Tapping and hammer ons

[basil]

I have trouble getting a good sound out of tapping and hammer-ons; more specifically, i have trouble getting the volume consistent with the rest of the phrase that I'm playing. I find it hard to make a decent amount of sound just by pressing my finger to the fret, especially on the D and G strings.

I hope the sound will come on its own with time, but just to make sure that I'm on the right track in my practice, I attack the string with the fingertip, just as if i am fretting a normal note, correct? Thanks for your time.

Also, now that I think about it, on a somewhat related note, for pull offs, do you get the movement solely from the finger or do you turn the wrist/arm for that downward rotation?

[onlyclave]

Make sure that you are placing your finger just behind the fretwire too, eg. if you want to hammer on the G string 3rd fret, you are going to smack your finger down as close to that 3rd fret wire as you can without being on top of it. It helps get rid of that extra string that absorbs energy and causes buzzing if you put your finger in the middle or the back of the fret "box"

Consistency in tone and volume will come with practice.

[fettbass]

A compressor/limiter also helps a bit.

[grieverOSOK]

practice your hammeron/pulloff runs without using your right hand. try getting the notes to sound with just your left hand. this really builds up strength in your fingers. also try pulling down a little bit when you pulloff.

[basil]

right on, so i guess the notes i tap can come out louder as the strength in my fingers/fingertips builds up. thanks for the help/assurance.

[Rattlehead]

You might also find that the lower your strings are, the easier it is to do (of course if you're planning on lowering your strings read up on bass setups).

[old mark]

Don't be afraid to really hit the string hard with the left hand-try a three note decending run starting with the ring finger-middle-index. Begin slowly and go for clarity and control, then build speed. You can also do trills going upand back rapidly, index to middle or index to ring fingers.
When you begin doing this well, you will see a lot of possibilities.

mark

[santucci218]

if you can do it slow, you can do it fast.