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!