The hammer is not a means of destroying your
guitar
when you get frustrated with your playing. It
is a
means of generating a note without the use of
your
right hand. Usually, when you fret a note, or
a chord,
you place the fingers of your left hand on the
appropriate fret(s) and simultaneously pluck or
strum
with the right. With the hammer technique, you
intentionally come down hard on the fret with
your
finger, and don’t do anything with your right
hand.
This technique is often used when you are playing
a
run of some sort and don’t have a finger
available on
your right hand (they’re all playing something
else),
or when you want to generate a fast “trill”
sort of
sound. I use it a lot in Irish music.
As a simple example, play a G-chord in standard
tuning, but don’t fret the high E string
on the third
fret, as you usually do. If you finger pick, pick
some
sort of pattern on the lower strings that’s
interesting to you. Now suddenly come down fairly
hard
on the third fret of the high E string with the
4th
finger of your left hand. See? You get an extra
note
for “free.” Do the same thing on other
strings at
various frets and see what you come up with.
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The hammer-on is one of the most widely used
techniques for soloing. It is very simple and
can be
applied in many different ways to many different
situations. A hammer-on is indicated in tab notation
by this symbol:
The first hammer-on is played on the 4th string
from
the 4th fret to the 6th fret.
The second hammer-on is played on the 2nd string
from
the 5th fret to the 7th fret.
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The hammer-on's shown above are accomplished by
fretting the desired note with your index finger,
picking the note, then hammering your ring finger
down
onto the desired higher fret. Make sure you keep
the
index finger down until slightly after you fret
the
higher note. This is the most important part of
the
hammer-on: making sure your index finger isn't
moved
before you place your ring finger on the higher
note.
You can also hammer-on with different fingers,
and you
can work on this as you get better at them.
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Other fingers can be used in the hammer-on. Let's
try
to play this example:
For the first, use your index finger to fret the
fourth string 7th fret, and your middle finger
to
hammer-on the 8th fret.
For the second, simply move your index finger
up a
string to the third string 7th fret, and hammer-on
with your ring finger.
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That's about it for the hammer-on. They are easy
to
perform, but do take some practice. The hardest
parts
are making sure you hold down your index finger
until
after you fret the higher note with your ring
finger.
Make sure you try hammering with other fingers,
because this versatility is required when performing
complex solos later.
