Tapping

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Tapping

Tapping is a technique that is most commonly used on an electric guitar but could be used on any stringed instrument. It is often used in shred solos and in the neo-classical genre.

Technique

There are many ways of performing a tapping passage. One of the most common patterns for tapping is:

"Tap, pull off, pull off."

For example:

e|-t19p15p12-|
B|-----------|
G|-----------|
D|-----------|
A|-----------|
E|-----------|

There is another pattern that is commonly used:

"Tap, pull off, hammer on."

For example:

e|----------|
B|-t9p2h5---|
G|----------|
D|----------|
A|----------|
E|----------|

This pattern was popularised by Eddie Van Halen in the famous guitar instrumental "Eruption."

Uses

Tapping is most commonly used to create very fast shred sections of songs. Combined with legato, sweep picking, alternate picking and string skipping it forms the bases of most shred solos.