Tapping is a playing technique generally associated with the electric guitar, although the technique may be performed on almost any string instrument. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs There are two main methods of tapping: one-handed or 'ordinary' tapping, and two-handed tapping.
It may be considered an extended technique, in that it is executed by using the fingers of one hand to 'tap' the strings against the fingerboard, thus sounding legato notes; often in tightly synchronized conjunction with the other hand. Extended techniques are performance techniques used in Music to describe unconventional unorthodox or "improper" techniques of Singing, or of The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments is a part of most Stringed instruments It is a thin long strip of Wood that is In Musical notation the Italian word legato (literally meaning "tied together" indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly Hence, tapping usually incorporates pull-offs or hammer-ons as well, whereby the fingers of the left hand play a sequence of notes in synchronisation with the tapping hand. A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the Fingerboard with one of the fingers being used Hammer-on is a Stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on Guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the Fingerboard
The Chapman Stick is an instrument built primarily for tapping, and is based on the Free Hands two-handed tapping method invented in 1969 by Emmett Chapman where each hand approaches the fretboard with the fingers aligned parallel to the frets. The Chapman Stick is an electric Musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s Free Hands is the name of Emmett Chapman 's two-handed tapping method of parallel hands used on his Chapman Stick instrument and on several other Stick-inspired instruments
The Mobius Megatar, Box Guitar, and Solene instruments are other instruments designed for the same method, and the Bunker Touch-Guitar is designed for the two-necked tapping technique developed by Dave Bunker in 1958, but with an elbow rest to hold the right arm in the conventional guitar position. The Megatar is a stringed Musical instrument designed to be played with two-handed Tapping. The NS/Stick and Warr guitars are also built for tapping, though not exclusively. The NS/Stick is an 8 string Tapping instrument designed by Emmett Chapman and Ned Steinberger. Warr Guitars is a company that manufactures the Warr Guitar which is a Musical instrument developed by Mark Warr that looks very much like a standard Electric guitar, but can These instruments use lower string tension and low action to increase the string's sensitivity to lighter tapping. The action of a stringed instrument is the distance between the Fingerboard and the string, which determines how easy it is to sound Notes
Occasionally some guitarists may choose to tap using the sharp edge of their pick instead of fingers to produce a faster, more rigid flurry of notes in a style closer to that of trilling (see pick tapping). Often called a pick or plec, a plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. Pick tapping (or ' Pick Trilling') is a fast Guitar playing technique wherein the pick (or Plectrum) is used to sharply fret notes on the instrument's
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One-handed
One-handed tapping (perhaps misleading in name, in that both hands are actually used), performed in conjunction with normal fingering by the fretting hand, facilitates the construction of note intervals that would otherwise be impossible using one hand alone. In Music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitches of two Notes Intervals may be described as vertical It is often used as a special effect during a shredding solo. Shred guitar or shred refers to lead Electric guitar playing that relies heavily on fast passages the act of playing fast passages on an electric guitar is termed Guitar solos are a melodic passage section or entire piece of music written for an Electric guitar or an Acoustic guitar. With the electric guitar, in this situation the output tone itself is usually overdriven — although it is possible to tap acoustically — with drive serving as a boost to further amplify the non-picked (and thus naturally weaker) legato notes being played. Because of the amount of distortion generally present, the player should also focus on reducing unnecessary noise during tapping; for instance, by using the palm of the tapping hand to mute any open strings that might otherwise ring out.
The actual passages that can be played using this one-handed technique are virtually limitless. The note intervals between both hands can be shifted up or down the neck, or onto different strings, to form familiar scalar patterns, or even 'outside' tones by randomly streaming through any chosen notes for mere show (often by using chromatics or otherwise dissonant intervals). In Music, a scale is a group of musical notes collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all The chromatic scale is a Musical scale with twelve pitches each a Semitone or Half step apart
As far as the actual technique goes, there are many ways of performing a one-handed tapping passage. The most common one involves rapidly repeated triplets played at a rate of sixteenth notes, using the following sequence:
Tap — pull-off — pull-off
In this case, the right hand index or middle finger sounds the first note on a string by sharply hammering onto it once, then pulling off (often with a slight, sideways 'flicking' movement so as to strengthen the note) to a lower note held by one of the left hand fingers, that of which is then finally pulled off to the last note held by another left hand finger. In Music a tuplet is any consecutive group of notes with an individual value more or less than half as long as the next larger note value In Music, a sixteenth note (American or "German" terminology or semiquaver (also occasionally demiquaver, British or "classical" From there, the cycle is repeated. If one breaks that down even further, the very first part can be seen as the actual 'tapping' motion itself, whereas the second part involving the left hand acts as a way of embellishing the passage with additional notes; which, overall, could be considered an extended trill. The overall aim is to maintain fluidity and synchronisation between all the notes, especially when played at speed, which can take some practice to master.
