Five Note Hammer-On Ideas

In this guitar lesson we'll take a look at two hammer-on ideas that use five note patterns. They both are written using notes from the E Natural Minor scale. This scale contains the following scale degrees: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7.

Although the ideas look fairly simple, they are actually quite challenging to play in time correctly. So be sure to watch the videos so that you can hear me play them to the metronome.

Let's jump right in by taking a look at the first idea...

Hammer-On Idea 1: Five Note Pattern played using eighth-note triplets.

Please take a look at the idea above, and see if you can work out exactly what the pattern is. (Hint: Mentally dividing the idea up into groups of five notes will make identifying the pattern much easier).

How did you get on? Here's how I describe and remember the pattern...

1. Pick the open string using a downstroke.
2. Pick the open string using an upstroke.
3. Hammer-On to the lowest sounding fretted-note of the pattern (L).
4. Pick the open string using a downstroke.
5. Hammer-On to the highest sounding fretted-note of the pattern (H).

And here's how I write down the pattern in a visual way...

Don't panic if this isn't totally clear yet. (Patterns usually become a lot easier to understand once you start learning to play them!).

To make the repetitions of the patterns more obvious, below is the same idea with lines drawn after each repetition of the pattern...

Now let's take a look at the hammer-on idea for this lesson...

Hammer-On Idea 2: Five Note Pattern played using sixteenth notes.

This idea uses another five note pattern...

1. Pick the open string using a downstroke.
2. Hammer-On to the highest sounding fretted-note of the pattern (H).
3. Pick the open string using a downstroke.
4. Pick the open string using an upstroke.
5. Hammer-On to the lowest sounding fretted-note of the pattern (L).

I like to write out this pattern using the following diagram...

Because the repetitions of the pattern are not always easy to see at first, here is Hammer-On Idea 2 again with lines drawn after each repetition of the pattern...

 A Few Final Words

I hope that you had fun with the ideas that we covered in this lesson. If you work hard at them, they are sure to improve the timing of your hammer-ons a lot.

To get the most from this lesson, I also recommend taking the patterns and apply them to other scales that you know. Be sure to experiment, because the possibilities are endless!

All the best,

Craig