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Home > Lead Guitar Lessons > String Hammer Ons

Mastering the Hammer On Technique

In this lesson we'll do 3 main things: get introduced to the basic guitar hammer on technique, play around with some exercises to get all fingers hammering on using different intervals, and finally we'll look at larger lead guitar phrases that use more than one "hammer".

But first, for those of us who are new to this...

=== What are hammer ons? ===

As the name suggests (which is always helpful!), "hammering on" involves fretting a string as usual, but landing down on the string with more finger force, so the note sounds without you having to pick it. Simple! However, in a bit we'll see there's more to it than that...

Basic guitar hammer on exercises

The main thing we need to do is get all our fingers involved in the physical hammer on action. Beginners are often taught to hammer using the ring finger (when fretting with the index finger), and this typically comes from the pentatonic scale shape, but obviously different fingers are going to be in different positions throughout a solo...

Case in point - with a half step interval (which is the equivalent of a one fret movement) we could use the following finger combinations to hammer on, depending on which fretting finger is used...

Click the diagrams and tabs in this lesson to hear examples

As you can hear in the example above, you can hammer on slowly or quickly, depending on the effect you're after. A common technique is to hammer on immediately after picking a note for a jumpy kind of touch. Have a play around with rhythm and speed!

For the exercises below, you'll find it useful to use a metronome to keep rhythm and timing which is essential with lead guitar...

1) Index finger - hammering on with middle finger

2) Middle finger - hammering on with ring finger

3) Ring finger - hammering on with pinky finger

That last one is commonly found to be the most physically awkward at first. We need to exercise different finger combinations!

So that was the half step interval - now let's look at finger combinations for whole step interval (which is equivalent of a two fret movement)...

4) Index finger - hammering on with ring finger

5) Middle finger - hammering on with pinky finger

It's important (...in guitar learning terms!) to exercise different finger combos because with any scale, all your fingers will be used, and you'll need to be confident with hammering from any finger to the desired interval, sometimes quickly.

Another hammer on interval that requires a bit more of a stretch...

6) Index finger - hammering on with pinky finger

Guitar hammer ons - Using more than one "hammer"

Once you're physically comfortable with the basic hammer on technique, you can move on to larger phrases by using more than one hammering finger.

Try the exercises below...

You can use the above lick (or your own, of course!) over this backing track.

...and the backing track.

So once you're confident with all finger combinations in a hammer on phrase, you'll be able to use the technique anywhere in a scale, giving you the physical freedom you need.

Hopefully, after following the exercises above, you should be fairly confident with the string hammer on technique. It all takes time, but the best way to see day-on-day improvements in your playing is to use a metronome to gradually speed up. I've lost count of the amount of times I've referenced that on this site!

See the links below for related lessons, and thanks for your time here...

Now Master the Pull Off Technique! >>
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