Tapping Tips? Now with video!!

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Ok ok I said I wasn’t going to but the band is sounding great and I don’t have too much else tricky to learn. Gig on 16 Nov and we’re doing Beat It complete with EVH-style solo. I have the non-tappy bits already working fine, so it’s actually only about 6 bars of widdle to learn, right…?

Any tips to get my fingers around the twiddly tapping stuff? Light strings, bridge humbucker, plenty of gain and minimising finger movement, I assume?

fastonebaz · October 2023

I tap loads. Makes up for my terrible picking.

I use my middle finger to tap whilst holding the pick with the 1st finger and thumb. Somehow I also seem to mute the strings a bit with my right hand depending on the passage.

Tapping is fun.

stratman3142 · October 2023

fastonebaz said:

...I use my middle finger to tap whilst holding the pick with the 1st finger and thumb. Somehow I also seem to mute the strings a bit with my right hand depending on the passage...

Same here. The muting is important.

I 'pull off' the string sideways with a slight movement downwards. Others use a slight upwards movement when pulling off.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Cheers. I play bass as well so muting everything as much as possible with both hands is kinda second nature, which is good.

Just need to get my head around the notes now

digitalkettle · October 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Cheers. I play bass as well so muting everything as much as possible with both hands is kinda second nature, which is good.

Just need to get my head around the notes now

I'm shit at tapping so don't listen to me

However...

I feel it was maybe more about shapes than notes for Eddie (?)

I think I'm a bit unorthodox too: I tap with my middle finger (as Baz does) and I release with an upwards pull-off (unless I've bent the string...then it's second nature to pull-off downwards where there's more room).

viz · October 2023

Yep. As others. I don’t change the position of my thumb / 1st finger / plectrum one jot. Just use the middle and ring fingers for tappin’.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Yep - all clear and confirms my "assumed-understanding", which his great. My natural movement is an upwards pull off with the middle finger, so will stick with that

This guy has a simpler version that sounds great - I'll almost certainly probably ape this. Will update over the next couple of weeks as I get up to speed. And I promise videos once I'm in the right ballpark - it'll be in front of 800+ people on the night so I need some jeopardy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rppf3eGI3GA

CaseOfAce · October 2023

I've never had much luck tapping with my middle finger - I just instinctively tap with my index as I've got way more strength and accuracy with that digit. I also anchor my ring and little fingers to bottom of the fretboard and / or thumb on top of fretboard.
The pick is held between my thumb and middle finger.

stratman3142 · October 2023

You're probably wise to go for a simplified approach. There's a really difficult (for me) stretch from the 12th to 19th fret. I think many find an alternative to that.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

I also just got a silver sparkly strap, so I'll distract them with that and they won't notice if I drop a couple of notes

stufisher · October 2023

Really pleased you posted this @stickyfiddle ; ... I'm utter pants at tapping and I'm also trying to learn the Beat It solo at the moment.

I've got chunks of it sorted but I struggle to keep with EVH tempo because of my shit technique ... the above comments are useful for me, particularly ref the muting, so thanks all.

My starting point for taking this on is Carl Brown as always ... perhaps you may also glean some tips from him too.

Hope your tutelage goes well and you nail the gig

Here's the lesson I'm using:

roberty · October 2023

stratman3142 said:

fastonebaz said:

...I use my middle finger to tap whilst holding the pick with the 1st finger and thumb. Somehow I also seem to mute the strings a bit with my right hand depending on the passage...

Same here. The muting is important.

I 'pull off' the string sideways with a slight movement downwards. Others use a slight upwards movement when pulling off.

I was taught to pull off towards the bass side and to this day I have no idea why. Does it matter? You seem to do alright! ;-)

Danny1969 · October 2023

One thing people seem to miss is you need to use your fretting had to stop the tapping pushing the neck away. Once you have this down you can tap with a clean sound and still hear every note.

If you watch my left hand you can see it almost pushing the neck towards the tap, this makes sure I get all the power from the tap down on the note

The hardest part I think is actually the stretch at 1:09 ish

I've never really sat down with tab and learned this, I just play roughly what I think he's playing and concentrate on the main gist of the memorable sections and just try to get the aggression in.

stratman3142 · October 2023

roberty said:
...I was taught to pull off towards the bass side and to this day I have no idea why. Does it matter?...

I'm not sure that it matters whether you 'pull off' towards the treble side or bass side, provided you can get the desired effect. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can point out the pros and cons.

KevS · October 2023

Don't know if I'm saying anything new,,or just complaining about my own inadequacies as a player...

