Originally posted by sambob
But who really does 8 fingered tapping? Seriously, help me out here. I tap a lot, in the style of Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, etc... more recently I do a lot of things like Rusty Cooley or Francesco Fareri. But I've never really heard or seen anyone use more than 3 fingers in one given lick, or at least, play something that is easier with more than 3 fingers.[/B]

My friend who can tap with all 8 fingers, and pretty well I must say. He'll use one hand to play a fast baroque lick on the higher strings, and use his other hand to play the lower notes or walking bass line. It's sweet as hell. Sometimes he'll even use his thumb, like he did one thing in D minor last time I saw him. He tuned his low E to D, and used his thumb to alternately pluck the A and D string while doing a serrena type thing but tapping the arpeggios.

Yeah when I listen to music, even something that I don't normally listen to like country. I always appreciate it, what they did, how they did it, and how it all comes together. Usually I find something they did and go "sweet" and then I'll apply it to my style (of course some doctoring up). But music in all it's shapes and forms is an eye-opener and being close-minded to music (for whatever reason) is a weakness cause 50% of what I know and use came from music I don't normally listen to.

I think the same thing chuck. Usually when there's a solo going on and it's a solo I know already. I listen into what the bass or rhythm guitar is doing behind the solo, then the solo makes more sense and I can appreciate it even more.

As for my songwriting skills, I've always been good at writing music and good at writing lyrics but until more recently I guess you could say I had a weakness in trying to put them together. So I've been working on that end more and more as of late. Mostly my ability to sing, ‘LOL’. I’ve always had someone do that for me and now I’m working hard to be able to do it myself.