How to Play the Banjo: Hammer Ons

Then we’ll learn another technique with the left hand. This is a hammer on (Demonstration). So, you pluck the string (Demonstration) and then hammer your finger down on another fret of the same string (Demonstration). You can pluck the string open (Demonstration) then hammer any fret you want (Demonstration) or you can pluck the string with the finger placed (Demonstration) and add a new finger (Demonstration). Plucking (Demonstration) and then it is just my left hand hammering the next note.

We’re gonna try adding the hammer into the gallop in the same way that we had at the slide. We’re gonna hammer as we pluck the next note (Demonstration). So, our hammer alone (Demonstration) and then adding that string, that was a hammer alone with the rhythm pattern (Demonstration) and that’s in the gallop. So, we have the slide with the gallop (Demonstration) and the hammer with the gallop (Demonstration).

Now you’ve probably heard the sound of hammer on or slide or any other left hand note where it is not placed at the same time as the next string (Demonstration) and that does happen, but at first if you try doing that you’re gonna find that you are stopping your right hand to play your left hand and that’s gonna throw the rhythm off. So, you have to learn to do the both things together and then you can start adjusting your timing.

So, we’re gonna learn to play a song with the sliding and the gallop and the hammering and the gallop. We’re gonna learn Cripple Creek with all that stuff (Demonstration). We’re just start right from the beginning, but you have to practice your sliding (Demonstration) and your hammer on (Demonstration). With the hammer on you have to do one at a time, with the slide you have to double them up (Demonstration).

The whole song Cripple Creek sounds like this. I’m gonna play it up tempo first and then we’ll slow back down (Demonstration). Now let’s do it slower (Demonstration). It is very similar to the melody without the four rolls in it but now we’ve added the rest of the rolls. You can also use the slide with other rolls of course. Let’s try it with the round the world roll (Demonstration). I also added another note in that. We slid (Demonstration) again as we hit the second note of roll. Make sure you are not stopping. This is a tricky thing to learn. It sounds easy (Demonstration) but it sounds easier than it is at first after you practice at the little B just like second nature, so (Demonstration).

Let’s try adding this roll (Demonstration) into Bile ‘em Cabbage down. We’ve already played Bile ‘em Cabbage down with the forward and reverse (Demonstration). Notice that we played the first note, the melody is the second stride, but we played the fifth string on the first note when we played Bile ‘em Cabbage down with that roll (Demonstration). That is the little trick we use on the banjo. We play the melody on the second note that we hit. Our ears fill in the first note anyway and it makes the note stand out a little bit more. In this case instead of hanging the fifth string (Demonstration) we’re gonna hit the slide going up to that same note. Remember this is the first note of Bile ‘em cabbage down (Demonstration), the second string. So, here is the roll of Cap bound Cabbage down (Demonstration).


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