that can also help keep you in time. It’s especially useful if you’re playing solo guitar and need a beat to play along with.

• Thumb slaps usually happen on beats 2 & 4, like how a snare drum would accent rhythms in a band context.
• The thumb does the slapping, while the fingers are in control of the chords.
• Like lots of fingerstyle guitar techniques, assigning each of your fingers a role is usually the most efficient approach.
• Especially in R&B, hip hop, and neo-soul music, it is important to accent the backbeat (2 & 4).

Of course, these are just guidelines, not rules –  you can experiment with thumb slaps by accenting any beats you want to.