Who invented this new way extracting a sound called tapping? Classical guitarists know one specific technique (vibration - the name of the technique is associated with vibration, although it has nothing in common with this technique). Its essence is as follows. The guitarist presses the chord by hitting the strings with his left hand, i.e. strikes a chord with one left hand. The right hand can play another part, for example, play tremolo. If you carefully examine this technique, you can see in it the beginnings of a new principle of the game. By the way, this technique is so widespread among the classics that it has its own designation in musical notation. If the sounds were made with one left hand, then surely someone thought of doing it with the right one. It can be argued that the Spaniards made attempts to play tapping a couple of centuries before the birth of Eddie Van Hallen. Why hasn't the "piano" technique been widely developed on the acoustic guitar? Firstly, the sound is quiet. The guitar is not a loud instrument anyway, and tapping in the acoustic version can only be played with bated breath, since it is practically on the same dynamic level as “tapping” music. But this is half the trouble. In acoustic sound, when sound is produced by striking the strings between the frets, overtones arise from the vibration of another part of the string (from the clamped fret to the nut). These problems could not contribute to the development of the tapping game.
The advent of the electric guitar opened up the opportunity to fully exploit the untapped potential of this amazing instrument. On an electric guitar, the volume depends only on the power of the amplifier, and the overtones from striking the strings are practically inaudible, because The pickup picks up the vibration of part of the string from the clamped fret to the nut.
The historical materials that I was able to find date back to the mid-fifties. Most likely, tapping was played much earlier, but documentary evidence dates back to this period.
Judging by the documents (researcher of the history of tapping Traktor Topaz), one of the first guitarists who fully played the guitar in a new way were Merl Travis and Jimmy Webster. Unfortunately, despite all my attempts, I could not find information about the use of tapping in those years (not to mention audio recordings). Most likely, he began tapping in his youth, and by the mid-50s he reached the maturity that he was able to present his knowledge in the form of a textbook
A new performing technique for playing the guitar prompted guitarists to change the design of the guitar. One of these instruments, or rather the very first tapping guitar, was the Duo-Lectar double-neck guitar, patented in 1955. The creator of the guitar, Joe Bunker, made it for his son, guitarist Dave Bunker, who used a two-handed technique, playing two necks at the same time.
Later, in 1961, Dave Banker created another double-neck guitar, further expanding the performance capabilities of the new guitars.
Currently, Dave Banker, having a small factory, is developing more and more new instruments. The most interesting development is the double-neck guitar, which combines a bass guitar (4-string) and a “tapping guitar” neck.
These instruments are played on two necks at once, with one musician being his own bassist and guitarist. In order to achieve pure sound, these guitars are equipped with special sensors that pick up sound only when a finger touches a string. The problems of string muting when playing by tapping are quite relevant. Many guitarists use a special plug (on the saddle), which resembles a capo. Although these pickups (as well as mechanical mutes) save musicians from unwanted sounds, I see a number of shortcomings in this technology. For example, it is completely unclear how to use open strings when playing, which give a unique pure guitar flavor? Most likely, when playing such a guitar with tapping, you have to sacrifice something.
Playing these guitars is quite difficult; naturally, quite a lot of preparation is required both in terms of sound production and in terms of hand coordination. When playing on two necks, you need to learn to “bifurcate” your thinking and control two games at once.
Tapping problems
In conclusion, we will briefly dwell on some aspects of the new way of playing, which in some sense slow down the spread of tapping.
The first is the sound, which when produced by striking the strings between the frets is not very colorful. When playing with a pick, especially with fingers, the guitarist has a large number of ways to give the sound character, a certain sound coloring. With tapping sound production, the guitarist is limited to only a few techniques, which leads to some monotony of the sound and, ultimately, listening to all this for a long time is quite tiring. True, there is “food for thought” here - you need to develop (find) your own playing techniques that can enrich the sound.