In tablature form, the above sequence could thus be displayed as:
A E C#
e|-t17p12p9-|
B|----------|
G|----------|
D|----------|
A|----------|
E|----------|
Alternatively, different sequences can be used. Tablature (or Tabulature) is a form of Musical notation, which tells players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument One common variation is to reverse the action of the left hand and instead add the second left-hand note as a hammer-on at the end:
Tap — pull-off — hammer-on
G C D#
e|--------|
B|-t8p1h4-|
G|--------|
D|--------|
A|--------|
E|--------|
The above variation can be heard to good effect on the famous Van Halen track, "Eruption", in which Eddie Van Halen uses the above tap–pull–hammer method to create a lengthy cascade of tapped notes. Van Halen is a Hard rock band formed in in 1972 They enjoyed success from the release of their self titled debut album in 1978 " Eruption " is an instrumental by Van Halen from their first album Van Halen. Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26 1955 is a Dutch Guitarist, Keyboardist, Songwriter and producer In addition to the aforementioned triplets, tapping can be played using sixteenth notes (four notes to one beat as opposed to three), or even — though rarely heard — quintuplets (five notes to one beat). A beat is the basic Time Unit of a piece of Music; for example each tick sounded by a Metronome would correspond to a beat This, especially the latter, can result in even more complex-sounding passages, with some guitarists choosing to use it as a form of neo-classical phrasing to further deepen the musical possibilities of the technique. For the historical original neoclassical music see Neoclassicism (music Neo-classical metal is a subgenre of Heavy metal music Again, there are a number of ways of doing so, but some examples of sixteenth-note tapping could be broken down as:
Tap — pull-off — hammer-on — hammer-on
Tap — pull-off — pull-off — hammer-on
G B C# D
e|------------|
B|-t15p7h9h10-|
G|------------|
D|------------|
A|------------|
E|------------|
C# G# D# G#
e|-------------|
B|-------------|
G|-t18p13p8h13-|
D|-------------|
A|-------------|
E|-------------|
And finally, quintuplets could be displayed as:
Tap — pull-off — hammer-on — hammer-on — hammer-on
Tap — pull-off — pull-off — pull-off — pull-off
A# D# F F# G#
e|-t18p11h13h14h16-|
B|-----------------|
G|-----------------|
D|-----------------|
A|-----------------|
E|-----------------|
C A G# G F
e|-t20p17p16p15p13-|
B|-----------------|
G|-----------------|
D|-----------------|
A|-----------------|
E|-----------------|
If looked at in scalar terms, the above sequences would follow the intervallic forms of a minor scale and a blues scale respectively. Minor Scale was a test conducted by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per Octave in contrast to an heptatonic (seven note scale such as the Major scale The same concept can therefore be applied to virtually any scale imaginable, making tapping a very diverse technique with constant room for experimentation.
Two-handed
Two-handed tapping can be utilized to play polyphonic and counterpoint music on a guitar by using eight (and even nine) fingers. Erik Mongrain (born April 12 1980 in Montreal, Québec, Canada) Emmett Chapman is a Jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of Chapman Stick family of instruments In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony For example, the right hand plays the treble melody while the left hand plays an accompaniment. Therefore, it is possible to produce music written for a keyboard instrument, such as J.S. Bach's Two-part Inventions. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772-801 also known as the Two and Three Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions
The method increases the flexibility of the instrument, in that it makes it possible to play more types of music on a guitar. The main disadvantage is the lack of change of timbre. In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different As it produces a "clean tone" effect, and since the first note usually sounds the loudest (unwanted in some music like jazz), dynamics are a main concern with this technique, though Stanley Jordan and many Stick players are successful tappers in this genre. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Stanley Jordan ( July 31, 1959) is an American Jazz / Jazz fusion Guitarist, best known for his development of the touch The Chapman Stick is an electric Musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s It is common to use a compressor effect to make notes more similar in volume. Dynamic range compression, also called DRC (often seen in DVD player settings or simply compression, is a process that reduces the Dynamic range of
Depending on the orientation of the player's right hand, this method can produce varying degrees of success. Early experimenters with this idea like Harry DeArmond, his student Jimmie Webster, and luthier Dave Bunker held their right hand in a conventional orientation, with the fingers lined up parallel with the strings. Harry DeArmond ( January 28 1906 - October 12 1999) invented the first commercially available attachable Guitar pickup in the mid 1930s This limits the kind of musical lines the right hand can play.
