Hey Jeffery @pittpanther, Welcome to the community! I’m glad you asked this question…I’m working on a couple songs using hammer-ones, and have wondered why I wasn’t improving. I’d forgotten about this exercise, even though I’m still working on Grade 2. I’ve added it to my current practice routine!
I’m having some trouble with a specific hammer-on in a specific song. I had a look at this lesson and tried the exercise, I’m pretty consistently getting the hammer-ons so I’m wondering if I can post a video here (zoomed in of my hands) showing the specific hammer-on and get any advice anyone has, in case there’s a specific mistake I’m making RE technique? I’ve been trying different hand angles and I can’t seem to get this specific one to work consistently, and almost never once the accompanying bass note is played.
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Go for it, a picture paints a 1000 words, a video even more perchance. 
I cut this together pretty quickly from my practice the other night, so my apologies if it’s a bit of a mess.
I am certainly no expert - still a student like you!
some of your hammer-ons sound good to me.
- watch your timing (around 20-30 sec). You need to let the note ring a little longer to hear the hammer properly.
- it looks like your hammers are hard enough about half the time. some LOOK soft, but this is my guess from a video.
- you seem to hammer behind the fret in a good position (yay!!) - I notice that if I get too close or too far, the hammers don’t have enough energy.
- it takes a very hard hammer to get a note to sound loud if you didn’t pluck it first (initial 12 seconds of the video) because the hammer is the only energy in the string when using that method. this takes some time to get some finger agility and speed.
- sometimes you just miss (18-35 sec) - this is the bane of my playing!
the buzzy hammers look off target a little (low) so this should come into proper form with slow intentional practice. - near the end of the video, it looks like you are trying to hammer on a string that is already fretted in front of the hammer-on? do I see that correctly? that doesn’t make sense! the hammer on needs to happen on the vibrating part of the string, so it either happens in front of the fretting or on an open string. Maybe the tune expects you to either open the string and do the hammer-on, or pickoff so you need to fret the note instead of hammer it.
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Hi @ConstanceClaire ,
Had a quick look at your video. If I have understood correctly, you are having trouble when the hammered-on note coincides with plucking the next bass note. Here’s your example in tab:
First off: this is difficult, probably the most difficult kind of hammer-on. The difficulty lies in doing 2 different things at once: getting a good clean hammer-on and at the same time plucking the bass note. The old patting your head and rubbing your tummy problem. The solution is to slow things down and repeated practice. Here’s what I would do:
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Start without the 2nd bass note: just play bass-string-hammer. Play it very slowly (much slower than you are playing on the video) and count it as you play it: 1-and-2. Concentrate on getting a good solid hammer-on. Let the hammered-on note ring out. Do this, like, 1000 times.
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Now add in the 2nd bass note. Keep it very slow. See if you can concentrate on both hitting the bass note and getting a good solid hammer-on. Listen for the bass note and the hammered note ringing out together. This is tricky, but keep at it!
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Once you’ve got it going slowly, just play it in a loop, maybe play a whole bar, adding 2 bass notes after the hammer-on. So this:
Play that bar over and over in a continuous loop, keeping in time. Count as you play: one-and-two-three-four. If you’re not getting it, go back to step 2 (or step 1) and make sure you are going slowly enough.
Good luck!
None of the hammer-ons were on an already fretted string, save in the beginning when I forgot I had my second finger on the low E. When I get this song up to speed, it’s at 130bpm, and those hammer-ons are the eighth notes, so they’re gonna be much faster than what I show. I’m not sure they’ll have a chance to ring out to make them louder.
It does seem that when I’m thumbing the bass at the same time as hammering on a string, my finger often loses its ‘oomph’ and instead of hammering on it just seems to mute it. This is my big problem, really. Mostly otherwise I can get them working fine. (The beginning ones were actually my most successful yet for that bass situation, but it was a fluke.)
I’ll watch back for those buzzy ones and practice to correct that issue. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Last night I hadn’t noticed that your hammers were to coincide with the bass note. I had one song I had to practice very slowly until my brain started to command my fingers properly. Once those two things are in time, the ringing time won’t be so important - it will just sound right.
Again here use the slow deliberate movement until you can get the energy and timing working mentally, then move it up to the BPM you are after. By slow, I do mean slow - I had to do mine at probably 30-40 BPM just to get finger control working.
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I find my thumb on my fretting hand, slowly turning and creeping up over the top of the neck when doing ring and pinky hammer ons, similar happens when completing the pinky workout. Any reason for this?