One of the most important techniques that you can get down is a slur. Slurs are commonly called hammer-ons, pull-offs, or slides, but really the term slur encompasses all of those things.

A slur is just an unarticulated note. It’s a note you don’t pick. Under that umbrella, you could execute a slur with a hammer-on, a pull-off, or a slide.

Slides can be slurs, but slurs don’t have to be slides. You can slide your finger and still pick the note you slide to.

Slurs are awesome, and absolutely necessary, for creating longer, faster blues runs. Modern blues rock players and traditionaly bluesmen alike have used them to put fire in their playing.