Emmett Chapman was the first acknowledged to tap on guitar with his right hand fingers lined up parallel to the frets, as on the left hand, but from the opposite side of the neck (see photo). Emmett Chapman is a Jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of Chapman Stick family of instruments His discovery, in August, 1969, led to complete counterpoint capability and a new instrument, the Chapman Stick, and to a new method Chapman called "Free Hands" method. The Chapman Stick is an electric Musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s Free Hands is the name of Emmett Chapman 's two-handed tapping method of parallel hands used on his Chapman Stick instrument and on several other Stick-inspired instruments
Stanley Jordan popularized this method on a six-string guitar, using an all 4ths tuning as previously on The Stick. Stanley Jordan ( July 31, 1959) is an American Jazz / Jazz fusion Guitarist, best known for his development of the touch He calls his approach "touch guitar," but it is essentially Chapman's Stick technique, though Jordan developed it independently, and at a later date, with fewer fingers.
Two-handed tapping is more rarely found in rock music than one-handed tapping, but has been used by rock guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Michael Angelo Batio, Steve Morse, Trevor Rabin (of Yes), Buckethead, and Steve Hackett. Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26 1955 is a Dutch Guitarist, Keyboardist, Songwriter and producer Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese-American Guitarist and Singer-songwriter best known Steven "Steve" Siro Vai (born June 6 1960 in Carle Place New York) is an American Instrumental rock Guitarist Joseph "Satch" Satriani (born July 15, 1956 in Westbury New York, U Michael Angelo Batio (ˈbeɪtioʊ also known as Mike Batio or MAB) (born in 1956 is an American Guitarist and Columnist from Steven J Morse (born July 28, 1954 in Hamilton Ohio) is an American Guitarist, best known as the founder for the Dixie Trevor Rabin (born January 13, 1954) is a South African American musician best known as a guitarist and songwriter for the British Brian Carroll, better known as Buckethead, is an American Guitarist and Songwriter. Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12 February 1950 is a British Songwriter and Guitarist.
History
The practice of tapping has existed in some form or another for centuries. Paganini utilized similar techniques on violin. Niccolò Paganini ( October 27, 1782 &ndash The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member Another similar technique, called selpe, is used in Turkish folk music on the instrument called the bağlama. The bağlama is a stringed Musical instrument shared by various Cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Tapping techniques and solos on various stringed acoustic instruments such as the Banjo have been documented in early film, records, and performances throughout the early 20th century. The clavichord was an early acoustic keyboard instrument that used a mechanical hammer to "fret" a string for each key. The clavichord is a European stringed Keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical It was followed by an amplified version, the Hohner Clavinet in 1968. A Clavinet is an electrophonic Keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company
Jimmie Webster made recordings in the 1950s using the method of two-handed tapping he described in 'Touch Method for Electric and Amplified Spanish Guitar', published in 1952. Webster was a student of electric pickup designer Harry deArmond, who developed two-handed tapping as a way to demonstrate the sensitivity of his pickups. Harry DeArmond ( January 28 1906 - October 12 1999) invented the first commercially available attachable Guitar pickup in the mid 1930s Webster's approach was not popularly adapted. The two-handed tapping technique was also known and occasionally used by many 1950s and 1960s Jazz guitarists such as Barney Kessel who was an early supporter of Emmett Chapman [1]. Barney Kessel ( October 17, 1923 &ndash May 6, 2004) was an American Jazz Guitarist born in Muskogee Oklahoma Emmett Chapman is a Jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of Chapman Stick family of instruments
In August of 1969, Los Angeles jazz guitarist Emmett Chapman discovered a new way of tapping with both hands held perpendicular to the neck from opposite sides, thus enabling equal counterpoint capabilities for each hand for the first time. Emmett Chapman is a Jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of Chapman Stick family of instruments Chapman redesigned his 9-string long-scale electric guitar, calling it the Electric Stick. in 1974 he founded Stick Enterprises, Inc. and began building instruments for other musicians. With over 5000 instruments produced as of 2006, The Chapman Stick is the most popular extant dedicated tapping instrument. The Chapman Stick is an electric Musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s Chapman influenced several tapping guitarists, including Steve Lynch of the band Autograph, and also Jennifer Batten. Jennifer Batten is an American Guitarist who first received word-of-mouth attention that eventually led Guitar Magazines to take notice of her
Randy Resnick of the Pure Food and Drug Act featuring Don "Sugarcane" Harris used both one and two handed tapping (hammering) extensively in his performances and recordings between 1969 and 1974. Pure Food and Drug Act was a band that was formed in the early 1970s based on the talent and charisma of Don "Sugarcane" Harris. Don "Sugarcane" Harris ( June 19, 1938 - November 30 (or December 1) 1999) was an American rock & roll Violinist This was mentioned in an article in Guitar Player Magazine written by Lee Ritenour in 1970. Lee Mack "Captain Fingers" Ritenour (born January 11 1952) is an internationally acclaimed guitarist recording artist composer and producer He also recorded the tapping style in 1974 on the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers album "Latest Edition". John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band led by Singer, Songwriter, and He was attempting to duplicate the legato of John Coltrane's "sheets of sound".
