Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Ms. Stern's furious hammer-on guitar technique evokes the most macho of hard-rock heroes like Eddie Van Halen.

    Shredding the Definition of the Guitar Hero Andy Beta 2010

  • Marnie Stern's guitar style ostensibly draws on the hyper-masculine tradition of shredders like Eddie Van Halen and AC/DC's Angus Young, with an onslaught of hammer-on notes.

    Rocking the Mic Andy Beta 2011

  • A knockout blonde with a hammer-on guitar technique cribbed not from frizzed metalheads but underrated post-rockers, she sings conscientious brain-teasers about crippled jazzers and pushing sonic envelopes?

    Wired Top Stories 2009

  • Add or subtract personalized bits, a trill here, a slide or hammer-on or -off there, and then play it every day.

    Guitar Progess, Sorta Steve Perry 2007

  • Don't sound all that great by the samples, and their site really doesn't show how it's really played: strummed, or is it a hammer-on machine like the Clav?

    Look on my Keytar, ye mighty, and despair! 2005

  • Slightly enter all tenons into mortises successively first and then hammer-on the runner tightly.

    Chapter 8 Rolf Becher 1993

  • - Plug mortises on tenons from the left end of the runner and hammer-on the runner.

    Chapter 8 Rolf Becher 1993

  • A hammer-on is done when one note is ringing out and you put your finger down higher up the fretboard to play a higher note.

    EzineArticles 2010

  • - The exact opposite as a hammer-on, slightly harder

    All Updates @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com 2010

  • Thunderstruck comes in with the telltale hammer-on/pull-off piece then with heavy guitar/sax duology.

    Latest reviews @ Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website 2010

Comments

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  • Common banjo noting technique.

    October 12, 2009

  • Common noting technique employed by those that play guitar, banjo, fiddle, and other stringed instruments.

    June 10, 2010