The second problem is that tapping (especially polyphonic tapping) is ineffective or has little effect in ensemble playing. Although the issue here is controversial, my personal opinion is that playing classical jazz in an orchestra with tapping makes no sense at all. Although a tapping guitarist plays for two, the music itself almost never benefits from this. Listening to the record without knowing how it all happens, one gets the impression of two not very musical guitarists playing
As for tapping guitars, guitarists nowadays are “fighting” with the instrument, not with the music. But despite this, despite all the shortcomings of tapping sound production, it is precisely in our days that the “leavening” of future guitar thinking and future guitar vocabulary is taking place. Simply put, there is a phase of understanding the “piano” guitar as a completely new instrument that combines folk, classical, jazz, rock guitar and tapping is gradually entering the arsenal of all guitarists of these established schools. And even though tapping guitar music now resembles more juice than aged wine, guitarists cannot remain indifferent to the possibilities that the guitar and two-handed independent tapping provide.
Tapping is a technique of playing a stringed instrument in which the sound is produced using light strokes (as well as pull-off/hammer-on techniques) on the strings between the frets on the fingerboard. This technique is similar to legato (pull-off /hammer-on), but is used in a more expanded version: sound production is performed by both hands, creating two independent parts. There are two types of tapping - polyphonic, of which the guitarist is a prominent representative, and single-voice (tapping has expanded the capabilities of the guitar). and this technique gave rise to ideas for the creation of new string instruments, for example, the Chapman stick).
Description
Single-voice tapping. The most common type of tapping used by rock guitarists to perform high-speed passages. To create an improvisational (single-voice) line, the fingers of the left and right hand sound is produced one by one (by striking the strings between the frets on the fingerboard, as well as by legato techniques). In the simplest version, tapping occurs on one string, where one finger (middle or index) is used in the right hand. The position and function of the left hand is practically no different from the traditional game. In more complex types of single-voice tapping, all fingers are used in the right hand, which can use several strings. Sometimes, when playing a clean sound without distortion, intervals in both the left and right hands can be used in this type of tapping. Therefore, the original name “single-voice” tapping does not imply the number of voices in the texture, but the principle of the game - alternating sound production with the left and right hands.
Polyphonic tapping more complex look technology. Unlike the one-voice method, in this method both hands perform independent parts. For example, left hand plays the bass and chord accompaniment, and the right one plays the lead. All games are played simultaneously. As a result, the listener gets the feeling that two guitarists are playing. Visually, this technique resembles playing the piano. Polyphonic tapping is used to perform solo pieces. It can also be used in ensemble playing, creating complex accompanying parts and multi-voice solos.
Tapping is used not only on the electric guitar, but also on the acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and to some extent can be performed on any other stringed instrument.
The technique of playing "tapping" gave impetus to the development of new musical instruments.
The Chapman Stick is a tool designed for tapping. Its principle of use is based on free tapping of two hands. This instrument was invented by Emmett Chapman in 1969. Hamatar, Mobius Megatar, Box Guitar, and Solene are other tools created for the same method. The Bunker touch guitar, made by Dave Bunker in 1958, is designed for double-neck tapping, but with an armrest to keep the right hand in a normal position on the guitar. NS/Stick and Warr Guitars are also made for tapping, although not completely. A harpeggi is a tapping instrument that is played like a synthesizer, but with the fingers parallel to the strings rather than perpendicular. All of these instruments use lower string tension to make them more sensitive to lighter touches.
Some guitarists may choose to tap, using a sharpened pick instead of their fingers to produce a faster, harder flurry of notes that are close to trilling. This technique is called tapping stroke.
The tapping technique has been known since ancient times. There is information that Niccolo Paganini used similar technique On the violin. Researchers claim that the Spaniards made attempts to play by tapping two centuries ago. A similar technique was used in Turkish music when playing folk instruments.
A principle similar to tapping was used on the ancient keyboard instrument clavichord, the sound of which was produced by striking metal pins (frets) on the strings. However, the “piano” technique was not widely developed in the musical environment.
