hammer on's

hey, ive been trying to learn im so sick by flyleaf. my sister was playing rock band so i just wanted to see the comparison (98% on expert on creep from radiohead), but i failed out on im so sick. so ive been learning it on bass (finger is going raw by now lol). my only problem so far is, theres a section where on the e string i have to hammer on from 3 to 4, open string, then hammer on 4 to 6. ive been using a pick just cause it sounds better with this song, but i can only get one hammer on or the other. any advice, im thinkin its just a thing i need to practice more, but im not sure how much more raw my finger can get just practicing the intro over and over getting it right

kyle892 wrote:hey, ive been trying to learn im so sick by flyleaf. my sister was playing rock band so i just wanted to see the comparison (98% on expert on creep from radiohead), but i failed out on im so sick. so ive been learning it on bass (finger is going raw by now lol). my only problem so far is, theres a section where on the e string i have to hammer on from 3 to 4, open string, then hammer on 4 to 6. ive been using a pick just cause it sounds better with this song, but i can only get one hammer on or the other. any advice, im thinkin its just a thing i need to practice more, but im not sure how much more raw my finger can get just practicing the intro over and over getting it right

I think you've got to try and make sure you're hammering on hard enough to make sure the notes sound. Its like tapping. But understandably it'll hurt if your fingers ae a bit sore so I suggest letting them heal or finding an alternate method of playing the song unti they do

Definitely agree with Max. Also, I'm a firm believer in too much practice is a bad thing. When I'm starting to get burnt out from practicing or my fingers start hurting I change my practice blocks around. Generally I try to do a big three to five our session, but after a bit that started to tire me out and wear on my fingertips. As of now I'm doing three or four 1.5 - 2 hour sessions with at least an hour between them.

Don't burn yourself out. Especially when you're first starting too much practice can damage your muscles and cause alot of pain in the long run.

For hammer-ons though. I'm not quite clear on what you're saying, so I'll just shove out some general things about them.

-Make sure you're playing your notes behind the frets instead of in the middle of them. This is especially important with hammer-ons because you don't have to press down nearly as hard.

-Slow it down. As with all things in music, if you can't do it at tempo, slow it down. Something about hammer-ons makes you get really sloppy if you play too quick for yourself. Learning to play the riff to Schism by Tool was impossible until I could get my hammer-ons to sound out.. one day I picked up my bass and could play them up to speed somehow.

You shouldn't need to push down so hard since it's up towards the nut (Not as much space between the frets and the string.) It's probably just a technique fart.. Something stupid you're doing that you aren't catching. Put it down for a bit and get a clean slate to practice with.

Do leggato and staccato exercises..Search studybass.com