I'm crap at it,I actually stopped trying to develop 4 years into my playing around 1990 because everyone else was doing it,and the same single string arpeggio licks too..Plus I wasn't listening to that type of music..Apart from Satriani,I always had a soft spot for Satriani..I wish I was better at it now..

Anyway from someone crap at it ,the thing I found most important was/is...Keeping your tapping finger, fingernails short or it fouled the whole thing up,
good idea to toughen up by gradual practice too,as blisters on performance night wouldn't be fun....
Why Randy Rhoads used his pick edge instead as he played fingerstyle on nylon string,,he needed his nails for that..
I've found the fingertip gets a stronger note than a pick edge though..Picke edge is good for speed.

Some people can palm the pick and use their index fingertip to tap..I found that way easiest until I tried to use my pick again..
I just couldn't ,,the pick felt alien for too long to readjust and go back into normal playing,my hand felt Gammy....
I have the same problem coming from fingerstyle to using a pick,why I ended up using hybrid picking,
I can use my pinky to some extent too,we all find our own way,sometimes by inadequacy in my case or mistake even....

So for me it was best to use my Middle Finger for tapping..
I find the index finger method better for muting,but at least I can continue to play if I use my middle..
It's a bummer as I can pull off some cool multi string runs using the index finger,well if I practice them....
Also standing up playing a Les Paul, my wrist goes directly over the toggle switch using the middle finger method,,
them my finger won't easily reach the fingerboard..What a Palava..I'm careful having been a tendinitis sufferer about bending my wrist....

KevS · October 2023

Danny1969 said:

One thing people seem to miss is you need to use your fretting had to stop the tapping pushing the neck away. Once you have this down you can tap with a clean sound and still hear every note.

If you watch my left hand you can see it almost pushing the neck towards the tap, this makes sure I get all the power from the tap down on the note

The hardest part I think is actually the stretch at 1:09 ish

I've never really sat down with tab and learned this, I just play roughly what I think he's playing and concentrate on the main gist of the memorable sections and just try to get the aggression in.

NIIICE Playing MAAAN !!!!..Impressive !!!...I am so Old School I am a Generation before my actual Generation...

digitalscream · October 2023

The thing I've found with tapping is that, when done effectively, it needs a whole bunch of techniques to be used at once:

- The right-hand-tap itself
- Right-hand pull-off without hitting other strings
- Right-hand muting
- Left-hand muting of adjacent strings
- Left-hand hammer-ons from nothing (almost a left-hand tap - that occurs in Beat It too, one of the patterns starts with this)

...and that's before you consider all the different possible tapping patterns.

However, the biggest trick is...it's usually not being played as fast as it sounds. Done right, there's a "bubble" effect that happens which makes it sound much faster; relax, and don't try to push it.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Ta - y'all make it sound so straightforward...!

Nerine · October 2023

The best way to tap is to avoid it.

Seriously. As soon as all these Insta guitarists move their right hand to the fretboard I vomit.

It’s so unbelievably contrived and let’s be real, doesn’t even sound good. It’s aged badly, IMO.

I can allow tapping the top of an arpeggio or sweep or a tap and slide or something, and to be fair, I occasionally chuck a few of those in, but the whole triplet repeating tapping thing is garbage innit really.

digitalscream · October 2023

Nerine said:

The best way to tap is to avoid it.

Seriously. As soon as all these Insta guitarists move their right hand to the fretboard I vomit.

It’s so unbelievably contrived and let’s be real, doesn’t even sound good. It’s aged badly, IMO.

I can allow tapping the top of an arpeggio or sweep or a tap and slide or something, and to be fair, I occasionally chuck a few of those in, but the whole triplet repeating tapping thing is garbage innit really.

Ah, but there's so much more you can do with it than that. When used properly, either as an extra fretting-hand finger or with longer passages without constant repetition, it works really well (see the way Nuno uses it, for example).

maltingsaudio · October 2023

I’ve always avoided tapping because I have the nails on my right hand long for finger picking

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Ok, so I've made a proper start this evening. Probably about 45 minutes but I"m not 100% what time I started. I've got most of the passages working at 90% speed, so now need to work on getting those really tight while I work out how to stitch them together smoothly and get it all up to 100% speed.

My tapping finger (right middle) is starting to ache a smidge so I'll stop there and try again tomorrow. If I can keep this progress up I'm happy I can get there. I'm sure I'm also pressing a little bit harder than I need to, so that'll no doubt ease up with practice too.

