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Hi, how ya doing? It's Justin, I'm back,
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and uh I had quite a few email requests
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for some finger tapping. So, I'm just
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going to run through some really basic
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finger tapping that might explain kinda
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the basic principle of it. It's kinda a
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beginner level finger tapping, we're
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not going to go too mad today. But
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I might go on further if this proves
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popular, I get on and do some harder
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ones. Um, so, the principle of finger
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tapping for those who aren't familiar
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with it, is using your right hand, uh,
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going to tap on the finger board to get
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a note out. Now you can do that if you
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just leave your fingers resting on the
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guitar neck there and loose on the
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strings; you'll find just by tapping
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with your finger here (notes being
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played) you can get a note. But you
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have to hammer it down quite hard.
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So, really, think of the pressure as
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being quite a hard downward motion.
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Now, there's lots of different kind of
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ways of finger tapping, lots of
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different people do it different ways.
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I'm going to show you the way I do it
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that doesn't mean any other way
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is right or wrong. Um, the two kind
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of main ways, the two options, is using
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your first finger in which case, you can
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kinda grab the guitar neck with all of the
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rest of your hand and leave your first
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finger out to do the tapping like this.
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(notes being played) I prefer a method
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where I rest my whole arm on the guitar
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and I use my second, so kinda my palm of
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my hand is muting all of the extra strings
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and I use my second finger to tap. That
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way, also, if I'm holding a pick. which I
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don't have any pics here just now, but
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if I was holding like that I could also be
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able to tap like that while still holding
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my plectrum, which I think is quite useful
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to get in and out of tap and run without
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having to hide your pick away and then
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tap with your first finger then put it
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back. So, um, what we are going to do
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is we're gonna just look at a quick
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A minor pentatonic tapping riff. So,
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what we are going to be using is our
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finger here on the fifth fret of the
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thinner string on the note A
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Then we are going to reach out with
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the third finger on the note C on the
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eighth fret, which is two notes from the
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A minor pentatonic scale and the note
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we are going to be tapping is going to
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be up here on the twelfth fret and like I
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said I'm gonna use my second finger,
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but you might want to use your first.
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Um, so, we are going to be a technique
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to start off with where you, what's called
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lead with your tapping finger. Which means
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that the tapped finger, or the tapped note
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is the first note on each new string when
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you change strings. Um, to start off with,
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we're just gonna do it on the one string.
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So, what you're going start with is
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tapping with the second finger on the
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twelfth fret, tap it, hit it down quite
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hard (sound of notes being played)
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Get the note clear, your first finger is
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already down, so when you flick off that
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second finger, (music notes played)
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you flick it down and you've got that note
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with your first finger and then you'd
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hammer, with your third finger down. So,
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you've got like a little triple. So you'd
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have tap, flick off, third finger hammer.
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Tap, flick, hammer. Tap (notes replaying)
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It is really important you get that order
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right. (repeat notes played over and over,
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faster and faster) So, you can hear it can
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get quite quick. Now, it is definitely
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worth practicing that really slowly and
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getting it right. There are other tapping
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techniques you can do, like going from the
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tap, flicking off from the third finger
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and then down to flicking that off to the
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first. (notes being played) But I'd
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recommend that to start off with, you do
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the tap (example sound) flick off with
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your first finger (example sound) and
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then hammer with your third. (example)
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Again, just start like this really nice
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and slow (example sounds) and then
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gradually build up your speed. Now, if
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we move that over to the second string, um
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to be technically correct within the
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pentatonic scale, we should move the tap
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to the thirteenth fret, but it actually
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sounds really cool if you leave it on the
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twelfth fret, it becomes the ninth or the
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note B in the key of A and it sounds kinda
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hip. So the next thing that I think that
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is worth practice, is practicing doing
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four taps on the first string, on the
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thinner string and then moving it over and
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doing four taps on the B string, so you
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end up making sure you lead with the tap.
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So, we have here (example tap) one, two,
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three, four. Now tap on the B string.....
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three, four. Thinner string again.
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(examples increasing in speed)
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Yeah, so you can hear it kinda works out
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pretty good, even though it is quite a
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straightforward link. It is not particularly
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hard. Um, if you want to move it over
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another string, then a, we have first
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string, second string, now we are going
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to move it to a third string, we are still
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going to tap the twelfth fret, but then
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we are going to do first finger and the
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third finger is going to go into the
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seventh fret, which is in keeping with
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the pentatonic scale. You can keep it on
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the eighth fret and use the blue note,
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or the blue tone for the pentatonic, but
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it kinda sounds cooler back at the seventh
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fret. So in this case if we are doing four
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on each one again and going back up we'd
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have this (example playing, increasing in
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speed as he continues to play) So, here
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we go, the exercise in full. So we start
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with the tap, flick.......
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(example played slowly then
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increasing in speed)
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That's it, that is kinda of basic, very
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very basic finger tapping technique. Um,
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one of the things that you wanna try and
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work out is how to start and finish your
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tapping as well. Like I said, if you are
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playing a solo (example) you can see now
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I've used a little bend there (example)
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to let myself get into position, then I'd
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start tapping (example) and using a little
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bend at the end or something like that in
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order to get my hand back to be able to
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play again, cause it kinda sounds some-
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times a bit dodgy if you just playing a
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solo, stop, finger tap, and then stop
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again and start playing your regular song
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you'll want to try to incorporate it in a
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little bit. It is one of the things it would
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definitely be worth practicing. Um, so
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that would be a really basic technique to
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try and get down. Uh, like I said I will
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come and do some more complicated ones
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if you'll all leave some nice comments for
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me on this YouTube page, and say "hey,
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how bout some other stuff" and I'll jump
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in there, um I'll give you one more little
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tidbit, just because this is a really cool
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quite simple trick that you might want to
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try. Um, whereas before, on the top string
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there we were playing the tap at the
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twelfth fret (example) flick it off to the
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first finger, and then hammer with the
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third....a really cool little trick is to
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tap in the same fret as your third finger
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So, if you move it down here we'd tap
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in the eighth fret (example sound) then
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flick it off to the first finger, and then
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hammer on the same fret with the
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third finger, and flick off, tap, flick,
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hammer, flick (continuing example)
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You can hear, you can get really really
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really quick little tricks with that. So
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it is quite a nice, easy, very very easy
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way of getting into your super fast finger
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tapping licks. So, um, hopefully you found
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that useful and interesting, have fun, uh
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if you wanna see some more leave me a
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message and I'll start putting up some
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harder stuff. Um, have fun, I'll see you
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soon. Take care!