This exercise is from the Core Skills section on hammers.

Here we play a simple country tune using fingerpicking and hammer ons together.

The tune follows a simple A E C A chord progression. We use a common country fingerpicking pattern (remember the patterns from the Core Skills Fingerpicking section?). This pattern this time is: T21(hammer on).

This means your fingerpicking fingers repeat the following pattern:

Thumb, 2nd finger, 1st finger - *hammer on*, 2nd finger.

* The hammer on is played by your hand on the fretboard immediately after you have fingerpicked the string with your first finger. In this way the hammer on becomes a part of the fingerpicking rhythm even though it isn't played by any of your fingerpicking fingers. Remember that hammer ons and pull offs are ways of playing a string using your fretboard hand fingers only.

This fingerpicking pattern is repeated 4 times per chord.

So what is happening in this exercise musically-speaking? The notes for each chord are being played in this repeating sequence:

For the A and E chords the note sequence is:

- Thumb plays the root (1st note of the scale)
- Second finger plays the octave (same as root, but higher)
- First finger picks the 4th which is then quickly hammered onto the 5th by the fretboard hand
- The octave is then picked again by the second finger before repeating the pattern.

So we get:

A - A - D - E - A for the A chord

E - E - A - B - E for the E chord

For the C chord the note sequence is different, but the fingerpicking pattern remains the same:

- Thumb plays the root
- Second finger plays the 5th
- First finger picks the 2nd which is then quickly hammered onto the 3rd by the fretboard hand
- The 5th is then picked again by the second finger before repeating the pattern

So we get:

C - G - D - E - G for the C chord

Some advice for practicing this ActionTab....

Try out the fingerpicking pattern on just the first chord repeatedly until your fingers get used to it. Once you have mastered the fingerpicking pattern with the first A chord, try out the same on the E chord, then the next chord and so on. Focus on stringing it all together last.

Try the fingerpicking pattern with other chords you know and see where it takes you.

Once you have mastered this ActionTab exercise - Pick up your Stetson, fire up that tractor, and move on to the next country tune...