The Hammer
The hammer is the first of several lead guitar techniques you will learn as you work through this book. The hammer is a left hand technique which may be incorporated into a lick or solo.
The hammer produces a note artificially by hammering a finger of the left hand onto a string. The impact of the string against the fretboard will cause the string to sound the note of the hammered fret.
In order to play the following example, play the open third string and then hammer the second finger of the left hand onto the second fret of the third string. The hammer is indicated by a curved line and the symbol "H"
Example 19 begins with a note on the fifth fret of the fourth string. This note is fretted with the first finger and held as the third finger hammers onto the seventh fret of the same string.
The examples below are played within lead guitar pattern one and feature the use of the hammer. This time the key of A has been chosen. Lead guitar pattern one in the key of A begins on the fifth fret of the sixth string as shown in the following diagram.
The A Minor Pentatonic scale consists of the notes A, C, D, E and G which are the l, b3,4, 5 and b7 notes of the A Major scale (A B C# D E F# G# A).