Initially, tapping (sharp pressing of the string with the finger of the right hand, “hammer”) was one of the technical techniques, like a harmonic. Over time, this technique developed into a separate way of playing the electric guitar - two-handed tapping (the word “two-handed” means that the left and right hands produce sound independently, playing independent parts, just as pianists do). Tapping can be of two types - single-voice, which is used when playing high-speed passages, mainly with distortion, and also a more complex type - polyphonic, or independent tapping, in which both hands play their own parts.
Since the middle of the 20th century, many guitarists began to use two-handed tapping more often, which was associated with the advent of a new, more sensitive instrument - the electric guitar.
In the early 1950s in the United States, Jimmy Webster, a student from England, began to widely use a method of playing that was strange at that time. By striking the strings between the frets on the fingerboard with the fingers of both hands, he achieved a previously unheard-of sound of the instrument. Using touch technique, Jimmy Webster played mainly arrangements of jazz themes. At that time, looking at the "circus tricks" of Jimmy Webster, many guitarists were skeptical that all this had no distant prospects. This musician was ahead of his time and, apparently, remained misunderstood by his contemporaries. But still, he planted a seed that bore fruit decades later.
A new performing technique for playing the guitar prompted guitarists to change the design of the guitar. One of these instruments, or rather the very first tapping guitar, was the Duo-Lectar double-neck guitar, patented in 1955. The guitar's creator, Joe Bunker, made it for his son, guitarist Dave Bunker, who used a two-handed technique, playing two necks at the same time.
Later, in 1961, Dave Banker created a different double-neck guitar, expanding the performance capabilities of the new guitars.
Since 1969, musician Emmett Chapman began seriously studying the technique of two-handed tapping on a regular electric guitar. Moreover, he had great success in this matter; he worked as a guitarist, using a new method of producing sound with famous musicians of that time. However, Chapman realized that in order to play with two hands on the fretboard, to further expand the performance capabilities of two-handed playing, it was necessary to slightly change the design of the guitar and increase the number of strings. In 1974, a serial stick developed by Emmett appeared.
A little later, musician Eddie Van Halen developed the popularity of the tapping technique, bringing it to different circles of listeners, and also influenced many musicians, inspiring them to use this technique. Many of him musical themes, such as "Spanish Fly" and "Eruption" were largely built on this technique. After Van Halen, many lead guitarists began to use it, which, at the suggestion of Mike Varney, were very popular then.
“One of the first rock guitarists to use tapping techniques on recordings was Steve Hackett from the band Genesis. Two notable examples of Hackett's use of tapping appear in 1973's "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" and 1971's "The Return of the Giant Hogweed." Harvey Mandel, known for his psychedelic guitar playing, also used two-handed tapping in the 1960s. Mandel was one of the first rock guitarists to develop this technique and actively used it even before Eddie Van Halen and Stanley Jordan.
A real revolution in this direction was made by guitarist Stanley Jordan, whose appearance on the world stage (in 1983) resembled, in guitar circles, the effect of a bomb exploding. Many guitarists, listening to the recordings of this virtuoso, simply could not believe their ears. “An ordinary guitar in the hands of one person cannot sound like that!” - all the guitarists who listened to the recordings of this virtuoso said in one voice. But at concerts, as well as on video recordings, guitarists could see that this was not some kind of studio trick (cf. recordings using multi-channel overdubbing), but a new form of guitar performance that took the guitar to the next level of development. ..."
Two-handed tapping on the bass guitar was not as popular as on the electric guitar, but in some cases attempts were made before Eddie Van Halen. Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Victor Wooten, Stuart Hamm, John Men, Cliff Burton, Alex Webster, Sean Beasley used touch techniques on bass guitar.
One-handed tapping
One-handed tapping, performed with the right hand in combination with normal finger placement, makes it easier to construct musical intervals that would be impossible to play with one hand. It is often used as a special effect during shred solos. With an electric guitar, in this situation the external sound background is usually overloaded - although this can be done acoustically - with the transmission acting as support for further amplification of the uncrossed (and therefore naturally weak) legato notes being played. Because of the distortion typically present, the guitarist should also focus on reducing excess noise during tapping: for example, using the palm of the tapping hand to mute any open strings that might sound.
