Essential Finger Tapping Technique

In part 1, we were introduced to the basic physical aspects of guitar finger tapping (if you haven't taken that lesson, do so before you take this one!).

It's important to be physically confident with any guitar playing technique before you move on to tackle the theory side of it all (scales, notes, rhythm etc.).

This lesson will still be a very physical based lesson, because there's still some essential tapping "physics" we need to nail down before we start getting our heads around being able to tap in scale at the drop of a crash symbol.

You'll still get a chance to try out some of your own finger tapping over backing tracks in this lesson ;)

Ok, let's get to it...

Getting comfortable with regular lead-tap changes

As a guitarist, you'll need to be confident with switching from regular pick playing to tapping, sometimes very quickly and cleanly, depending on your music.

This is more difficult than it sounds. First you have to move your picking hand from the guitar's bridge position and place it accurately on that first tapping fret. It can be a large movement, so your hand-eye co-ordination needs to be top notch. It just takes...yep...practice!

Here's a little exercise to help you out...

Play the below basic lead riff:

Click the diagram to hear

Now we're going to spice it up a bit with a tapping phrase. What I've done in the example below is have a little play on the G string from where that tab above ends - so our index finger should be there, ready on the G string at fret 2, then we can add any extra "layers" into the tapping phrase we wish (part 1 covered these basics)...

>> Click to hear example

You'll need to be quick and accurate when moving that tapping finger down to the appropriate fret, however, some guitarists prepare for this switch by actually picking down nearer the fretboard as you get close to the tapping moment, rather than wait for it at the usual position near the bridge.

Start off slow using a metronome and speed up gradually with your experimentations!

Adding more pull-offs and hammer-ons to the fretting hand

Great tapping phrases can be made using two notes on the fretting hand and one tapping note. However, you can obviously add more notes to the sequence and produce a richer soundscape.

You need to have at least taken the lesson in part 1 to be confident with pull-offs in finger tapping phrases.

There are many ways to arrange the sequence of notes in the tapping phrase. One way is to "tumble" in a sequence of pull-offs...

You can also pull-off and hammer-on in a cyclic motion like below...

Obviously I can't over every possible combination or sequence, but when you get round to learning your scales properly, it's really just a case of playing out a sequence like you would normally with your fretting fingers and adding those taps in appropriately.

When writing a tapping solo, I always start with the fretting hand, sort that out first, then weave the taps into the sequence.

Don't just tap-tap-tap on one fret either - your tapping finger can create its own little melody while the fretting fingers focus on theirs!

Using more than one string in your finger tapping phrases

To be honest, most tapping phrases I hear (mostly in heavy metal guitar solos) are only done on one string for a few seconds. However, by using more than one string, you can jump around a given scale more easily - just like if you were picking normally, a scale is more practical and dynamic played out across the 6 strings.

So if you want your tapping to sweep through a scale, you'll need to get comfortable switching strings smoothly, in rhythm and in sync with your tapping finger.

Take a look at the exercise below...

Click diagram to hear example

That's a simple minor scale phrase across 4 strings. What you do with your tapping finger is up to you - either keep it in a fixed spot for each string, or move it around a bit which will require more concentration.

Also, play around with those fretted finger intervals. Either "tumble" them like we looked at above, or "see-saw" between them. Come up with your own way to weave them into the tapping sequence.

Once you're up to speed with help from a metronome you can try the above lick over the backing track below...

>> Click to hear

You don't always need more than one string!

In some cases, you may find the backing melody you're playing over allows you to simply slide a particular phrase shape or interval up and down the fretboard on the same string. So it's not the actual fret position that's fixed, it's just the interval used on your fretting fingers that gets shifted up and down the fretboard.

Take a look and listen below to see what I mean. Notice how the interval on the fretting fingers remains the same, it just descends as one block down the fretboard. In the example, I "see-saw" between those two fretted notes on the left using the hammer-on and pull-off techniques we've looked at before (I use my index and pinky finger).

You can keep the tapping finger on the same fret throughout, as the fretting interval descends, or try, like I do in the audio clip, to descend it following the fretted phrase...

Click diagram to hear

Try your own patterns using this fixed-interval technique. If you like the above example, and you've gotten up to speed with a metronome, try it over the backing track below.

>> Click to hear

How confident are you now with finger tapping?

I'm aware I've been quite open in this lesson and allowed you to experiment without me interfering too much :o) - you may like that, or you may be thinking "I need more guidance". I can assure you that the more you go over this and trust your own musical creativity, you won't need me to show you what to play all the time.

This lesson, along with part 1, should have helped you to get physically confident with the basic finger tapping technique. You're now ready to learn scales and create your own tapping phrases, based on this physical foundation. More on this soon...

Happy tapping for now!