When playing individual notes in a melody, my hammer-ons sound fine, but when I want to strum a chord and then hammer-on one of those notes, the chord completely drowns out the hammer-on. It seems worse on my electric than my accoustic. How can I make the HO stand out more?
If you can't hammer more forcefully, then strum softer. The volume of the hammered note, which comes from the force of the finger hammering on (independently of the strum volume) will be louder in comparison.
A couple other things come to mind for me, too...
- You may just not be able to get as much leverage on the hammer when you are forming whole chords with the rest of your hand. When you're forming single notes, you have the freedom to position your hand however you need to to get the leverage.
- The sound of the chord could simply be drowning out the sound of the hammer on, relative to the overall sound.
-- Voidious
With a little practice, you'll be able to hit the hammer-on a little stronger. I think a good song to listen to and practice on is 'Tequila Sunrise'. It has a nice, noticeable hammer-on in the Intro that you'll be able to play along with.
Denny
Yea, it's already been said, but whatever. You might be playing the chord louder than your actual hammer on, but no doubt, with time, your hammer one strength will get stronger, so even if you're strumming hard, you'll still hear the hammer on enough.
For now though, I'd advise you to strum softer on that certain part of the song, much like I've been doing right now. And it has been getting progressively louder, no doubt.
Good luck. :D
I think Voidious is right, I can't get enough leverage with the rest of my fingers holding the chord. I found the tab for Tequila Sunrise and will practice that, although I'll feel a bit silly if I sing the lyrics, being a girl.
Another question sort of on this topic - I've seen a couple of videos of tapping and I can't get that to work at all. If I haven't already struck the string so that it is vibrating, then I don't really get any sound at all by just tapping the still string. It looks like it is done just like a hammer-on only without picking the string first, but I can't get any sound doing it that way. Is there a secret? Do you lift the finger back up immediately, or leave it down or does it matter?
Tapping is a skill that I found to be very un-fun to learn lol
It takes practice, no doubt, and is a tricky thing. If the sting isn't already vibrating, then you have to really, REALLY hammer your finger down hard onto the fret to get the sound out (though if you are using an electric through an amp then you should hear something even with a lighter touch).
And depending on what you are playing and how long you want the 'tapped' note to last, you'll need to hold your finger on the fret - otherwise you will get the sound of the open string as soon as you pull-off the finger you tapped with.
I've mostly seen taps in pieces ilke this;
----2h3t10p3p2-----
Which means you will pick the string at the 2nd fret, hammer-on to the 3rd fret, then use you picking hand to tap onto the 10th fret, then release the tap to hear the 3rd fret again, then release to hear the 2nd fret again.
Just keep practicing, and don't be afriad to really hammer that tapping finger down onto the fretbord.
Pete
ETD - Formerly "10141748 - Reincarnate"
