
Finger Tapping Guitar Licks
Finger Tapping Guitar Licks - Not Just For Stunt Guitar
Finger Tapping... the technique that has captivated audiences and elevated guitar playing to new heights.
Initially popularized by innovative guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Stanley Jordan, Steve Vai, etc., finger tapping has since become an integral part of many genres, including rock, metal, jazz, and fusion.
One of the most awe-inspiring aspects of finger tapping is its potential for blistering speed and technical prowess. By employing multiple fingers or both hands, guitarists can achieve lightning-fast runs, intricate patterns, and mind-bending solos that captivate audiences and leave them in awe of the player's virtuosity.
Finger Tapping Technique Explained
I could waffle on about how guitar finger tapping is an advanced technique and give you a breakdown of how many of the great guitarists use the technique, but let's keep things simple.
The finger tapping technique is easy if you think of it as being no different to hammering on and pulling off with the fingers of your fretting hand. You just use the opposite hand. Simple!
If you are able to hammer on and pull off with your fretting hand, just do the same motion with the opposite hand. The big difference is that you can reach further on one string when using two hands.
But Probably Best To Not Use Your Nose...
Blistering speeds with fast flurries of notes can be achieved using a finger tapping technique. I use tapping sparingly and it does creep into my improvisation, especially when getting carried away on extended rock solos.
If playing standard songs such as Beat It, nailing the Eddie Van Halen solo to this particular song is essential. Many guitarists will learn solos such as Beat It, but not take the next step of ripping it to pieces, analysing what Eddie was thinking and incorporating new ideas into their guitar playing. Be sure to analyse the licks coming up and create new ideas of your own.
As mentioned previously, finger tapping is simply using your picking hand to do similar things to your fretting hand. You can use one finger, two fingers, all your fingers... let your imagination run wild. I have used the side of my thumb on both hands to barre strings so I can achieve certain sounds, so do whatever it takes to achieve the desired result.
Once, when I was playing a solo jazz gig, I was holding notes of a chord with both hands whilst strumming with the pinky finger of my right hand. I still needed to play a bass note on the low E string and I had run out of hands. I used my nose.
Now, I wouldn't recommend nose tapping, although it did work for me on this one occasion. Probably not ideal in a restaurant, but what ever it takes right?
Need Some Help Muting The Strings When Tapping?
I remember playing The Boys Are Back In Town when I was a teenager and I figured out a way to play both guitar harmony parts at the same time using a multi-finger tapping approach. String muters were not available at the time as this was many years ago, so I tied one of my socks around the guitar's neck to mute the strings. Oh to be young again and experiment with so many stupid ideas...
I wouldn't recommend the sock approach, so probably best to purchase a string muter.
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Finger Tapping Guitar Lick: Bbmaj7
This lick uses more than one finger of my fretting hand to tap notes. You need to use more than one finger as two consecutive notes are played with the right hand, and one finger will not work in this situation.
The timing is rather tricky to read in this example, although once you have learnt the fingering, feel free to adjust the timing to fit whatever you are playing over.
Quite a short lick to kick things off, so it shouldn't take too much time to learn this one.
One String Finger Tapping
Tapping on one string is great for learning the guitar fretboard. Not only do these types of licks help you join various scale positions together in your mind by shifting position, but the added stretch and extra note coverage used when tapping requires excellent fretboard visualisation.
Be sure to run this lick through different scales, and you will find your knowledge of the guitar fingerboard will significantly expand.
This is a fun lick that will certainly impress your friends.
Three Finger Tapping Lick
Why use one finger when you can use more? This lick requires three fingers of your picking/strumming hand to play the idea fluently. If you haven't used more than one finger for tapping licks before, you may well find this lick will take some practice.
The pattern used in this lick could easily be extended to cover all six strings, although I decided to keep this example shorter for a more punchy idea.
Finger Tapping With Slides
Another multi-finger guitar tapping lick, adding slides to create quite a complex melodic line.
It is often difficult to know where to look when playing these licks. When both hands are involved in various techniques, it is easy to hit the wrong note, so knowing your guitar well and feeling for the different position shifts is essential.
F7 Finger Tapping Guitar Lick
This is a much longer lick than some of the other examples and it covers quite a bit of the guitar fretboard.
You will need to pay careful attention to hand positioning when working on this finger tapping lick. There are also some rather larger left-hand stretches which could also cause you problems. Although this is a difficult lick to master, it is well worth the effort!
Finger Tapping Lick In Bb Major
This is another lick that requires more than one finger of your right hand. There is also a right-hand slide which requires good finger control.
As often happens with finger-tapping licks, you will be jumping across strings. This is due to the increased range on one string with the added stretch of using both hands.
C Major Finger Tapping Lick
Short, but sweet is the name of the game with this lick.
Once again, the left hand requires a bit of a stretch, so make sure the notes sound clear. It is easy to have notes that are not fretted accurately when large stretches are used. The additional left-hand position shifts also add to the difficulty when playing this type of idea.
A small, but mighty finger-tapping lick!
Gm Finger Tapping Lick
Another lick using the groups of 12 notes crammed into one beat. This example is easier to play rhythmically than previous examples as the lick lays out four notes per string for most of the lick.
This is essentially one idea repeated, so be sure to repeat it numerous times for more practice and a longer melodic idea.
The position shifts are the difficult part of this lick. Another "where do I look?" lick.
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