Home
> Lead
Guitar Lessons > Beginner
Guitar Tapping
Beginner
Guitar Tapping Lesson
This lesson will look specifically at beginner guitar tapping
and introduce you to the basic finger tapping technique. I've tried to
make this as step-by-step and practical as possible, so you actually
come away with a new soloing skill you can really use!
First, the obvious question
has to be answered...
What is guitar finger
tapping?
Tapping involves using the
ends of the fingers from your picking hand to hammer
on and pull off strings in the same way you would using your fret hand.
The below video shows you
tapping in action with an "over the shoulder" camera angle...
If you enjoyed that video,
check out what else JamPlay
offers here.
Once you get round to
hammering using 3 fingers on your fret
hand, and tapping using 1 or more fingers on your pick
hand
all in the same soloing phrase, you can create a very dynamic
arpeggio effect which would otherwise be impossible to achieve with
just the fret hand as usual.
So now we know what tapping is
and what it can achieve, where do we start?
Beginner
guitar tapping basics
We're gonna start simple -
work through this in your own time.
|
Before we begin...
Tapping is most commonly used under high gain/distortion. Acoustic/clean
players do
sometimes tap, but just be aware that guitar tapping without gain or
distortion requires much more physical work on your hammer-ons and
especially pull-offs.
|
First, Choose the
finger
you feel most comfortable tapping with
Most guitarists tap using
their middle (2nd) finger (like in the video
above), because if you're picking using a
plectrum as usual and need to suddenly switch to a tapping phrase, your
middle finger will be instantly free and you can still hang onto the
plectrum (between index finger and thumb) for when you go
back to picking as normal.
The other option is to hold your pick between thumb and 2nd finger and
tap using your 1st/index finger.
Find what's right for you.
If you've not tapped before,
you'll need to exercise and work-in this new action for your picking
hand and build up callouses (tough skin) on your tapping fingers.
We'll just stick to the
physical side of guitar
tapping for now, rather than learning how to tap within a key or scale
effectively.
Try the exercise below: fret
the string of choice
as usual using your natural fret hand. Now you can tap at a
particular fret using the finger you've chosen on your picking
hand to hammer on and pull off...
Try to tap in the same fret
space position as the dot in the diagram -
just before the fret wire, exactly where you'd fret normally!
Click for slow example
- Click for faster example
At first, if you're using a
lot of distortion/gain,
you might hear unwanted strings/notes ring out because of the force of
the tapping causing the fretboard to vibrate. Unfortunately, unwanted
noise is the biggest problem most guitarists have to deal with. The
idea is, though, you'll be playing over other instruments when soloing,
and trust me, that definitely helps in masking those unwanted noises
you simply cannot block out.
Try your best to keep your
taps dead on target. If using high gain, the loudest and most prominant
notes (i.e. the notes you're tapping) will dominate.
Start slow, speed up gradually!
You need
to try and keep that tapping rhythm constant - don't just tap as fast
as you can without any thought for rhythmic accuracy!
What does it sound
like to you?
If taps sound a little dead
and lifeless, i.e. they don't resonate enough, try pulling off
the string slightly, in a downwards motion as soon
as you've tapped down onto it...
This takes time to master -
with slower guitar tapping rhythms, you want to slightly pluck
the string with your tapping finger so it'll resonate as you pull away,
but you don't want to pull off too harshly or it'll sound like a
bend! When you start to tap a lot quicker, pulling off action becomes
less important, as you'll only be holding on each note for literally a
fraction of a second.
Remember,
you can use a metronome to gradually build up
your speed and confidence with guitar tapping.
More
beginner guitar tapping exercises
So now we know how to
physically tap, albeit with a stationary couple of notes.
Now let's try the same thing
but with movement at
our fretting fingers. This is one way of creating a guitar tapping
melody - your tapping finger taps the same note (fret) whilst your fret
hand does the change work.
Try the simple exercise below
and, like I said before, speed up gradually but don't lose that
rhythm!...
Click for slow example
- Click
for faster example
Now, it's up to you whether you decide to change fret/note using more
than one finger, or just slide the one finger around. Each has a
different effect.
If we use hammer ons and pull
offs using our fretting fingers as well
as the tapping with our picking finger(s) we can double the effect it
has on the sound and rhythm!
All we have to do is assign a sequence
of hammer ons and pull offs and arrange them into the order that gets
us the sound we want.
Take a look below at the
sequence of pull offs and hammer ons I've built on gradually:
Let's start with our fret hand
and create a simple hammer on - pull off 2 note phrase...
Click diagram to hear
Try and keep to that rhythm for this exercise. A simple pull-off and
hammer on.
Now we can add the taps into
the existing rhythm however we wish...
Click for slow example
- Click for faster example
The idea is to not lose that
initial rhythm we had with
our fretting fingers - as soon as another layer is added,
you must add it without interrupting that initial rhythm.
That's key to building rhythmic accuracy with
guitar tapping.
So now we've got a 3
note tapping phrase
We can still add more! Let's
try alternately tapping a different note,
still keeping in the same rhythm. This requires quite a bit more
concentration as you need to pinpoint the correct change of fret for
your taps, and of course, the faster you go, the more concentration is
needed!
Click for slow example
- Click for faster example
So I'm just swapping around
those two tapping notes to
add another note to the phrase (and I personally use the same tapping
finger to swap between the notes). I suppose most of the time, the more
notes included in the phrase, the more the solo will dominate the
music.
Like I said before (and
you...uh...probably
noticed in the clip above) it's difficult to block all unwanted noise
when finger tapping, but when accompanied with rhythm guitar (which
tapping 99% of the time is) it can disguise some of
the noise ;)
Click to hear with rhythm guitar
We still don't have to stop
there! Yep, we can add a 3rd, 4th, 5th extra tapping note
as part of the sequence if we want. This is where your knowledge of
scales comes in handy, or if you're unsure, just try adding a note and listen
to see if it sounds good as part of that phrase. Trust your ears and
your taste in music!
Remember:
tapping's not just for the E and B strings, try it on all 6 strings to
see what effect you get!
Beginner
guitar tapping part 2
Hopefully
this lesson should have introduced you
to the physical basics of finger tapping which will add a little something to
your lead guitar. I say a "little" because guitar tapping shouldn't be
used
just for the sake of showing off -
Eddie Van Halen was renowned for using tapping in a virtuoso manner, but also in a
unique way that made it his signature style - find your
style!
In part 2, we'll be looking at
expanding on these basic guitar tapping
techniques to make more complex and dynamic phrases. We've still got
some essential physical elements to tackle!
For now, don't be afraid to
experiment with what you know. Take another look at the tapping video
from earlier (including the supplemental content provided), working one string at a time.

Go
to Tapping Part 2 >
|