The passages in which one-handed tapping can be used are almost limitless. As for technique, there are many ways to perform one-handed tapping. The most common technique involves rapidly repeating triplets played in sixteenth note time using the following sequence: hit - pull-off - pull-off.
In this case, the index finger of the right hand or the middle finger makes the first note sound by striking it sharply once, then lifting off (often with a slight, “shaking” movement in order to strengthen the note) to the lower note, holding it with one of the fingers of the left hand, which then is removed on the last note, held with another finger of the same hand, and then the cycle is repeated. If one of the notes is far away, the very first part can be seen as the actual "tapping" movement, while the second part involving the left hand acts as an embellishment for passages with additional notes. Overall, this can be considered an extended trill. The overall goal is to maintain smoothness and synchronization between all notes, especially when playing fast ones. As a result, it may take some practice to master.
In addition, different sequences can be used. One variation is to reverse the action of the left hand, and instead of adding a second note there is a hammer-on at the end: punch - pull-off - hammer-on.
This variation can be heard on the famous solo to the song Eruption, in which Eddie Van Halen uses the punch-pull-off-hammer-on method to create a long cascade of tapping notes. In addition to the aforementioned triplets, tapping can be played using sixteenth notes (four notes per measure instead of three), or quintets (five notes per measure). This case, especially the last one, can lead to even more complex sound passages. Some guitarists prefer to use it as a form of neoclassical phrasing to further complicate the technique's musical capabilities. Again, there are several ways to do this, but some examples of pressed sixteenth notes can be broken down like this:
When viewed in scale terminology, the above sequences can be represented as minor and blues forms, respectively. This concept can be applied to almost any scale, making this technique very diverse.
Two-handed tapping
Two-handed tapping can be used to produce polyphonic and contrapuntal music on the guitar using eight (or even nine) fingers. For example, the right hand plays a high-pitched melody while the left hand plays accompaniment. In this way, music written for keyboard instruments, such as Bach symphonies, can be played.
The method increases the flexibility of the instrument, allowing you to play several types of music on the guitar. The main disadvantage is the lack of timbre change. It creates a "clean tone" effect, where the first note is usually the loudest sound (not desirable for some styles, such as jazz). Columns are main reason problems with this technique, although Stanley Jordan and many stick guitarists are successful tappers in this genre. The main credit for this goes to the compressor, which makes the notes more uniform in volume.
Depending on the direction of the guitarist's right hand, this method results in varying degrees of success. Early experimenters of this idea, such as Harry DeArmond, his student Jimmy Webster, and Dave Bunker, held the right hand in the normal direction, with the fingers parallel to the strings. This limits the playing ability of the right hand.
Emmett Chapman was the first to realize that you had to play notes on a guitar parallel to the frets, like you would with your left hand, but from the opposite side of the neck of the neck. Its discovery, in August 1969, led to new possibilities and a tool - the stick, as well as a method called "hands-free".
Eddie Van Halen popularized this technique on six-string guitar with the song "Eruption" from the Van Halen album. He created trends for the next development of tapping techniques among guitarists such as and.
Based on materials from wikipedia.org
Honestly, I’m surprised that I took up the topic of tapping. It would seem that I am not a “technical consultant”; I don’t even have such a section on the site where articles on the topic of guitar playing technique can be placed. On the other hand, so much has already been written and filmed about tapping - you don’t know where to insert a word. In general, so... I consider this playing technique in a highly specific range - as a type of ornamentation of guitar riffs. Yes Yes. So consider this lesson not about playing a solo part, but about playing a rhythm :-). Which is what I demonstrate at the very beginning of the video.
Why is there a need to colorize riffs?
Just to make them sound more diverse! By adding pieces of solo to the rhythm part, we make it more intense, richer, fill the frequency range of the guitar from top to bottom, and most importantly, alone we create the impression of playing well, if not two, then at least “one and a half” guitarists!
