Lesson 12: Vai style tapping - as seen in Big Trouble, Juic

[jem7vwh]

Vai style tapping:

Some of you have requested that I talk a little about the way Steve uses right hand technique. Here's what I know.

First, Vai plays very scalar sounding passages. What I mean is, unlike EVH or Nuno, Steve's tapping is usually parallel and involves more than one string.

Additionally, Vai occasionally uses more than one finger. It's not a big deal once you get used to it, and most folks will tell you that Steve's use of two fingers is most for show and you can play the same lick with one finger.

Other things to note, almost all of Vai's tapping takes place in descending runs.

Examples here:

• DLR "Big Trouble": note that he uses whammy tricks and bends up to the climax and all the tapping is descending runs.
• Whitesnake "Deeper the Love": Here Steve alternate picks his way up to the 19th fret and slowly works his way down to the 9th and taps descending licks to the 2nd fret.
• "Hand on Heart": Here Steve uses wide interval legato and taps down from the 1st to the 5 string.

In a few cases, when Vai uses tapping in his ascending runs, it's usually in combination with legato.

That's what he does in Juice, Bad Horsie, Hot Dog and Shake.

a typical example:

e---------------------------------------------------t19p18p16p14
B------------------------------------------------16-------------
G-1-------------------------------------13-15-16----------------
D-2-------------------------13h14t16p14-------------------------
A-2-------------12h14t16p14-------------------------------------
E-0-12h14t16p14-------------------------------------------------


e-t18p16p14p12--------------|----------------------------------------
B--------------t17p16p14p12-|----------------------------------------
G---------------------------|-16-15-13-------------------------------
D---------------------------|----------13h14p13----------------------
A---------------------------|-------------------14\9/11\4/6\2/7vvvvvv
E---------------------------|----------------------------------------

Notice a few things: The first is that this passage is in E. In typical Vai fashion, I've tossed in a bit of a Lydian feel. The ascending bit is mostly legato with tapped notes added onto the end of the phrases.

The descending part (like the solo to Hand on Heart) follows the mode almost perfectly. I've left the passage pretty open ended, but I imagine if Steve was playing it, he'd finish up with a some artificial harmonics on the A string.

The most important things to remember when playing in Vai's style are
-fluidity
-articulation : try to make every note as clear as possible
-musicality : unlike other guitarists who are prone to harmonic minor or strange romps through any mode in order to create flash, Vai's solos tend to stay within the Major modes. Lydian, Mixolydian and Dorian tonalities are common.

[Jeroenn]

Thank you so much!
I'm at my work right now (without my guitar..:-)) but when I come home, I'll jump right into this stuff.
Thank you!

[jem7vwh]

Very happy to help. *

[trouble311]

JEM, you da man....once again, special member title for JEM7VWH, Glen? *Anyone else?

[jem7vwh]

Hey guys, tell me if my practice pays off? *After being a little embarassed at being unprepared to record the solo for the Juice lesson early last summer, I've redone it here at home on my JEM.

comments?

here's the link
http://www.geocities.com/cmd4rll/songs.html
click on Finished Juice Solo

[thepumpkinkid]

another interesting lesson maybe a bit too advanced for me at the moment but still, interesting ..

i'm working on the jump solo by van halen at the moment after hearing that you had all the van halen stuff down by the time you were 15 lol. i've set myself a target of equalling you ... so anyway, if you ever feel like doing some van halen style lessons that would be great ..

btw, i now have the mode thing sorted after your lessons, much simpler than i thought

[yurich]

jem7vwh, cool lesson, but I can't play it! Thing is, I just got my first electric not long ago, so tapping is still a bit alien to me (can't do it on an acoustic!). So could you do another one, but start from the beginning. Like an introduction to tapping. Thanks!
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with the left hand :loco:

very cool solo, btw. :thumbsup:

[trouble311]

Oh, you can tap on an acoustic, you just have to be amazingly accurate, articulate, and powerful when you tap.....it's D@MN hard to do....that's actually what I practice my tapping on.....my Martin and my Telecaster.....so when I get on my JEM or UV, it's cake.

[JESTER700]

Yeah - work out the end of the album version of "More than Words" by Extreme. *Pretty tough to make sound good on an acoustic...

[dfung]

would you be able to explain and map out the tapping he does at the end of ballerina or answers on the g3 album (tracy 7 around 5:55).

[jem7vwh]

there's no official transcription to the end of "answers" but here's how I'd play it by ear:

e--||-------8h11t16p11p8-------------||
b--||-8h9--------------------t16p9p8--||
g--||-------------------------------------||
d--||-------------------------------------||
a--||-------------------------------------||
E--||-------------------------------------||


you can take that riff and slide it up two frets each bar until you want to wrap it up with some sweep picking

[Markie Boy]

Jem7VWH - In the first paragraph, you mention that Stevie may use a 2nd finger for show more than anything else.....

I'm not certain (as I've never been right at the front for a Stevie gig)......but his tapping looks to be similar to Reb Beach's in that Reb will hammer with his middle finger...and with his ring finger flick the adjacent string to so that it acts like a pick rather than sounding a note like a hammer-on. This way you can play whole scales without the repeating effect you sometimes get with tapping with just one finger.......and licks can sounds almost saxophone-like.

Just my two-cents............enjoyed the lesson!

[Anton]

trouble311 Says:
JEM, you da man....once again, special member title for JEM7VWH, Glen? Anyone else?

yup , definitely

[rfb]

Originally Posted by dfung

would you be able to explain and map out the tapping he does at the end of ballerina

There isn't any tapping in Ballerina. It uses a harmoniser setting where each note played produces two others, a fourth up and a major sixth up, after an 8th note and a 16th note respectively. You only have to play on the 8th notes.

- rfb

[Nilsefix]

thanks mate... good stuff