II: TAPPING
I thought I'd start with tapping, as it's probably the most asked about. I'm not sure who started tapping first, but it seems to have risen as a "virtuoso" technique sometime in the 70s.
Around that time, the Chapman Stick was invented. The "Stick" is a wild instrument made up of a fretted block of wood and 10 strings that work like an electric guitar. To play the Stick, you don't strum or pick like a guitar, but instead you tap. To tap means that you smack your fingers down nice and hard on the note that you want, and just from that smack, a sound comes out.
The Chapman Stick was used by a few performers such as Trey Gunn of King Crimson. Watching someone on the Chapman Stick looks pretty amazing if you don't know what tapping is. The musician just seems to magically "touch" the neck of the instrument to play it.
Moving back to the guitar, some players began to use the same techniques used on the Chapman Stick to play their own instruments. A few mainstream electric guitarists made some simple tapping licks popular, particularly Eddie Van Halen (see example 2). Tapping was really explored by jazz artist Stanley Jordan in his first album Magic Touch (1985, Blue Note). For whatever reason, tapping was a little late-in-coming to its popularization on the acoustic guitar, but I'd say the first big acoustic album was by the late-great Michael Hedges with Aerial Boundaries(1984, Windham Hill).
Was it the Chapman stick that got these guitarists tapping? Probably not, although it I think it had some influence. The Stick's inventor, Emmett Chapman, had been tapping on his guitar for some time before his 6-string dissatisfaction lead him to create the all tapping instrument.
Before the 70s, people had been flirting with tapping for centuries. Tapping licks show up in classical and folk pieces for stringed instruments. For the most part, though, it wasn't seen as a way to play until the 80s, and it's just started to make it's way onto being standard.
THE BASICS:
"Tapping" is really a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs. A hammer-on (H) is done by smacking your finger down nice and hard on the note you want without muting it. A note that sounds after you release your finger from the string is called a pull-off (P), because essentially you're just pulling your finger off the neck of the guitar without picking with your right hand. Pretty elementary stuff, right? Exercise 1 is a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs that someone who knows absolutely nothing about the guitar should have no problem doing. What fingers you use for these exercises is really up to you, although I have written the fingering in.
exercise 1
First, tap your middle finger on the third fret, 5th string (this is a D natural in standard tuning). Then, while the D is still sounding, take your finger off the neck so that the 5th string rings open (a B natural in standard tuning). Next repeat by hammering-on the third fret again.
If you're having trouble hammering-on, you're either not hitting the fret hard enough, straight enough, or you're doing it with too fleshy a part of your finger tip. If you can't seem to get a decent sound to come out of the guitar, don't worry, it's really quite easy-- just keep trying.
If you're having trouble with the pull-off part, it might be because you're taking your finger off the neck too gently. It's not a "pick-up", it's a pull-off, which means you don't want to gently lift your finger off the neck, but rather as you apply pressure on the 3rd fret that you just hammered-on, bend the string just a tiny bit, which creates tension on the 5th string. Then, sort of "slip" your finger off quickly on an angle so that the fifth string rings open, nice and clear.
TAPPING SMOOTHLY--
It's important to learn to control volume as well. In exercise 1, if you're hammering on really soft and pulling off really hard, the D natural will obviously be very quiet compared to the loud B natural. That's fine if it's the effect you want, but for now, let's try to keep things even.
After you've got down exercise 1, do it again with the middle finger of your right hand. Be careful not to let your sleeve or upper arm mute any strings when you reach over with your right hand. A few electric players (Randy Rhoads) sometimes use the guitar pick that they're already holding to tap with, but for right now I suggest using only your finger. Besides, if you have high action (see EQUIPMENT) you can make some nasty nicks in the fretboard by using a pick. Players who use their nails should be careful not to break them when tapping with the right hand.
Now we're ready for two hands! The exercise here is the ever famous Eddie Van Halen lick from "Eruption". It's the best lick I can think of to start getting your hands working together. It's totally simple, and people are often
really impressed when they see you play it (although other guitar players usually think you're a silly show-off trying to look cool with an easy trick!).
exercise 2
First, hammer-on the third fret with the middle finger of your left hand. While the D natural rings nice and clean, hammer-on the seventh fret with the middle finger of your right hand. Next, get the middle finger of your left hand out of the way by gently, silently, but very quickly lifting it off the third fret (that part isn't written in the music, simply because getting your finger out of the way shouldn't make any sound). Then pull-off the middle finger of your right hand from the seventh fret so that the fifth string rings open. Again, hammer-on the middle finger of your left hand to the third fret, followed by the right hand middle finger to the seventh fret, and then open again.
Don't rush. It's a bit rough in the beginning synchronizing your left and right hands, but if you start slow and let speed come with time, you'll have it smooth before you know it.
Notice in bar 2 that the right hand middle finger switches to the eighth fret instead of the seventh, changing the chord from B-minor to G-major, a well-used progression in Heavy Metal.
IDEAS WITH TAPPING TRIPLETS:
Up to now, things have been relatively elementary, and mostly a chance for beginners to get the "tapping concept". Here are some other really simple licks just to get you thinking about different ways to phrase basic tapping triplets:
exercise 3
(over a Gmajor chord)exercise 4
(over an Eminor chord pivoting off B natural)
Here's a couple of exercises that play triplets off two strings instead of just one:
exercise 5 (a fun, minor classical-sounding progression)
exercise 6
(same pattern as exercise 5, but in Gmajor to give it a bluegrass feel)
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