Right Hand Fret Tapping

Fretboard tapping was a technique popularized in the eighties mainly by Van Halen. Basically what fret tapping is when you take your right hand, raise it to the fretboard, then choose a finger (I prefer the middle) and hit the fretboard with considerable force with the finger, which is usually followed by a series of pull offs. To understand what I mean, you may want try this excercise:

NOTE: "T" means tap

     T     T      T      T      
e|--12--8--12--8--12--8--12--8~~|
b|------------------------------|
g|------------------------------|
d|------------------------------| 
a|------------------------------|
e|------------------------------|
  repeat...

At first it may seem hard, and your fingers may get raw easily, but just take it slow, trying it again and again until you feel comfortable, and eventually you will get a calous (sadly, I am unsure how to spell this) on that finger as well, and the tapping will be very easy. If you are still having a little bit of trouble, you may want to:

1. Go to a lighter gauge
2. Tune the guitar down a step

Once you are comfortable with that excercise, try this:

    T   P   P  P   T  H  H  H   
e|--12--10--8--7--12--7--8--10--|
b|------------------------------|
g|------------------------------|
d|------------------------------|
a|------------------------------|
e|------------------------------|
  repeat 3 more times and then...

     T  P  P  P  T   H  H  H
e|--12--9--7--6--12--6--7--9--|
b|----------------------------|
g|----------------------------|
d|----------------------------|
a|----------------------------|
e|----------------------------|
  and keep moving the left hand down the fretboard until your index
  finger reaches the fourth fret, repeating the same pattern and then
  do this next pattern...basically what it does, is then takes your
  tapping hand one fret away from the pulloff pattern and then after
  that it brings you all the way back to the original starting postion

                   play each section four times
     T  P  P  P      T  P  P  P      T  P  P  P     T  P  P  P
e|--12--7--5--4--|--11--7--5--4--|--10--7--5--4--|--9--7--5--4--|
b|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|
g|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|
d|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|
a|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|
e|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|
  then...
                   play each secion four times
     T  P  P  P      T  P  P  P      T   P  P  P
e|--10--8--6--5--|--11--9--7--6--|--12--10--8--7--|
b|---------------|---------------|----------------|
g|---------------|---------------|----------------|
d|---------------|---------------|----------------|
a|---------------|---------------|----------------|
e|---------------|---------------|----------------|
  then, if you please, you can start the whole thing over again and then
  you can pretty much apply that to everything.

I know that that may seem like a lot to take in, but it really isn't all that difficult. It is basically a descending and then ascending pattern. At first it might be best if you take the excercise slow, and then play it faster; you will surprised at how many people will be amazed. There is also something simple that you can do with that very same excercise, and that is when you get to the final part of the first few phases that look like this:

    T   P   P  P   T  H  H  H   
e|--12--10--8--7--12--7--8--10--|
b|------------------------------|
g|------------------------------|
d|------------------------------|
a|------------------------------|
e|------------------------------|
simply take your tapping hand and
slide it between the 12th and 13th
frets,

like this:
     T         P   T
e|--12/13/12--10--12--|
b|--------------------|
g|--------------------|
d|--------------------|
a|--------------------|
e|--------------------|
just a note though, if you are on a
lower phase, like the phase "9--7--6"
then the lick would look

like this:
     T        P   T
e|--12/13/12--9--12--|
b|-------------------|
g|-------------------|
d|-------------------|
a|-------------------|
e|-------------------|

Get it?

Another cool trick with tapping is when you are playing an ascending pattern like:

e|------------7--9--10b11r10--9--7--| 
b|--7--9--10------------------------|
g|----------------------------------|
d|----------------------------------|
a|----------------------------------|
e|----------------------------------|

Fairly simple, no? Nothing to flashy, but why don't we spice it up a little with some tapping? To do this may take some practice, but when you can, it is really cool/fun to do. What you do is, while the string is bent, you can either tap the fretboard, and then release the tap and then the bend, like below:

                           T                
e|------------7--9--10b11--14--11r10--9--7--|
b|--7--9--10--------------------------------|
g|------------------------------------------|
d|------------------------------------------|
a|------------------------------------------|
e|------------------------------------------|

Or another technique is also bending the tap, but I'm not gonna waste space to show you that. One other technique is that when the string is bent, rapidly tap the fretboard while gradually releasing the bend, and then continuing to play. An example of this can be heard during the solo in an Atreyu song "Right Side Of The Bed" which can be heard here. Anyway, I will try to show you an example of this tapping technique within a very simple solo.

