I need help on tapping :s

[Anton]

Hi
First of all i'd just like to introduce myself cause im new here I'm Ben.

My problem :
Im not bad , been playing for around 3 years now. My main weakness is theory though! I suck at it.

When i'm improvising with minor / major pentatonic boxes. I want to add tapping solos into them to finish them off . They all seem to sound like they're just random notes , and don't go with the key i'm improvising in atall :X.

Could someone give me some tips , ? Im hoping JEM7vwh can help
Your tutorials rock man.

Ant

[athlon]

Dude

sometimes random notes ( as long as they fit withing the scale ) can sound just fine, Eddie Van Halen has that " falling down the stairs and landing on his feet " sound, and it works great for him

a couple of ideas

do you know all the scale positions all the way up the fretboard ? simple "octave" tapping of a scale can be very effective, or try tapping at the 5th and the 12th, while you are there, why dont you throw in some tapped harmonics too ??

if you do know all the scale positions, then try some 3note per string patterns, i am sure you will come up with something

welcome to the forum

[sniperfrommars1]

Athlon, thats how eddie actually describes his sound. Thats what hes going for. His major influence was old cream jams, and thats the sound he was looking for.

[jem7vwh]

The first thing I tell everyone I teach right hand technique to is this: Stop thinking about it as something different from what you already do! Construct your two-handed leads the same way you would a normal riff, just use higher pitches. All the two-handed technique does is allow you to fret higher pitched notes, the same ones apply.

A few tips to getting started with melodic technique-

Play your usual pentatonic and blues progressions but tap the next notes up behind the patterns. For instance, instead of playing

e--5-h-8-p-8

play

e--5-h-8-t13-p-8-p-5

do the same thing with each note. After that, start writing down phrases you'd play if you had seven fingers, what would you play in C Major if you could reach any note you wanted to?

Look for a new tapping lesson complete with Power Tab in the next few days

[sniperfrommars1]

I tend to use it to get that neoclassical piano sound. It really gives the feel of chording notes high and low on a piano. Ive found that alot of peoples taps can be done with wide stretchs like the stuff kirk hammet does in one. Evh tends to do things that CANT be done normally which I dig.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by sniperfrommars1

I tend to use it to get that neoclassical piano sound. It really gives the feel of chording notes high and low on a piano. Ive found that alot of peoples taps can be done with wide stretchs like the stuff kirk hammet does in one. Evh tends to do things that CANT be done normally which I dig.

Also remember that while you can do some taps with wide stretches, tapping will give a different tone(usually) than using your standard fingers. Sometimes the tap just makes it easier, or dare I say it... look cooler...lol.

I remember someone saying that they read JP fingers his solos differently to see which way would give the better tone....