One of the first rock guitarists to record using the tapping technique was Steve Hackett from Genesis. Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12 February 1950 is a British Songwriter and Guitarist. Genesis are an English rock band formed in 1967 With approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide Genesis are among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists Two examples of Hackett's complex tapping can be heard on the song "Supper's Ready", from 1972, and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed", from 1971. Supper's Ready is a song by the band Genesis. A recorded version appeared on their 1972 album Foxtrot, and the band performed the song regularly on Harvey Mandel, well-known for his psychedelic guitar playing, also employed 2-handed fretboard tapping in the 1960s. Mandel was one of the first rock guitarists to utilize this technique, years before Eddie Van Halen and Stanley Jordan first appeared.
Tapping was also used by Ace Frehley as early as 1975, for his live solo at the end of the song "She" during Kiss's performance on the Midnight Special. Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley (born April 27 1951 is an American Guitarist best known as an original member and lead guitarist for the rock Kiss (also typeset as KISS) is an American rock band formed in New York City in December 1972 The technique would remain a part of Frehley's solos from 1977 through the Kiss reunion during "Shock Me". Various other guitarists such as Frank Zappa, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, Brian May from Queen, Duane Allman from the The Allman Brothers Band and Leslie West from Mountain were using the tapping technique in the early 1970s as well. Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21 1940 – December 4 1993 was an American Composer, Electric guitarist Record producer and Film director William Frederick (Billy Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) Nicknamed the Reverend Willie G, is best known as the Guitarist for ZZ Top (ˌziːziːˈtɒp is an American rock band formed in late 1969 in Houston Texas. Brian Harold May, CBE Queen were an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Howard Duane Allman (November 20 1946 – October 29 1971 was an American, Lead guitarist of the Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band is a Southern rock band based in Macon, Georgia. Leslie West (born October 22, 1945) is an American rock Guitarist, Singer and Songwriter. Mountain is an American rock band. The band broke up in 1972 reformed two years later broke up soon after that and have since reconvened and resumed Ace Frehley and Frank Zappa used a guitar pick for their style of tapping.
Eddie Van Halen helped popularise the tapping technique for the modern audience. Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26 1955 is a Dutch Guitarist, Keyboardist, Songwriter and producer Perhaps the most well known employment of tapping is the short piece "Eruption" on the first Van Halen album which was released in 1978, which features very fast tapping triads and formed the blueprint for heavy metal lead playing throughout the 1980s. " Eruption " is an instrumental by Van Halen from their first album Van Halen. Van Halen is a Hard rock band formed in in 1972 They enjoyed success from the release of their self titled debut album in 1978 In Music and Music theory, a triad is a three- note chord that can be stacked in thirds The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. But Eddie Van Halen did not invent finger tapping, as by popular belief.
During the 1980s two-handed tapping developed much further with many players such as Stanley Jordan using a 2 or more finger tapping technique. Stanley Jordan ( July 31, 1959) is an American Jazz / Jazz fusion Guitarist, best known for his development of the touch Tapping on the bass guitar was not as popular as it was on the guitar but bass guitar players such as Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm, Victor Wooten and Dave LaRue have used tapping. William 'Billy' Sheehan (born on 1953 March 19 in Buffalo NY) is an Irish American Bassist known for his work with Talas Stuart "Stu" Hamm (born February 8, 1960) is an American Bass guitar player known for his session and live work with numerous artists as Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an electric bass player Dave LaRue is a Bassist who has performed with the Dixie Dregs since 1988 and with the Steve Morse Band since 1989 The Math Rock genre is also known for its extensive use of tapping. Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock music that emerged in the late 1980s Artists such as Don Caballero and Maps & Atlases, for example, both employ extensive and intricate tapping pulling from many different areas of the technique. Don Caballero are a critically-acclaimed instrumental rock group from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Maps & Atlases is a Math rock group from Chicago Illinois. Maps & Atlases formed in the fall of 2004 when the founding members met in art school at
See also
External Links
| Guitar shredding techniques |
|---|
| Alternate picking - Economy picking - Hammer-ons - Hybrid picking - Legato - Pull-offs - String skipping - Sweep-picking - Tapping - Tremolo picking - Wide intervals |
| Shred Genres |
| Classical - Bluegrass - Country - Flamenco - Hard rock - Heavy metal - Instrumental rock - Jazz - Jazz fusion - Neo-classical metal - Progressive rock |
Dictionary
tapping
-verb
- Present participle of tap.
- (US,colloquial) In Greek University organizations, tapping is the process of notifying new members of their acceptance into the organization, usually in a public ceremony.
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