Tapping has existed in some form or another for centuries, basically ever since the guitar has existed. Eddie Van Halen was the person responsible for popularizing the tapping technique for the modern audience, influencing many guitarists and musicians and nowadays it is one of the heavily used techniques in rock and metal.

Tapping produces drowning sound as it sounds like you play really fast but actually it is not. It is just a matter of timing and coordination between your left and right fingers.

Tapping the guitar means you produce sounds by tapping the string at any fret, instead of plucking the strings. Tapping can be carried out with just one hand, or both hands at the same time, and can be used to give your music a more percussive feel, therefore rhythm and timing is very important.

To get the most out of tapping, you will use an over driven amp or distortion pedal. If you're using a lot of distortion, you will hear unwanted strings/notes ring out because of touching other strings by accident, and the force of the tapping causing the fret board to vibrate. This means that you will have to put great emphasis on muting the strings you are not tapping. You can do this by using palm muting the bass strings, and finger muting the treble strings you are not tapping.

Tapping with One Hand

Taping with one hand means you use your right hand finger to tap the string on the fretboard at any given fret in any string you desire and then your left hand for fretting the string. For example, tap at the 12th fret of the high E string and pull off outward while your fretting hand on the 5th fret.

The following is the correct way to do one handed tapping:

• use the index or middle finger of your plucking hand to sound the first note on a string by sharply hammering onto it once
• pull off to a lower note held by one of the left hand fingers
• You can then pull off or hammer on to another note with your fretting fingers, creating different sequences.
• Keep your taps as coordinated as possible. Try not to touch other strings.
• As with all of the new guitar techniques you learn, start out slow and speed up gradually.

Tapping with Two Hands

Two handed tapping means, taping first your right hand finger and pull-off then your fretting hand will also tap on a certain fret after it sounds the open string note. For example, tap on the 12th fret then pull-off and let the open string note sounds and then tap on the 5th fret.

Let’s get to it

The following are suggested tapping exercises

· Tap – pull-off – pull-off

· Tap – pull-off – hammer-on

· Tap - pull-off – hammer-on – hammer-on

· Tap - pull-off –tap - – hammer-on

· Tap - slide - pull-off –tap - – hammer-on

· Tap - pull-off – hammer-on – hammer-on - pull-off – pull-off

After you perfected all the exercises on the 1st string try it also on the remaining string. If you have any ideas to be added on your mind then do it. Mastering the technique of tapping will greatly increase your vocabulary on your guitar playing. Good luck and have fun with it.

Learn more lessons about improving your guitar playing check out my next guitar lesson on how to play fast.

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