Introduction
When I was around 13, I heard Steve Vai for the first time and was absolutely flabbergasted.
I wondered how he did those amazing, out of this world, sounding passages.I looked into it and found out it was tapping !
He used his picking hand to press notes on the neck.. wow.
I started practicing immediately on some licks.
It wasn’t until 2014 that I started developing my tapping on a more serious note. I decided to get rid of my pick for a while to focus solely on my tapping. I would spend at least 2 or 3 hours a day jamming to chord progressions with my friend/mentor Kyr van der Werf. (YT, FB, Spotify)
Playing without a pick felt kind of awkward in the beginning but after some time I started discovering new paths on the guitar.
My tapping these days does differ substantially from how it used to be. I can now move freely around the neck, whereas I was imprisoned in a couple of patterns before.
Things to do
Here are some of the things I did, and would suggest other people to do if they like to start tapping:
Learn to tap some of the stuff you already can play with your neckhand. This will stimulate your brain to unveil a new habit.
At some time I came up with the idea to create tapping lines based on rhythm, which means I took some of my favourite drum grooves and converted them into tapping patterns. This helped me a lot as I came across different challenges.
There are 2 examples of this in the videos. Try it!
Example 1
Scale: B Dorian
Notice how the high notes are placed on the snaredrum in order to get the rhythmic accents in the pattern.
Example 2
Scale: B Dorian
Notice how the high notes are placed on the snaredrum in order to get the rhythmic accents in the pattern.
