As we begin I'm going to start by saying that before we start, you should have read through the tapping tutorials posted here and should be familiar with basic ideas of tapping (ie. *Eruption,
Van Halen style).
One question students often ask is how to incorporate tapping inside their music, and different patterns to use.
Patterns
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A great way to begin learning how to integrate tapping into your playing is to use old progressions with a twist. *For instance, try using old pentatonic blues runs with a pedal tone tapped above. *Like this:
[font=courier]
e-t12-5-8------------------------
B---------t12-5-8----------------
G-----------------t12-5-7--------
D-------------------------t12-5-7
A--------------------------------
E--------------------------------
[/font]
Another step you can take to make your tapping more complex is to add a little more movement before you even begin tapping. *Look at the way I've augmented that original Van Halen sounding phrase here:
[font=courier]
e-5-7-8-t12-8-5-----------------------------
B---------------t12-5-8---------------------
G----------------------4-5-7-t12-7-5--------
D------------------------------------t12-5-7
A-------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------
[/font]
Just as above, I've stuck with a pentatonic choice of notes, but this time, I've included a little legato before I begin my tapping, and I reverse motion twice. *This back and forth change of motion creates tension in your solos (ie. *Drop Dead Legs and House of Pain on VH's 1984 album).
Also be aware of the stylistic feeling that your tapping creates. *Artists like Van Halen and Rhodes often left their left hands fairly stationary or in a pattern while the right hand moves, creating a sound like a pedal tone in classical piece (hence the classical feel of the tapped passages in Eruption). *Other artists, notably Steve Vai tend to keep their left hand moving. *If you keep your left hand moving while your tapping hand plays a uniform pattern, you can achieve a kind of counterpoint sound much as one would if they were playing piano. *By keeping both hands working more fluidly and closely, you can achieve more of a smooth rolling sound like a horn or orchestral sounds (ie. Vai's Liberty and solo to Answers during G3). *Experiment with ideas that begin close together with the tapping hand moving farther away to create tension. * Like this:
[font=courier]
e-----------t15-12-13-t17-8-5----------------
B-t15-12-13-------------------t17-8-5--------
G-------------------------------------t16-7-5
D--------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------
[/font]
Other ideas
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Innovation often comes by accident, so try to reserve time for fooling around with this stuff. *You may find little things you never new. *For instance, if you bar your index finger across the 1st fret, you can slap your tapping finger over the 8th fret and achieve a nice natural harmonic.
Here's another one. *Reach over your frethand and bar the strings with your right hand. *Just using your legato strength, vibrate the strings and run trills up the fretboard keeping in mind you can use your barred right hand as a low root note. *Like this:
[font=courier]
e-15-12-t8-17-13-t8-15-12-t8-19-15-t8-20
B
G
D
A
E
[/font]
Lastly, don't forget to use wide interval stretched (just because you can tap doesn't mean you shouldn't work on left hand flexability) and
string skipping. *For more on wide intervals and string-skipping in tapping, watch this week for the next lesson: *How to play the solo to "Juice"
