FIERCE GUITAR
GREG HOWE
Hammer-ons from Nowhere
Hammer-ons From Nowhere (HFN) is a term
I came up with a long time ago in order
to provide students with tab notation that
described the idea of hammering on to a
string that was not previously fretted. Most of
us are quite familiar with the term
hammer-on, which is of course a technique performed
by forcefully bringing a fretting-hand finger
onto a string that was previously fretted or
previously sounded in order to execute a new
note without having to simultaneously pick it.
A typical hammer-on will always be higher in
pitch than the note that preceded it, however
with HFN, this is not necessarily the case.
pitch than the one preceding it. In fact, the
HFN concept actually lends itself to the idea
that a hammered note is lower in pitch than
the preceding note. This can result in many
unusual and unorthodox sequences, many
of which can involve huge interval jumps
that easily simulate licks and passages more
commonly associated with advanced finger-picking techniques. The most blatant example
of this can be heard on the Extraction
album, in the unaccompanied acoustic guitar
instrumental piece called “A Delicacy.”
One of the advantages to using HFN is that
you can basically hammer-on to any string
you choose and produce results in which
a hammered note ends up being lower in
The first few examples are basically repetitive
exercises conisisting of short sequences in
order for you to get comfortable with the
whole concept of HFN. The later examples
online at premierguitar.com illustrate more
complex sequences, some of which include
the use of open strings.
Note: When using a lot of distortion and gain,
I find that rolling way back on the guitar’s
volume knob, along with applying palm
muting with the picking hand, significantly
helps in achieving clarity and articulation with
these types of ideas. Also, for tone reasons,
I often use the second finger of my picking
hand (hybrid picking) in place of upstrokes,
but this is not necessary.
Greg Howe
Greg Howe has enjoyed a successful recording career
since bursting onto the scene in 1988, and his talents
have been sought after by some of the biggest names
in the music entertainment industry, such as Michael
Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Enrique Iglesias.
Click here to see additional examples of this technique,
and watch Greg’s video demonstrations
