Tapping Licks #1

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.