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Don’t understand “hammer on”
I am struggling with how to “hammer on”. Is there more content to explain that technique in detail? Am I overthinking it?
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2 Replies
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Someone else here can probably answer this better than me, but I’ll give it a shot. A “hammer-on” is basically hitting the fretboard hard enough with the tip of a finger on your fretting hand so that the string rings out, as if you had plucked it with the pick or your finger of your strumming hand. If you try doing it with just one strong finger by itself, you should see what I mean. The more solid the hit, the more the note rings out.
When trying it on this week’s Daily Challenge with my pinky though, it’s basically inaudible. My pinky is still too weak to make it ring out while I’m fretting other notes with the other fingers.
The first time I ever did it at all was on the high E string with an open D chord, where the fingers are bunched together, so you can focus the energy on the string and the other fingers kind of help pull against the one you’re trying to hammer on. For that chord, try hammering the pinky onto the 3rd fret to add a higher note, or pull off and then hammer on the middle finger on the 2nd fret to try a finger with a little more strength.
Hope that helps. It seems to be an often-used technique that’s worth getting good at.
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@shawb0531gmail-com what @ScottM describes is basically it. Hammer ons would begin with a string that is already sounding and then you alter the note to a higher one by thrusting your fingertip quickly near the fret wire. You can start from a resting string as well, but not sure that would be called hammering on, I think of that as “tapping”. It’s important that you move quickly (like a hammer), if you don’t the sound get’s muted.
From the TAC skill course library: https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/hammer-ons/
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