  play this twice             then
e|----------------|----------------------|
b|----------------|----------------------|
g|--7b9r7--5------|--------7-----7b9r7--5|
d|------------7---|--5--7-----7----------|
a|----------------|----------------------|
e|----------------|----------------------|
play this whole phase twice and then...

e|----------------------5--7--8/10--10--9--7------------------------------------|
b|-------------5--7--8------------------------10--9--7--------------------------|
g|----5--7--8-------------------------------------------10--9--7--9b11--7--9--10|
d|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
a|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
e|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

                                            If playing really fast then 
      (rapidly tap while releasing bend)   repeat each phase 8 times, else 4 
                            T   P  P  P        T  P  H      T   P  H
e|------------7--9--10b12--14--10--9--7--| |--14--7--10--|--14--6--9--|
b|--7--9--10-----------------------------| |-------------|------------|play
g|---------------------------------------| |-------------|------------|this
d|---------------------------------------| |-------------|------------|part
a|---------------------------------------| |-------------|------------|twice
e|---------------------------------------| |-------------|------------|

  play each phase 8 times     then only 4 time here   
     T  P  H      T  P  H      T  P  H   T P H    T P H   T  P H  
e|-12-5-8-|-12-4-7-|-12-6-9-|-14-7-10-|-12-6-9-|-14-5-8-|-12-4-7-|
b|--------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|--------|
g|--------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|--------|
d|--------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|--------|
a|--------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|--------|
e|--------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|--------|

I hope that you have learned a thing or two about fretboard tapping and that it will inspire your songs and solos.

Comments

[aMadeUpword]

1st
nothing revoloutionary, but good

[blackmetal619]

good examples

[xxxmegadethxxx]

nice

[fingersofflame]

yay, after 4 months my lesson finally got accepted!

[BlueZephyr]

A very general idea. You should've included more detailed descriptions. The excerises are good starters so good job.

[the great will]

This is a fairly decent lesson for beginers.

[fingersofflame]

yeah, i should have submitted it under the "for beginners" section...

[sid1990]

good examples

[awie666]

quite good..keep on doing this thinggy

[vagrant story x]

nice

[dimebag7]

Its been done, but explained well so I gave it a 8.

[kennrosales]

nice!! good work!!

Checked.

[Gibson G1275]

Yeah. I think it's a good lesson to use after you've learned really basic fretboard tapping. Because when you've learned how to do it with 3 notes. i.e. 12 5 & 8 continuously. What you've wrote down will help you to go that little bit further. Good lesson

[fingersofflame]

[quote=theguitarist]Checked.[/quote]

what do you mean?

[fingersofflame]

Checked.

what do you mean?(the last one didn't come out right

[eruption is me]

nice

[i am the kid]

nice work good lesson got any more?

[irishRW]

Great man, frickin great lesson. Well explained, well tabbed, good clear instructions. I hate these lessons that bog you down with too much technical jargon and too much information at once, this was a refreshing taste of how it should be done. Bravo!

[Dragonkid575]

Thank you, learning to tap from this helped me to learn 'Eruption'

[eddievhjunior]

This a good lesson, but what about using tapped harmonics? That would rock!

[Guitargod12345]

How about put something in there about tapping with the guitar pick.

[Sglino]

great lesson man, tnx!

[Brojo]

callus

[rannet]

on the second exercise do you pull off to 0(zero)?

[eueueu]

very good, I had never studied anything about tapping, you were very helpful

[jovy21_ph]

nothing flashy but nice...

[the_triangle]

well that is one less quiestion i have

[Teufel]

I've been tapping for a while. It's a really good technique to add to your solos.

[DRaGAONpie]

very good XD

[Duh4994]

nice lesson. it helped a lot.

[brush200400]

its soso

[fingersofflame]

brush200400 wrote:

its soso

Yeah, it's my first lesson though so idc ^_^

[supea]

fingersofflame wrote:

Checked. what do you mean?(the last one didn't come out right

I think he (mod) checked that this is okay lesson.

[killtrend]

good lesson but check this out, I found a really cool tecniqe using taping with min. tri-tone's first drop your pick so you can use all of your finger too tap

2 fingers-(T)16(P)9(T)15(P)8

repeat that on all the strings and then do these two

3 fingers-(T)17(P)10(T)16(P)9(T)15(P)8

4 fingers-(T)18(P)11(T)17(P)10(T)16(P)9(T)15(P)8

remember to do the patterns on all six strings...hope you can understand what i wrote up there ^^.

[Ijantis]

you need to make the pace a lot slower as skipping from the 1st exercise to the 2nd is way too hard for some people