Finger Tapping Basics (Guitar Lesson RO-001) How to play

Hi, how ya doing? It's Justin, I'm back,

and uh I had quite a few email requests

for some finger tapping. So, I'm just

going to run through some really basic

finger tapping that might explain kinda

the basic principle of it. It's kinda a

beginner level finger tapping, we're

not going to go too mad today. But

I might go on further if this proves

popular, I get on and do some harder

ones. Um, so, the principle of finger

tapping for those who aren't familiar

with it, is using your right hand, uh,

going to tap on the finger board to get

a note out. Now you can do that if you

just leave your fingers resting on the

guitar neck there and loose on the

strings; you'll find just by tapping

with your finger here (notes being

played) you can get a note. But you

have to hammer it down quite hard.

So, really, think of the pressure as

being quite a hard downward motion.

Now, there's lots of different kind of

ways of finger tapping, lots of

different people do it different ways.

I'm going to show you the way I do it

that doesn't mean any other way

is right or wrong. Um, the two kind

of main ways, the two options, is using

your first finger in which case, you can

kinda grab the guitar neck with all of the

rest of your hand and leave your first

finger out to do the tapping like this.

(notes being played) I prefer a method

where I rest my whole arm on the guitar

and I use my second, so kinda my palm of

my hand is muting all of the extra strings

and I use my second finger to tap. That

way, also, if I'm holding a pick. which I

don't have any pics here just now, but

if I was holding like that I could also be

able to tap like that while still holding

my plectrum, which I think is quite useful

to get in and out of tap and run without

having to hide your pick away and then

tap with your first finger then put it

back. So, um, what we are going to do

is we're gonna just look at a quick

A minor pentatonic tapping riff. So,

what we are going to be using is our

finger here on the fifth fret of the

thinner string on the note A

Then we are going to reach out with

the third finger on the note C on the

eighth fret, which is two notes from the

A minor pentatonic scale and the note

we are going to be tapping is going to

be up here on the twelfth fret and like I

said I'm gonna use my second finger,

but you might want to use your first.

Um, so, we are going to be a technique

to start off with where you, what's called

lead with your tapping finger. Which means

that the tapped finger, or the tapped note

is the first note on each new string when

you change strings. Um, to start off with,

we're just gonna do it on the one string.

So, what you're going start with is

tapping with the second finger on the

twelfth fret, tap it, hit it down quite

hard (sound of notes being played)

Get the note clear, your first finger is

already down, so when you flick off that

second finger, (music notes played)

you flick it down and you've got that note

with your first finger and then you'd

hammer, with your third finger down. So,

you've got like a little triple. So you'd

have tap, flick off, third finger hammer.

Tap, flick, hammer. Tap (notes replaying)

It is really important you get that order

right. (repeat notes played over and over,

faster and faster) So, you can hear it can

get quite quick. Now, it is definitely

worth practicing that really slowly and

getting it right. There are other tapping

techniques you can do, like going from the

tap, flicking off from the third finger

and then down to flicking that off to the

first. (notes being played) But I'd

recommend that to start off with, you do

the tap (example sound) flick off with

your first finger (example sound) and

then hammer with your third. (example)

Again, just start like this really nice

and slow (example sounds) and then

gradually build up your speed. Now, if

we move that over to the second string, um

to be technically correct within the

pentatonic scale, we should move the tap

to the thirteenth fret, but it actually

sounds really cool if you leave it on the

twelfth fret, it becomes the ninth or the

note B in the key of A and it sounds kinda

hip. So the next thing that I think that

is worth practice, is practicing doing

four taps on the first string, on the

thinner string and then moving it over and

doing four taps on the B string, so you

end up making sure you lead with the tap.

So, we have here (example tap) one, two,

three, four. Now tap on the B string.....

three, four. Thinner string again.

(examples increasing in speed)

Yeah, so you can hear it kinda works out

pretty good, even though it is quite a

straightforward link. It is not particularly

hard. Um, if you want to move it over

another string, then a, we have first

string, second string, now we are going

to move it to a third string, we are still

going to tap the twelfth fret, but then

we are going to do first finger and the

third finger is going to go into the

seventh fret, which is in keeping with

the pentatonic scale. You can keep it on

the eighth fret and use the blue note,

or the blue tone for the pentatonic, but

it kinda sounds cooler back at the seventh

fret. So in this case if we are doing four

on each one again and going back up we'd

have this (example playing, increasing in

speed as he continues to play) So, here

we go, the exercise in full. So we start

with the tap, flick.......

(example played slowly then

increasing in speed)

That's it, that is kinda of basic, very

very basic finger tapping technique. Um,

one of the things that you wanna try and

work out is how to start and finish your

tapping as well. Like I said, if you are

playing a solo (example) you can see now

I've used a little bend there (example)

to let myself get into position, then I'd

start tapping (example) and using a little

bend at the end or something like that in

order to get my hand back to be able to

play again, cause it kinda sounds some-

times a bit dodgy if you just playing a

solo, stop, finger tap, and then stop

again and start playing your regular song

you'll want to try to incorporate it in a

little bit. It is one of the things it would

definitely be worth practicing. Um, so

that would be a really basic technique to

try and get down. Uh, like I said I will

come and do some more complicated ones

if you'll all leave some nice comments for

me on this YouTube page, and say "hey,

how bout some other stuff" and I'll jump

in there, um I'll give you one more little

tidbit, just because this is a really cool

quite simple trick that you might want to

try. Um, whereas before, on the top string

there we were playing the tap at the

twelfth fret (example) flick it off to the

first finger, and then hammer with the

third....a really cool little trick is to

tap in the same fret as your third finger

So, if you move it down here we'd tap

in the eighth fret (example sound) then

flick it off to the first finger, and then

hammer on the same fret with the

third finger, and flick off, tap, flick,

hammer, flick (continuing example)

You can hear, you can get really really

really quick little tricks with that. So

it is quite a nice, easy, very very easy

way of getting into your super fast finger

tapping licks. So, um, hopefully you found

that useful and interesting, have fun, uh

if you wanna see some more leave me a

message and I'll start putting up some

harder stuff. Um, have fun, I'll see you

soon. Take care!