Banjo: Left Hand Technique: How To Do A Pull-Off

As with the hammer-on, you should practice the pull-off with all combinations of fingers so you get free and can express yourself in any way without having to think about which fingers you are using. A good way to practice this is to start for example, pick a string, say the G string, and just your index finger to pull-off. Then maybe do that with the middle finger, move on to the ring finger, and finally (which is going to be the hardest one) your little finger.

What I do is I pull downwards, which I think gives me a louder pull-off sound and it sounds more defined. Instead of going upwards, I pull down towards the floor. Again you can use this technique all over the neck and you can even use different combinations and use more than one pull-off in one pluck.

As with all of the techniques make sure you practice this slowly at first and aim to get a defined and good tone instead of rushing things and speeding up too quick.