Arrangement-wise I'm somewhere between that simple one and the full thing. I can't get 100% anyway since I don't have anything with humbuckers and a whammy, so I'll be very happy if I can get this in place within a couple of weeks, then another couple of consolidation to make it feel natural rather than a super-new thing.

Nerine · October 2023

digitalscream said:

Nerine said:

The best way to tap is to avoid it.

Seriously. As soon as all these Insta guitarists move their right hand to the fretboard I vomit.

It’s so unbelievably contrived and let’s be real, doesn’t even sound good. It’s aged badly, IMO.

I can allow tapping the top of an arpeggio or sweep or a tap and slide or something, and to be fair, I occasionally chuck a few of those in, but the whole triplet repeating tapping thing is garbage innit really.

Ah, but there's so much more you can do with it than that. When used properly, either as an extra fretting-hand finger or with longer passages without constant repetition, it works really well (see the way Nuno uses it, for example).

Oh Yeah, absolutely! I was generalising a bit. Some players such as Nuno incorporate it nicely and tastefully.

I stand by my comment that the

5—8—12(T)—5—8—12(T)

thing is rubbish. Hehe.

Nerine · October 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Ok, so I've made a proper start this evening. Probably about 45 minutes but I"m not 100% what time I started. I've got most of the passages working at 90% speed, so now need to work on getting those really tight while I work out how to stitch them together smoothly and get it all up to 100% speed.

My tapping finger (right middle) is starting to ache a smidge so I'll stop there and try again tomorrow. If I can keep this progress up I'm happy I can get there. I'm sure I'm also pressing a little bit harder than I need to, so that'll no doubt ease up with practice too.

Arrangement-wise I'm somewhere between that simple one and the full thing. I can't get 100% anyway since I don't have anything with humbuckers and a whammy, so I'll be very happy if I can get this in place within a couple of weeks, then another couple of consolidation to make it feel natural rather than a super-new thing.

I had to learn the Beat It solo a while back and for me the most awkward thing was the timing and getting the bar dips and raises bang on. It’s quite a loose solo, timing wise but if you play it loose it sounds wrong. It’s a tricky one to do properly, but keep at it. There’s some cool bits to work on. All the whammy bar stuff in it is good.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

No bar dips for me, so that's good!!

stratman3142 · October 2023

stratman3142 said:

roberty said:
...I was taught to pull off towards the bass side and to this day I have no idea why. Does it matter?...

I'm not sure that it matters whether you 'pull off' towards the treble side or bass side, provided you can get the desired effect. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can point out the pros and cons.

I found an interesting video on different tapping styles. Like the presenter, the Steve Vai approach is the closest to the way I do it.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Ok so 2 days in and I'm making solid progress. I mute the fat strings fairly automatically with my right palm so that's a good start. I've got the opening and closing passages down pretty well, so its just the middle bit and the transitions between them to get right now.

And of course now I have the beginnings of a blister on my tapping finger, so will need to take it easy for a day or 2.

digitalkettle · October 2023

This thread can only end with you posting a vid!

stickyfiddle · October 2023

digitalkettle said:

This thread can only end with you posting a vid!

I'll get there - I promise! I'm playing in front of 800 people in a few weeks, so a phone vid for you bastards is the least of my worries!

But not ready yet!!

CHRISB50 · October 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Ok, so I've made a proper start this evening. Probably about 45 minutes but I"m not 100% what time I started. I've got most of the passages working at 90% speed, so now need to work on getting those really tight while I work out how to stitch them together smoothly and get it all up to 100% speed.

My tapping finger (right middle) is starting to ache a smidge so I'll stop there and try again tomorrow. If I can keep this progress up I'm happy I can get there. I'm sure I'm also pressing a little bit harder than I need to, so that'll no doubt ease up with practice too.

Arrangement-wise I'm somewhere between that simple one and the full thing. I can't get 100% anyway since I don't have anything with humbuckers and a whammy, so I'll be very happy if I can get this in place within a couple of weeks, then another couple of consolidation to make it feel natural rather than a super-new thing.

Burn the witch!

stickyfiddle · October 2023

@Chrisb50 I do have humbuckers, just not with trem, unless you count my WRHB Jazzblaster, which I certainly don't!

If plans come together and I stay on guitar and we get more "proper" gigs then I can 100% see an HSS workhorse ion my future. But I ain't buying a new guitar just for one gig. The SG or CS-336 will do just fine. In fact the SG seems to make tapping really easy and sounds better than the 336. I have no idea why so any thoughts on that are very welcome!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Tapping Tips? Now with video!!

Comments