Left Hand Tap/Hammer On The Note Ever So Slightly Before You Pick/Pluck It?

[Baloney Balderdash]

Do any of you frequently left hand tap/hammer on the note ever so slightly, almost simultaneously, before you pick/plug it?

 

I personally do it a lot, and I suppose it is kind of a faux manual way to get sort of a doubler or slap back delay thing going, but done right it doesn't actually sound like two notes, you just get a more prominent, but also somewhat much fuller sounding, attack, and it allows you to kind of control the dynamics of the attack part of the note both with your right plucking hand and left fretting, or in this case tapping, hand.

 

I suppose in some ways it sounds a bit like a much less aggressive slap, it gives it more of that same sort of metallic piano like tone, just with a less aggressive attack.

 

 

I don't know how much this has to say in the usefulness of this technique, but it might be worth to know that my main way of finger plucking, is really more of a stroke, with a slight inwards slapping motion, with the outmost tip of my fingers/nails (have to cut my nails to a quite specific length for this to work properly, too much nail and you get too much click, too little nail and you get a too weak and thuddy attack. Perfect nail length for this is the nail being pretty much flush with the top of the finger when looking at the back of your hand), rather than really striking or pulling the strings, really light touch, but with plenty of dynamic space both ways (both 1, 2 and 3 fingers, depending, and this is where I use the above mentioned technique in tandem, but beside that I also utilize classical acoustic guitar finger picking technique, as well as flamenco guitar index and/or middle and or ring finger flicking technique).

 

Also I should maybe note that I don't have any audio samples of this, and you won't find anything documenting it on my SoundCloud profile either, as this is something I figured out relatively recently.

 

Edited April 30 by Baloney Balderdash

[Chienmortbb]

On 30/04/2024 at 11:00, Baloney Balderdash said:

Do any of you frequently left hand tap/hammer on the note ever so slightly, almost simultaneously, before you pick/plug it?

I do it all the time especially on the E string but it is unintentional. If I could control it, I would be delighted.