Hi Pavel, quick question. When you tap do you pull off downwards or up? My guitar teacher has got me tapping upwards instead of down. It's proving difficult at the moment because i'm used to down but i'm getting there. He is an insanely fast player and taps amazing and he says that there are benefits of it like you've got more control and it's faster or something like that can't remember exactly

I tap downwards if it's a regular Van Halen like tapping! But if it involves 2 or more right finger fingers to tap - than pulling off upwards is the most common thing to do.

so are you saying, Van Halen relied on just one finger for his tapping?

Misunderstanding is becoming a common issue on GMC forum...

By Van Halen tapping i mean the woodley-woodley tapping covered in Kris's tapping lessons!

my question wasn't rhetorical, I don't know the answer.

the reason I am asking is not just academic. I have had an opinion (not fixed) that in general, it adds little to tap with more than one finger. Others may disagree, but I have not seen guys doing that, where I felt it was adding much musically. So I am wondering if Van Halen pretty much used one finger (at least in the years that made him famous).

edit: I looked at some old videos, have not seen more than one finger on his right hand on those that I looked at. Interesting though, he would curl his other other fingers in 1978, later he extended them, more relaxed I guess.

edit2: removed a few sentences above, and I take it back, using two fingers can be advantages for some things. however I do stand by my earlier statement, I have seen multi fingers used more often in a showy fashion, than to actually add something musically.

More than 1 finger tapping - like 2 to 3 finger taps add a lot in playing especially in shred solos. You can also see an example of multiple taps in my "Pavel Denisjuk Slow Solo" - it is not a shred solo and it uses multiple tap.

Another lesson on multiple finger taps is coming this way and you'll see that multiple finger taps are much more interesting than just woodley-woddley tapping which is like 30 years old.

And no - i haven't seen Van Halen doing more than 1 finger tapping - that's why i call 1 finger tapping - "Van Halen" style tapping.