What is good about tapping for such “dilution” of riffs? Even though I say in the video that I'm wary of using it in this context, tapping has its advantages. The main thing is the contrast created:
1. The riff is usually played with a pick, in a drum, “percussive” manner.”
And tapping is part of the solo legato technique. In essence, these are the same pools, hummers and slides. It's so... light in feel.
2. The riff must “rock.” There must be “air” in it. A fast riff, in my opinion, is perceived worse. Therefore, the riff should sound heavy, and probably quite slow (definitely not in 64 - :-))
Tapping, on the contrary, allows for maximum speed sound production.
3. Well, the required difference in pitch is to expand the range.
The riff is played on the bass strings (actually not strictly necessary, but these are my personal preferences - you may disagree)
And the tapping is easily and naturally “cut out”—or rather, tapped and pulled out—at the top, where the notes are all nearby.
Let me summarize. This is an almost perfect pair, perfectly contrasting and perfectly complementing each other.
And now why I did this lesson.
This contrast, and the opposite tasks of riffs and solo tapping “inserts”, provide some technical and even psychological difficulties.
And where there is psychology, there I am :-). Of course, it is impossible to do without clarification of technical issues.
I tried to give the most practical advice, which I am only capable of, and which I use myself. I almost said “daily.” Oh, if only…..
Watch and comment. And below the video is the same universal fingering scheme that is discussed in the video tutorial.
What steps to play - see here:
Transfer the pattern into your key, maintaining the intervals between steps. To enlarge the picture, click on it.
Good luck! I'm waiting for your comments.
Tapping is a special technique for playing a string instrument, which differs from conventional technicians The game is played in that the musician produces sounds by lightly striking the strings between the frets on the fingerboard, and does not use them during playing, since tapping is played exclusively with the fingers. The more common type of tapping is single-voice tapping. Guitarists often use polyphonic tapping, but this type of technique requires more skill and effort. In this article we will tell you about the history of the tapping technique, tell you how to play tapping on the guitar and how to learn tapping by doing the given exercises.
One-handed tapping game
Some are very difficult to play with one hand. In this case, one-handed tapping performed with the right hand and simultaneous normal rearrangement of the fingers facilitate the construction of complex musical intervals. At the same time, the advantage of playing with tapping is the smooth sound of passages, which, when played with a regular variable stroke, have a rougher sound.
Also, the use of tapping allows the musician to play complex note sequences that would otherwise require awkward jumps along the strings with varying strokes.
Typically, when playing with tapping, there is sound distortion. In this situation, the guitarist needs to muffle all open sounding strings using the palm of his tapping hand. One-handed tapping offers many ways to play and sequences. But at their core, they come down to the use and alternation of techniques such as hammer-on and pull-off. You can study them in more detail on our website.
Two-handed tapping technique
Two-handed tapping makes it possible to play polyphonic music on a guitar using 8-9 fingers, which allows you to play even parts written for keyboard instruments. In this case, two-handed tapping is sometimes used to reproduce different types music on guitar. In this method of playing the guitar, both hands of the guitarist perform different independent parts. Therefore, this technique is also called polyphonic tapping. The simultaneous performance of parts gives the listener the feeling that two people are playing the guitar. True, this method also has disadvantages, the main one of which is that the timbre cannot be changed, which causes the side effect of “pure tone”.
However, such a guitar playing technique as two-handed tapping requires attention, because it can be used in the performance of solo pieces, ensemble playing, and complex polyphonic solos. And the performance technique is suitable for both acoustic guitar lovers and fans of electric guitar and bass guitar.
History of tapping and great guitarists
Some are sure that tapping has been known to people since ancient times, since Niccolo Paganini himself used a similar technique when playing parts on the violin, and the Spaniards tried to understand how to play tapping on the guitar. A similar technique has been applied to playing various other keyboard instruments.
