Originally Posted by: amark16I've been working on my lead technique lately as i want to build up speed and precision in my playing. Im having great difficulty getting the hang of pull offs.

Hunter & Sebastian have pointed you in the right direction. You have to mute or make some contact with the next string(s) you will play ahead of time, before you get there so your fingers will be in place. But you have to mute them before you need them to ring, then press down to make them ring, then mute them again right after they've rung!

When you start attempting faster lines, this means you have to get used to moving, rolling, tilting & wiggling your fingers (especially your index) around quite a bit to find that perfect amount of movement, pressure & micro-placement required to keep a string from ringing until needed. Once you find that right amount of placement & pressure, you will see it's not much movement at all! After all, in order to play fast you don't have the time for wasted motion.

But it can take time to find just the right amount & kind of micro-motion & placement necessary.

Keep in mind that the picking hand is a big part of this equation also. The palm and free fingers of your picking hand can help catch a lot of the muting that your freting hand misses.

I have a couple of tutorials on doing hammer-on & pull-off licks with the pentatonic scale. In some of the lessons I demonstrate closeups that might help you get a better visual on how to solve this problem.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=914
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=737
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=843

Above all, remember to practice slowly & precisely in order to get the technique right. Otherwise you are just teaching your hands to play sloppy! Speed will come with repetition, practice & patience.

Hope this helps. Ask more if necessary! Have fun. :)