Tapping
Fretting notes with a picking-hand finger to extend the reach of legato; mechanics, muting and applications.
Advanced
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
Loading…
Fretting notes with a picking-hand finger to extend the reach of legato; mechanics, muting and applications.
Advanced
In tapping a finger of your picking hand strikes the string at a fret, like a hammer-on, then pulls off to a note held by the other hand. That lets you play very wide intervals on one string at high speed. It's an extension of legato, so get comfortable with hammer-ons and pull-offs first.
Three notes on the 1st string that form an Am arpeggio: the highest is tapped and the other two come from fretting-hand slurs. Looped, they form triplets:
Step 1 of 4 · Set the fretting hand
String 1, Fret 5: A4 · 1 · Root
Start very slowly, with the metronome in triplets and one note per subdivision. What matters is that all three notes come out at the same volume:
Metronome in triplets at 50 BPM Picking & articulationLegato (hammer-ons & pull-offs)Even-volume slurred notes that don't rely on the pick.Take a two-chord progression and find three notes for each chord on the 1st or 2nd string: one high note to tap and two for the fretting hand. Change chord every bar without losing the triplet pulse. That already gives you a complete phrase that follows the harmony.
In two-hand tapping, both hands fret and slur notes independently, sometimes on different strings, like a keyboard. Another device is tapped harmonics: fret a note and lightly strike the string right above the fret twelve frets higher; you hear the harmonic an octave up. Both techniques need very clean muting and slow practice before you speed up. If your forearm feels tense, rest: the tap should be accurate, not hard.