Many consider the founder of tapping to be an English young man, Jimmy Webster, who used a strange technique while playing the guitar. Subsequently it was called tapping. The baton of unique technique was continued by Dave Banker, who improved his tapping skills so that he could simultaneously play on two necks of a guitar specially made by his father. In the 70s of the twentieth century, Emmett Chapman became interested in tapping and improved the double-neck guitar with additional strings. Other musicians were inspired to use tapping by Eddie Wang (theme songs "Spanisch" and "Fly Eruption"). Steve Hackett of the band Genesis was one of the first rock guitarists to use this technique (the songs "Dancing with the Moonlight Knight" and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed"). A real revolution in music was made by virtuoso Stanley Jordan. On the bass guitar, the mastery of tapping was honed by Billy Sheehan, John Men, Alex Webster, Victor Wooten, and Cliff Burton.
Practical exercises: how to learn to tap on the guitar
Many guitarists, having become interested in the topic of tapping, begin to perform complex musical compositions in this technique, without even figuring out how to play tapping. Therefore, to help innovators, I would like to provide tapping exercises that will help real virtuoso guitarists. First, let's start with exercises on one string.
Exercise one. We place the first finger of the left hand on the 5th fret of the first string, and the third hangs over the 8th fret. Use the index finger of your right hand to hit the 12th fret. Then we pull off our finger and hear the sound of the note A at the 5th fret. Then we hit the 8th fret with the third finger of our left hand, then again with the first finger on the 12th fret. We repeat several times.
Exercise two. We repeat all the steps from the first exercise, but only in reverse order.
Exercise four. Similar to the third, but in reverse order.
I am glad to welcome you to the part dedicated to tapping. Without this technique it is now difficult to imagine rock music, and playing the electric guitar in general. Tapping has become an integral part of the game of any self-respecting guitarist. It is believed that the founder of tapping is Jimmy Webster, who was one of the first to widely use it in his game. However, it was Eddie Van Halen who popularized this technique, bringing it to the masses.
Someone may ask what exactly this tapping is. Tapping is a guitar playing technique that is built by hitting the strings of the guitar with your fingers. In this part, I will take you from the very basics - tapping on one string, to the heights of mastery - full-fledged two-handed tapping, also called piano technique, in which each hand plays its own part. At the same time, we will touch on such topics as percussive technique, tapping harmonics, tapping in the cross position of the hands, and in general everything that is in any way connected with tapping.
Well, now to the basics. First of all, I will say that you should start this part only after the lesson on variable strokes and scales has been completely studied by you. Here, as in the section on alternating strokes, it all starts with playing on one string. Let's turn to Troy Stetina's video school “Guitar Shred”.
Exercise 1. Place the first finger of your left hand on the fifth fret of the first string, let the third hang over the eighth fret. Now hit the twelfth fret with your right index finger. Then move your finger so that the note A on the fifth fret sounds. After this, hit the eighth fret with the third finger of your left hand. And again with the right index on the twelfth. This can go on ad infinitum.
Exercise 2. The same thing, only in reverse order. I'm sure you've heard both the previous and this sequence in thousands of solos, only at a much faster tempo.
Exercise 3. Now let's move from triplets to regular sixteenth notes. If you are not familiar with triplets, read about them in the exercise from hell lesson from the alternating stroke part.
Exercise 4. The opposite of the previous one.
Exercise 5. In addition to the third and first fingers of the left hand, it is necessary to train the rest. There is a fourth person involved here. The first two measures are the main exercise. The other four are variations of it. Come up with a similar exercise that involves the second finger instead of the third.
Exercise 6. Among other things, you need to train your hands to move along the bar. This exercise will lay the foundation for this skill.
Exercise 7. As a test, I suggest playing you an excerpt from the famous Eddie Van Halen solo - “Eruption." It is played on the second string, which may become a small problem. However, by overcoming it, you will be able to rise to a new level.
The first lesson has come to an end. Proceed to the next lesson only after you can play all the exercises in this lesson at a speed of 100 UVM. Good luck!
