Guitar > Legato Techniques > Hammer-ons

One of the easiest techniques on the guitar is the hammer-on. It is one of the primary legato techniques that all guitar players should learn. Legato literally means "smooth". Basically, the idea is to let each note flow into the next with no breaks at all. Notes that are legato are barely articulated. For a guitarist, this means that there is no right-hand involvment when playing legato passages other than maybe a string pluck to get a sound produced on your first note.

Hammer-ons involve playing one note and then using your left hand to produce a second note that is higher than the first one. You're using a finger like a hammer to produce sound on the second note, hence the name "hammer-on". This is a great technique to develop speed and strength in your fingers. Guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai use hammer-on extensively to help with their speed the agility. Because hardly any right hand work is done, it's also an efficient technique. There is no coordination needed between the picking hand and the fretting hand. Most guitarist will string together hammer-on when performing scale and arpeggio passages to utilize the speed efficiency. It is a technique that is used in all styles of guitar music.

In tablature, a hammer-on is denote with a slur with an H placed above or below it between two notes (sometimes the H is omitted). See the figure below:

Check out these 10 progressive exercises to improve your hammer-on technique. Try using different fingers for each exercise so that you can develop strength in all fingers.