Total Guitar

Today’s guitar lesson covers one of my favorite techniques, finger tapping. This technique was first made popular by Eddie Van Halen and became a big part of his early sound. Those of you who are familiar with finger tapping already know how difficult it can be. First, you must coordinate both hands while trying to hold onto the pick. Then you have to decide which fingers to use for tapping. When you finally get all of this together there’s often so much string noise that the lick sounds like a mess! This guitar lesson has three playing examples with guitar tabs and sound files.

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The hardest part about this technique is not the actual tapping itself, but being able to control all the potential string noise that can occur. That is why it is crucial to work on this very slowly, gradually building speed. While this is true for most cool techniques, it is imperative for finger tapping. Keeping this in mind, let’s move on to the first example.

Example 1: This lick is a great tapping exercise. It starts in A pentatonic minor and ends in A Dorian (at the 32nd notes). I recommend to use the middle finger for tapping. This enables you to hold the pick as usual so that eventually you can combine picking and tapping as will be demonstrated in example 3. The effects that I used on this are digital delay and a little bit of chorus. To avoid string noise use your right hand palm to mute the strings as you tap.

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Example 2: This example takes the whole idea a little further. I’m tapping with both my second and third fingers on my right hand. The benefits of doing this are huge. For starters, you will end up moving your right hand around a lot less, substantially reducing the amount of string noise that will occur. Also, you will be able to go a lot faster because you will not be jumping around so much. Last, but not least, it looks much cooler. This lick is in A major (or F# minor). Basically what I did to build this lick was hold down one arpeggio shape while I tapped another arpeggio shape on top of it. It kind of has a "mirror" effect. This time I used digital delay but no chorus.

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<a href="http://www.totalguitar.net/online-guitar-lessons/guitar-techniques/finger-tapping/" target="_blank">Total Guitar Lessons – Finger Tapping</a>

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Developing Speed – Part 1. Let’s set up a good tone for this picking madness online guitar lesson. This is purely subjective of course, but here’s how I would tweak the dials. Bass at 6 or 7, midrange around 3, and the treble around 7. Removing the mids gives you a bit smoother tone which I find eliminates a lot of the noise that can occur when you get going at a good pace. I realize a lot of amps nowadays give you a lot more tonal flexibility such as contour, presence, and resonance, so for these controls, just “ear” them out. You will want to use a metronome to build these up to speed. This will help to develop your sense of rhythm so that later when you attempt to use this stuff, you will be able to lock in rhythmically with the rest of the band (otherwise it will sound like a big mess)!

Example 1: This is a tremolo picking exercise in e Minor. It is 32nd notes and 140 bpm (8 notes per click). Use alternate picking starting with a down pick and if you have a neck pick up, use it – it will sound a lot smoother.

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Example 2: This is another good exercise in E minor. It is a little trickier, especially if you are in the habit of using your arm at all when you pick. You should be using only your wrist. I would recommend resting your palm on the bridge (if you do not already). This will allow you to mute the strings with your palm as you ascend. This is 16th note triplets (6 notes per click). Once you get the hang of it, try it descending. Use alternate picking for this exercise as well.

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If you found this guitar lesson helpful, please link to it by adding the following code to your website:
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<a href="http://www.totalguitar.net/online-guitar-lessons/guitar-techniques/speed-part-1/" target="_blank">Total Guitar Lessons – Speed</a>
 

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