Tapping help

[Cthulhu]

My tapping doesn't seem to work. I seem to mute the string or make it buzz.
What am i doing wrong?

[iamthe_eggman]

hey guys - i need help with this too. how can i improve my tapping?

------------------
ok, i'm not really the eggman

[letter7]

Yeah, I had the same problem for the longest time. I kept trying, then giving up and going back to blues. http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif

But tapping is really one of the easiest ways to sound fast (and, if abused, annoying). I'd say the trick is chordination. Make sure that you're holding the tapped note long enough, and try to hit right behind the fret. A really good song to practice on is satriani's midnight, which is all reasonable, clean tapping. It also sounds really nice, and introduces tapped chords, and tapping on several strings at once.

I'd say practice was the key, but I think I got it all at once. Try hitting the tapped note longer and harder at first, and you'll gradually be able to sound those notes with a feather touch.

[Fender]

any other advice I can;t tap well

[Kevin Taylor]

*Use your thumb as an anchor and think of tapping almost like using a typewriter. ie, little mallots hitting the fretboard *Use light strings like .009 thru .042. *Use one of those hairtie things I mention in my section on tapping... they stop all the wrong notes from ringing on & when you're not using it, just slide it up onto the headstock. *Lower the action of your strings as low as you can get em without buzzing. *Make every note the same volume by training your right hand to do hammer-ons the same way dynamically that your left one does. *Learn to use the thumb of your left hand to reach around and mute the bottom strings when you do multiple string tapping...same thing for your other fingers...plan out your taps so that muting is a part of it *Keep your finger on each note as long as you can until you have to move it to another note....make every note clear and smooth. *Learn to begin your taps in various different ways like pulling-off with your right or hammering-on with your left first. *Start getting used to including tapping as part of your regular practice schedule...ie, don't think of tapping as a novelty to be used just once in awhile to impress your friends...learn it well and learn to use all the fingers of your right hand whenever you learn a new solo. Most solo's can be played by tapping em so when you learn a new solo, see if you can play it by tapping it too. (shameless plug>> check out the tapping sections on my host page http://www.guitartricks.com/guesthosts/schmange/
pretty soon I'll be putting together a whole section devoted to just tapping)

[James]

Here's a follow-up question. I was going through some of your tapping tricks schmange and found a trick that requires you to use multiple right-hand fingers on a single string. My question is, how do you do this? The URL of the trick is http://www.guitartricks.com/guesthosts/schmange/schmange959827752.shtml
It is the first example.

[James]

bump!

[Fender1165]

I guess this would be an ok place to ask this question. Don't get mad at its obvious stupidity. I have never tapped (that I'm aware of) and I am not too familiar with the term. If everything goes as it should, how does a guitarist tap? I've taken lessons for 6 years and my instructor has never mentioned tapping or showed it to me.

:-D

------------------
-ejd

email:
Fender1165@aol.com
Guitarbiz@hotmail.com

[Kevin Taylor]

James: Hard to describe... just think of your right hand doing the the same stuff as your left when you hammer on and pull off etc. The only difference is you're doing it over-hand with your right hand instead of from below the neck with your left. It takes a whole bunch of practice ... sorta like starting to play guitar all over again.
It's really tough to describe without visuals so thankfully with Jon's help I'm working on putting a video together that explains the whole thing...70 lessons scripted out so far... just have to get it filmed.

[Sully]

I can tap pretty well, but, I just haven't been able to use it in the context of a solo. Are there standard "moves" in minor and major themes that are typically used? i.e. kinda like the blues has a bunch of standard licks....are there standard tapping licks?

[Kevin Taylor]

Depends on what you're trying to achieve. There's standard 'tricks' that you can move all over the fretboard if you just want to throw in a fast lick, or you can take things further and think of your right hand as an extension of your left and do the same kinda bends, slides, hammers etc that you do normally. One thing tapping helps when you can get your right hand to sound identical to your left is being able to play sequences of notes that aren't possible with just one hand. Your right hand reaches over and completes a riff on the upper notes then suddenly you drop down four octaves with your left hand and nobody can figure out how you did it even though it doesn't sound that difficult. (ya constantly get accused of tape splicing). Don't always think of tapping as just a means to speed things up.