5-Step Guitar Tapping Technique Video Tutorial
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Want to learn 2 hand guitar tapping technique for guitar?
You’ve come to the right place.
For years, I watched in awe as Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Steve Vai pulled off guitar tapping licks fast & clean.
But when I tried to play like them?
It sounded bad enough to make a grown man cry.
Everything changed when I took lessons with an awesome teacher in my area.
He showed me what I was doing wrong.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
More importantly:
...he got me on the right track & my playing has never been the same.
I've since taught these guitar tapping technique tricks to my other students...
And I watched their playing improve at an alarming rate too.
Today is your turn.
Here are the 5 things that transformed my guitar tapping technique forever.
Watch the video below and use them in your playing in your next practice session:
Now that you know the basics, let's go deeper. Here are 3 bonus guita tapping technique improvement tips to add into you playing today.
Best part?
They are really simple to do (even if you aren’t an advanced guitar player yet).
Check these out:
2 Hand Guitar Tapping Tip #1. Combine 2 Hand Guitar Tapping Technique With Sweep Picking
Combining 2 hand guitar tapping technique with sweep picking is a great way to make your licks sound much harder than they really are.
Check out this video by one of my students to see what I mean:
Want to see the tab of what he is playing? Here it is (no email required).
Tip: to combine 2 hand guitar tapping technique with sweep picking – keep your picking hand near the neck pick up (as you see in the video). This helps you switch from sweep picking mode into guitar tapping mode instantly.
2 Hand Guitar Tapping Tip #2. Combine Pinch Harmonics With Guitar Tapping
Did you know you can play a tapped harmonic 5, 7 or 12 frets above any note on your guitar?
Follow these simple steps to learn how:
- Fret (and play) any note on your guitar (example: 4th fret on the G string).
- Lightly touch the string at the 16th fret with the middle finger of your picking hand. Touch directly above the fret and release it immediately.
This creates a harmonic 12 frets above the 4th fret.
Repeat step 2 on frets 11 and 9 to play harmonics 7 frets and 5 frets above your starting note (4th fret in this example).
Example:
(Letter “T” in the tab stands for “tapping”/guitar tapping technique.)
Tip: Do NOT press the string down to the fret. If you push the string down, you will simply play a regular note instead of a harmonic.
2 Hand Guitar Tapping Tip #3. Combine Guitar Tapping With Vibrato
Guitar tapping + guitar vibrato is a very simple equation for melodic licks.
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Introducing: Tapped guitar vibrato
Here are the simple steps for playing tapped guitar vibrato:
- Play any note on guitar with your fretting hand.
- Tap any note that is higher in pitch with your picking hand. Make sure that the tapped note is in the key you are playing in!
- Apply guitar vibrato with your fretting hand (NOT your picking/tapping hand!). This produces the tapped harmonic sound.
Check out this video to see a demonstration of tapped guitar vibrato.
There are 2 keys to a combining cool 2 hand guitar tapping technique with expressive guitar vibrato technique:
Key #1: Good left-hand vibrato (duh!) :) Great guitar vibrato sound has perfect balance between its speed and width.
If your guitar vibrato is too fast and narrow, it sounds like a mosquito that needs to be swatted.
If your guitar vibrato is too slow and wide, it sounds like a series of bent notes – not vibrato.
Check out this video to see/hear good (and bad) guitar vibrato:
Prett cool way to improve your 2 hand guitar tapping technique, huh?
Key #2: String noise control.
Sloppy string noise makes your playing sound bad (even if you play all the right notes and have great guitar vibrato).
How do you avoid it?
There are 3 techniques I use all the time (and teach to all my students).
Here they are:
Watch this video to see more tips on how to clean up sloppy guitar playing and get rid of sloppy string noise:
Heads up: as cool as guitar tapping is...
And as diverse as its applications are to many areas of your guitar playing...
For most guitar players, I advise NOT to spend a lot of time practicing this technique.
That’s because it scores low on a guitar practice metric few guitar players or teachers ever think about:
Transferability.
What is transferability?
It’s the ability of a technique you are practicing to transfer to (i.e. help with) other areas of your playing.
And 2-hand tapping, unfortunately, scores very low in this area.
Because it does nothing to help your picking hand... synchronization or articulation... and it doesn't even do much for your fretting hand, either. (Since most of your focus when doing 2-hand tapping is on the finger(s) doing the tapping.)
Pretty much the only areas it improves are...
String noise control (as you have to focus on minimizing string noise while doing 2-hand tapping)...
... and 2-hand tapping itself.
That’s why I don’t suggest focusing a lot of time on 2-hand tapping if your practice time is limited.
The only exception could be if you are learning a piece of music that makes heavy use of guitar tapping. Or if you have a very specific short-term goal that requires you to sharpen your 2-hand tapping chops.
If that’s you – by all means tap away. And use the tips in this article to help you make more gains with your 2-hand tapping faster and easier.
Now that you know easy ways to play 2 hand guitar tapping technique, the next technique to focus on is sweep picking.
Most guitarists only wish they could sweep fast & clean. But you can join the ranks of those who actually do.
How?
Download this free sweep picking eGuide and learn sweep picking secrets most guitarists will never know to go along with your improved guitar tapping technique.
Ready to learn more ways to improve your 2 hand guitar tapping technique? Learn with the top online guitar teacher.
