For the past several months I’ve been posting about basic guitar techniques that beginning guitarists can start to incorporate into their lead and rhythm playing. So far I’ve discussed single string slides and palm mutes and this month I’ll tackle the hammer-on.
A hammer-on is a technique in which the player picks a lower note and “hammers” a finger onto a note above it on the same string; hence only the lower note is picked. The sound of the second note is produced by the speed and force of the finger “hammering” onto the higher note. Watch the video here.
There are several tricks to producing a good sounding hammer-on: 1) The sound of the second note should match that the first. Therefore, the second finger should not hammer too hard or soft – it will take practice to produce “even” sounding notes. 2) Maintain an arch in the fingertip: If the fingertip stays arched when hammering it will help produce a more focused strike. There are times when you will hammer with a collapsed finger, but learn to maintain an arched finger. 3) Timing: To create a smooth flow between the picked and hammered notes the students should be practicing with a metronome in order to create even sounding notes.
Next month I’ll discuss some exercises to practice in order to create great sounding hammer-on’s!
