The Hammer-On
A hammer-on refers to the technique of sounding a note without actually picking the string with a right hand finger. Instead, the note’s sound is produced by striking the string with one of the left hand fingers.
As an example, hold the Am chord and keeping the first and third fingers in position, lift the second finger off the 4th string. Play the open 4th string (use p), then bring the second finger down firmly and quickly to its position on the second fret, without picking the string again. This left hand movement should produce an E note quite clearly.
In music and tablature notation, what you have just played can be written as:
In the following example the hammer-on technique is used on the 4th beat of each bar. Use the second finger to hammer-on in the first three bars and use the first finger for the 4th bar.
The fingerpicking pattern being used is a variation of pattern 8, introduced in Lesson Seven. In this pattern, however, the hammer-on technique (indicated by H) is used on the and of the 4th beat, in place of the i finger.
Pattern 8-A
Am7
A new chord, Am7 is also introduced.
Pattern Eight - A
