Today I’m gonna share one of my favorite tapping exercise.
I know tapping is getting boring since Van Halen made it popular. Nowadays everyone who states him or herself as a good guitarist use tapping to impress the auidience. Although the
original ones - when you use one finger
to tap and two or three fingers to maneuver over the neck – are the best to learn this skill and reach a high level,
there is much more possibility in these kind of licks. We just need to expand
our views.
Let’s start with some Scale
The Summit. I hope you’ve heard about this band already, because they play
some really good riffs, and these riffs are challenging and fun to play. I know
they prefer their original tab books – so you won’t find any tabs online – and I
say if you like these kind of riffs don’t hesitate to buy it. Anyway I tabbed some of my
favorites from their video lessons.
One of their best tapping lick – in my opinion – is in the
song called ’The Great Plains’. Although
it was recorded on a seven string guitar, you can play it on a six string as
well (only the very last note is on the B string and feel free to play the
note an octave higher). There’s not a prescribed or official finger order, you
can play it anyhow it’s fit your style, anyway here’s how I play this. In the
first measure you’ll need three fingers from your left hand and only one from
your right. I hammer the A note (E-5) with my index finger, then I hammer on
the next B note (E-7) with my ring finger. Then I tap the 14th(F#) fret with my
right hand index finger and slide to the 16th (G#). After these I hammer on the
G# (D-6) using my index finger, then the same on the A (D-7) with my middle
finger. For the right hand tap I use my index finger again. And that's all about the first two measures.
The next two is much more interesting. For the next three note - all on different strings - I use my index finger (5th) my middle finger (7th) and my pinky (9th). Then I tap with my right hand - first the 17th fret with my middle finger then the 14th with the index finger. I think you can continue this process after everything I wrote about my finger order. And remember: this is how I play it, maybe you play it otherwise.
If you want to play the whole song I reccomend Chris Letchford's video playthrough or their tab books.
Next time I’ll show you one of my other favorite
lick from my repertoire. See you soon.
