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Lesson time: (6min 39sec)
James Barratt breaks down tapping on guitar - the Van Halen-style technique that lets you reach wide intervals - using common single-string phrases.
This lesson is part of the course Rockschool Guitar Grade 8
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Okay then, so let's check out tapping technique now in a little bit more detail.
Tapping is a really distinctive-sounding technique. If you're into bands like Van Halen, then you've heard it all over the place. It's prevalent in:
One cool aspect of tapping is that it allows us to achieve really wide intervals on the guitar. For instance, my left hand could be fretting down here while I use my right hand to attack the highest note on the guitar, achieving a huge interval.
The examples I'm going to show you are just some common tapping phrases that you might come across. We're going to look at it on a single string. I use my middle finger to tap the fretboard with my right hand. Some players tuck their pick into their middle finger to use their first finger, which is fine if you're comfortable getting that down quickly.
Think about the transition from picking to tapping:
However, I prefer to keep holding my pick normally and tap with my middle finger. You can experiment with these options, the technique is flexible. There are players who use multiple fingers simultaneously for right-handed tapping, so be as creative as you like.
As someone who doesn't do vast amounts of tapping, my personal preference is to use my little finger. It allows for smooth transitions between picking and tapping.
The phrase we're going to look at begins with a tapped note on the 12th fret of the B string.
It's important to keep all the lower strings quiet. You can:
Hammer-On
Pull-Off
This technique requires a lot of effort on the right hand. Think of it as trying to achieve a siren effect with equal volume between any two notes on the guitar. You want:
I use my first finger to keep the E string quiet and my palm to mute the lower strings, ensuring that all I hear is the B string.
A really common progression to add is a hammer-on with the left hand, resulting in a repeat sequence:
You can achieve impressive speed with practice. It feels natural to gradually speed up because it's such a tactile technique, giving a real sense of deliberate rhythm.
When playing, we create groups of three:
To make a four-note grouping (more of a semi-quaver feel), we can change the order slightly:
Slow down the exercise to check if all notes are of equal volume and if there are no strings ringing out undesirably. If those strings aren't muted, you would hear an underlying ringing sound.
It's crucial to lock down those unwanted strings to allow the intended notes to sound clean, especially in a rock context.
So, that's tapping in a nutshell! I hope you enjoy this technique. You'll find it featured in lots of songs in the Rock School series. Have fun with it, and let's take a look at the next technique!
