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This week’s lesson is going to focus on some tapping exercises. Tapping is actually a useful technique to know. Though it seems to have a bit of a misconception. Quite a few students of mine and people I know have said they see tapping as a somewhat show off type technique. While I don’t doubt that some out there don’t really use it to it’s full potential, it’s still something that can add to your playing.
Tapping in rock music can be traced back to Genesis and Kiss. While guitarists from both bands claimed to be the first, the dates generally are the same. Somewhere in that 1973-76 range. But for most of us, tapping came into it’s own when Van Halen used it. Up until then, it was still a somewhat obscure technique. But Eddie came along and from then on, tapping was integrated into guitar music. However, tapping likely actually was around in the late 1800’s. Classical guitar actually incorporated a bit of tapping back then, way before electric guitars and overdriven amps were ever thought of. It was a means to different tonal qualities that otherwise could not have been executed by the fretting hand alone.
A tap is really no more than a hammer on with the picking hand. Even a simple hammer on with your fretting hand is technically a tap. Now, you can use either your index finger or your middle finger on your picking hand to tap with. There are more advanced tapping techniques I’ll get to in a future lesson where you use more than one, but for now let’s just worry about one. Personally, I use my middle finger on my picking hand. The reason I do that is because I don’t have to change my grip on my pick. I can do my tapping section and go right back into playing without having to shift the pick back to my index and thumb. It makes for a more fluid sounding passage.
The actual technique really isn’t hard. Let’s take a simple example here of an E major chord:
The T notes where to tap.
T
|-19p16p12--
|-----------
|-----------
|-----------
|-----------
|-----------
What you’ll first want to do is fret the 16th fret G# and 12th fret E before you tap the B. Once those fingers are in position, take your index or middle finger of the picking hand and hammer onto the 19th fret B. You’ll want the finger to be at slight angle to the string so when you do the pull off you get a good strong clean note. After you hammer it, do a pull off with that finger to sound the G#. Then after that, your fretting hand pulls to the E.
The angle your going for with the tapping finger is about like this in relation to the string \----. If you come down with the string right in the middle of the pad of your finger, you can’t really pull off with a lot of force. You need some there to sound the next note cleanly.
What is time consuming about this technique is learning to use it fluidly and in different places on the neck. You need to be on top of your playing and be aware of what’s upcoming in the piece of music you’re playing. Plan for the tapping part ahead of time. Know where it is and practice getting both hands into position. This is the key component in keeping the music flowing while tapping. Beginners tend to have a delay in the preparation which throws the song off. Take it slowly and remember that a good flow is far more important than speed. Speed comes with skill.
Now here are some examples. You want to aim for clarity and steady speed. Some are a bit difficult, but practice will sort them out. Once you’ve got them down, then worry about speeding it all up.
Tapping exercise 1 takes some minor chords and spreads them out over 6 strings.
T T T T T T T T T
|-15p11p8-15p11p8-15p11p8----------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------19p15p12-19p15p12-19p15p12-------------------------
|----------------------------------------------------14p10p7-14p10p7-14p10p7-
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cm Bm Dm
T T T T T T T T T
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-20p17p12-20p17p12-20p17p12----------------------------------------------------
|----------------------------19p15p12-19p15p12-19p15p12-------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------------16p12p9-16p12p9-16p12p9-
Gm Am C#m
Tapping exercise 2 is a string skipping tapping run. It’s all in the same area, just on different strings.
T T T T T T T T
|-17p14p10----------------------------------------------------------------
|-------------------17p14p10----------------------------------------------
|----------17p14p10-------------------17p14p10----------------------------
|----------------------------17p14p10-------------------17p14p10----------
|----------------------------------------------17p14p10-------------------
|----------------------------------------------------------------17p14p10-
Tapping exercise 3 shows how you can change up a chord by just tapping another note.
T T T T T T T T T T
|-12p9p5-12p9p5-15p9p5-15p9p5-------------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------------19p16p12-19p16p12-19p14p12-19p14p12-------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------19p16p12-19p16p12-
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A (7th) B Bsus2 D
T T T T T T
|-------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------
|-19p15p12-19p15p12-------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------
|-------------------12p9p5-12p9p5-12p8p5-12p8p5h9-
Dm A Am Amaj
You can add whatever you’d like in to change up the tonality of the chord. Even add more notes. These examples just cover the basics of tapping. I’ll be back with a more advanced tapping lesson in the future. For now, try these and try coming up with a few of your own based on these.
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