Q:

Hammer on question

Whenever I try to hammer on, I not only get the pitch of the string between the bridge and the fret but also between the fret and the nut. How do I mute the high pitched tone that I get between the fret and the nut?
Acoustic guitar, btw. 

A:

Normally that sound should not be picked up by the pickup. That being said, you should try muting it with left hand fingers "behind" the fretting finger, assuming you're not hammering on with the first finger. If you are hammering on with the first finger, I'm not sure what to do beside try to change the fingering somehow so you are hammering on with a different finger.

A:

Try to concentrate the “hammer energy” on the bridge-side fret. The finger should always be rather closer to that fret, not in the middle between two frets; for a hammer-on it can be a good idea to actually aim right on top of the fret you want, and only then pull the finger back a bit to avoid damping the note.

A:

This tends to happen when there is no dampening on the nut side of the fretboard; for instance, if you're hammering on from an open string. Generally speaking, when you're performing a hammer-on, the finger on the lower fret remains pressed down while your other finger hits your target fret.
This tends to be more common on acoustic guitars where the proper signal is not being amplified to a degree where you cannot hear the pure acoustics of the other side of the string; if you're intentionally doing a hammer-on from an open position on an acoustic as many styles often do, some players tend to mute the strings with their picking hand across the neck.

[Image from f-guitar.com]

