Hi everyone! Let's talk about one of those cute little guitar tricks that helps you to play faster and that everyone uses. It's called the "hammer-on".
Let's do some examples:
First down pick the open 1st E string. Then with your 1st finger, "hammer" onto the 1st fret WITHOUT PICKING THAT NOTE. Notice that you got 2 notes for the price of 1 picked note.
Another one: Play the same open string,and hammer your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret.
And more:
Pick 1st finger 1st fret -- Hammer 3rd finger 3rd fret
Pick 2nd finger 2nd fret -- Hammer 4th finger 4th fret
But on these 2 examples, make sure that the finger used for the "picked" note STAYS ON THE FRET while you hammer the second note. This is very important!
Got it?
What you are gonna want to do is to try to make the "hammered" note the same volume as the picked note. This will be hard to do especially with your 4th finger as the hammer. But oh well...
Okay let's try something that you can actually use instead of just doing exercises. Sound good?
Look below at the picture for the G major scale. What you're gonna do here is to start with the notes on the 6th low E string and work your way up.
Pick the first note on each string, hammering all of the rest for that string:
6th string -- Pick 2 and hammer 4
5th string -- Pick 1 and hammer 2 and 4
4th string -- Pick 1 and hammer 3 and 4
3rd string -- Pick 1 and hammer 3 and 4
2nd string -- Pick 2 and hammer 4
1st string -- Pick 1 and hammer 2 and 4
Now this is for going up the scale. ON the way down use alternate (up-down) picking.
Start out slowly at first making sure that all of the notes are clear and that everything is even. Then little by little, increase your speed.
Can you see how all of a sudden you can play much faster and smoother than you could using just alternate picking?
The 2nd picture is with the Pentatonic Scale (all 5 forms).
Do the same thing with each form as you did with the major scale form. Pick the first note and hammer on the 2nd note.
For Form I:
6th -- Pick 1 and hammer 4
5th -- Pick 1 and hammer 3
4th -- Pick 1 and hammer 3
3rd -- Pick 1 and hammer 3
2nd -- Pick 1 and hammer 4
1st -- Pick 1 and hammer 4
The key is to make everything sound clear and smooth instead of herky-jerky -- which it is likely to sound like at first. So practice it until it's smooth 'cause that's the key here.
As always, your 4th finger is gonna be the hardest finger to train. Simply spend more time with it.
As before, start slowly and little by little increase your speed. Don't be in a hurry here. Get it right first, THEN play faster.
Okay? Okay!
Professor Bruno Noteworthy
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Contributor's Note
Professor Bruno Noteworthy is a toon music professor who loves teaching the guitar to kids (and other humans).
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