what is a hammer-on?

makinmusic · Post by **makinmusic** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 6:45 am

I've been playing whistle 2 or 3 years. I've got some understanding of ornaments but wanted to "bone-up" on and expand my knowledge so I looked on the web to see what the current instruction books are like. I saw the word "hammer-ons" included in the usual listings of ornaments, rolls, cuts, crans, etc. I had never come across it before. What is it? How do you play it? Is it a carry-over from guitar? Thanks.

Bretton · Post by **Bretton** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 7:29 am

<nohelp>I have no idea, unless it's another term for a tap/strike</nohelp>

TelegramSam · Post by **TelegramSam** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 7:39 am

I dunno, but it sounds kinda dirty...

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 7:48 am

It's hammering with a Hammer of Bonking with a whistle attachment. I thought everybody knew that.

http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia ... nking.html

Steve

chattiekathy · Post by **chattiekathy** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 7:50 am

I don't know either but it sounds a lot like what I do to my dulcimer.

Kathy

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 8:37 am

Banjo players use them, as they do pull-offs never heard the term used on flute/whistle/pipes in Irish music

Wizzer · Post by **Wizzer** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 8:45 am

Peter is correct the term hammer on or hammer off means to place your finger on a string that is already sounding and thus changing the tone. Hammer off of course is to take a finger off a string already sounding and again change the tone.

MacEachain · Post by **MacEachain** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:28 am

Hi, I'd agree with Bretton, sounds like another name for a tap/strike.

Cheers, Mac

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:57 am

Not to be confused with a "hammer-in," which is a sort of seminar of knife makers to present and teach forgeing techniques.

Philo

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 12:06 pm

On 2002-10-12 13:57, PhilO wrote:
Not to be confused with a "hammer-in," which is a sort of seminar of knife makers to present and teach forgeing techniques.

weird how you never hear of a term, then you hear it two or three times in a month. I just found out from Roy what a hammer in was!

And the education continues. . .

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 1:07 pm

I'm with Peter and Wizzer... heard it on stringed instruments, especially guitar. Some players noted for this style: Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 1:31 pm

Hammering on and pulling off, as describe by others on this thread, are standard techniques of clawhammer banjo playing (frailing). Unlike tenor banjo, mandolin and plectrum-picked guitar you can't really play tunes in clawhammer style without those techniques as well as some others.

Steve

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 1:49 pm

I believe the term refers to a kind of rapid-fire double-cut where you bring the finger down hard on a tone hole so that it bounces slightly.

Terms like this often don't have set definitions that are universally agreed upon. Other such terms I have come across but think different musicians are using to describe different things are a "thrill", a "backstitch", and a "doubling".

Best wishes,

--James
http://www.flutesite.com

madguy · Post by **madguy** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 2:25 pm

James, you know more about musical terminology than anyone should!

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 4:03 am

Backstitching is a term taken from an Uilleann piping technique, it is actually not a double cutand is not really appilicable on the whistle . It is a technique used most natably by Patsy Touhey to round up a tune with 'a great shower of fingers' and involves an elaborate run of tight triplets which cannot be executed on the whistle [not to the same effect anyway]. The lower hand notes are 'stitched up' turning them into triplets by adding a tight played c A to them, the top hand notes get a G F stitch. But by now I will have lost you. Never mind.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-10-13 08:55 ]</font>