Two Hand Tapping Excercise

By: Levi Clay

Hello and welcome to the first in a series of lessons I’ll be writing for Guitar International magazine. It is a real pleasure to write for the site, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading and spreading the word as much as I will enjoy sharing some of the concepts I have learned or come up with over the years.

This particular lesson will fit somewhere between the two topics I normally write about, though I usually keep separate, technique and theory. The plan is to introduce you to two techniques, then show you how I as a player might use these ideas in different harmonic contexts to conjure up different tonalities.

Note: Click on any example to open a larger version in a new window.

The first exercise shown is a very basic form of multiple finger tapping, a technique synonymous with players like Rusty Cooley, Derryl Gabel, Derek Taylor and many others. When playing this lick notice how it fits into E minor pentatonic scale. When I play this lick myself I visualise the first position of the pentatonic scale.

Example 1 (Click to Open in New Window)

Example 1 Audio (Click to Open in New Window)

As far as technical advice is concerned, the real dilemma comes when employing pull-offs in the fretting hand. Hand muscles are designed to grip. This means our hands are very strong when closing, but weaker when opening. So, when slurring with the fretting hand it’s easier to pull off “downwards,” as though you were closing your hand. For the record, I do the opposite, opting to flick outwards. In the end whatever works well and produces the best sound should work either way.

This particular fingering involves tapping with the second (index) and third (middle) fingers of the fretting hand. My advice would be to become comfortable with this technique before we move on to using the fourth finger, as it is usually the weakest and techniques involving the pinky will be dealt with in future articles.

The other technique we need to focus on to carry out this particular lick is the “first finger hammer-on”. In order to execute these hammer-ons cleanly, the timing must be perfect. The moment the picking hand taps the fretting hand lifts up, while the picking hand palm mutes the strings. This enables the first finger of the fretting hand to come down on the higher string from a greater distance, ensuring maximum volume and clarity.

Example 2 (Click to Open in New Window)

Example 2 Audio (Click to Open in New Window)

Remember, the tip of the first finger of the fretting hand should come down resting on the string below to effectively mute the string. It’s possible to get a technique like this perfect, but for ease of execution don’t be afraid to use a string dampener, like a hair tie, to eliminate open string noise, or a compressor pedal to bring up the volume of any quiet taps.

Now onto the lick.

Example 3 (Click to Open in New Window)

Example 3 Audio (Click to Open in New Window)

Before discussing the theoretical applications of the lick, take the time to just familiarise yourself with the physical aspects of the lick. Build it up slowly, practicing with a metronome, in order to solidify the fingerings and techniques involved. A tempo of 140 bpm’s is a good goal to strive for at this point in the game. From there, interpret the lick however you wish. Don’t be afraid to add dynamics, accents and other musical ideas that inject emotion into the lick.

The next step is to analyse the harmonic context of the lick. To do this, with this and with any lick you learn, I recommend drawing up a quick diagram of the lick as such.

From there I will pick a key centre, in this case E minor, and write in the intervallic relationship between each note to that given root, as I did in the following example.

Now I can see the relevant formula for the lick, in this case R b3 5 b7 9 11. So I can use this lick to imply an Em11 sound over an E bass note. Or use it over an Em11 chord.

My advice for the guitarist with a really inquisitive mind would be to superimpose this lick over all 12 chromatic notes, some of them will just be exercises, that will improve your visualisation, but others will yield useful results. For example, when I superimpose this lick over a C major chord we get:

In the key of C the lick doesn’t even contain the root. Instead, we have the intervals, 3 5 7 9 #11 13 or Cmaj13#11, a Lydian sound. The inventive guitarist will use harmonic knowledge where possible to get the maximum amount of use from their licks.

One last approach I like to use is the “up a 5th” principle, where we take a lick and apply it to the key a fifth away. This lick is in Em, E is the fifth of A, so if we have a look at the lick in A we get:

When analyzed the intervals in the key of A are, R 5 b7 9 11 13, or A13sus4. This gives us more options. We can play it over the aforementioned A13sus chord or, as there’s no third to pin the tonality, over a Am7 or even a A7 chord.

Experiment and have fun. Feel free to contact me at Facebook, Myspace if you have any questions or suggestions for future articles.

About the Author

Levi Clay is an up and coming guitarist and teacher based out of London UK. As a student of several of the UKs top guitarists, Levi has landed work as a transcriber, player, opening for the legendary Pat Martino, and teaching his own class at the International Guitar Foundation (IGF) Youth Rock event. As a transcriber, his reputation for transcribing Guthrie Govans album landed him the job transcribing some of Guthries videos. Currently Levi fills his time pursuing his BMus(Hons) at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) and leading rock band Hellcat Molly. Levi proudly plays Suhr Guitars and Cornford Amplification.