#41 Van Halen Tapping Part Ii, Same technique but higher up on the neck, right hand traverse Options

[Todd Simpson]

Let's do a bit more with EDDIE VANHALEN style tapping/hammering. In Quick Licks 40 we went over the basic of his tapping technique. This time, let's move up the neck to the 12th fret. We are still going to be based on a Pentatonic(ish) shape. This time, we are only going to move the right hand. So take what you learned form last time and apply it here with a bit less fret width to work with. Keep in mind that I"m playing this at full speed only to show you what it will sound like once you get a really good handle on it. You DO NOT have to play it this fast in your take. No points for speed, as that encourages sloppy playing. Precise playing is the key to opening up your speed. One can't slop one's way to shredsville. Practice and precision are the keys to the kingdom.
*Patron Saint of Tapping/Hammering

Our patron saint is playing with a fractured wrist in that pic. You don't have to break your arm to play though, it's easy! Just follow the tab and watch the vid. Those bits are important though, if you just glance at the vid and skip the tab you may play it wrong and have to go again. We gotta have standards after all.

*NOTE: Keep an eye on your muting so that you don't get wads of string noise!

BACKGROUND / COMMENTS : You can use your first finger on your right hand or your second or even your third, whichever feels most comfortable.

 41.gp5 ( 1.91K ) Number of downloads: 9

Hit me up with any questions!

Todd

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Aug 25 2018, 06:28 PM

[Phil66]

Here's my first take Todd, I hit all of the strings at the end to show I wasn't using a Batten block to mute the strings

https://youtu.be/6JbRdZQzMFQ

[Todd Simpson]

You start out very strong here!! I can hear all four notes. Once you head to the second position, I start hearing 3 notes. I think you may be going just a pinch fast. Make sure you can hear each strike and each pull off. Each one adds to it as it results in a four note sequence, strike then pull off, then strike and pull off. You can reduce the number of repeats to 4 per section to prevent arm fatigue. Only when playing at speed are 8 reps per position really needed. You are very close to nailing this one, give it one more!!
Todd

Here's my first take Todd, I hit all of the strings at the end to show I wasn't using a Batten block to mute the strings

https://youtu.be/6JbRdZQzMFQ

[Phil66]

Thanks Todd,

Here's another try. I have an idea for the next one which will be a challenge. Maybe a picked lick going into tapping. The holding of the pick whilst tapping is an art itself, then maybe the next one could be a picked lick followed by tapping followed by a picked lick. Not telling you how to do it Sarge, just a suggestion.

Cheers

https://youtu.be/q5o9EvSwm48

[Todd Simpson]

Thats it!! It sounds like some cool mod ideas for the tapping stuff! But don't wait on me, just take this lick for example and add a bit of a picking thing before it and or after it. You are at the stage where you can start putting licks together based on your existing bag of tricks. Think of it as a creativity workout. I may end up asking to use it in quicklicks! Put that video up in this same thread and I'll give you some tips/tricks!! It looks like you have gotten a handle on the basic technique, so it's time to play around and add some other bits to it and make it your own thing! Also, that way, I know that it will be something within your range of play as you will be the one writing it. No chance of me throwing a wacky curve ball and making something that was not what you were expecting and probably way to complex to be helpful. Im stoked to see what you come up with!!

As for this one, you slowed down a bit which is a good thing as you need a bit of space to get in all four tones from this style of tapping at this point in your progress but this is tempory. As you practice this lick, you will find that you can reduce the amount of recovery time between strike/pull and as such, speed up the lick quite a bit. I"m playing it quite briskly in the demo to give you an idea of what it will sound like at speed. You are ready to start pushing this toward a faster approach I think. You've got the techique down so you have leveled this on up!!! It's time to make it a bit more aggressive and fast and try to keep all four tones audible while squeezing the time it takes to play one loop down to the minium possible. The tighter you play it, the faster it will sound. Feel free to post more takes later on in this same thread as you progress and get faster at this. I think you are ready to start pushing this one!! So you just ..
LEVELED UP!!!

Todd

Thanks Todd,

Here's another try. I have an idea for the next one which will be a challenge. Maybe a picked lick going into tapping. The holding of the pick whilst tapping is an art itself, then maybe the next one could be a picked lick followed by tapping followed by a picked lick. Not telling you how to do it Sarge, just a suggestion.

Cheers

https://youtu.be/q5o9EvSwm48

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Aug 20 2018, 03:16 AM

[Phil66]

Thanks Todd

[Phil66]

Thanks Todd,

here is a little improv I did as you suggested. It's not shred, I can't do shred yet, it's just some little melody with tapping made up on the fly. I have to apologise, I left the camera mic sound in the video

https://youtu.be/UBpm3CYF3GM


Advice always welcome.

Cheers

Phil

This post has been edited by Phil66: Aug 20 2018, 08:58 PM

[Todd Simpson]

Thats perfect!!! See how you combined the picking bits with the tapping bits? That's exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted it to be something that you could play so I'm glad that you wrote it. I didn't want to make something overly complex that didn't serve the purpose of getting your hands to do both picking and tapping. But yes!! That's exactly how to transition from one technique to the other. It doesn't have to be fast, just needs to be smooth. Some guys keep the pick and tap with the second finger so that the pick is still there and ready when they transition back. Some guys palm the pick and tap with the first finger. Either way is fine. Nicely done!!!
Todd

Thanks Todd,

here is a little improv I did as you suggested. It's not shred, I can't do shred yet, it's just some little melody with tapping made up on the fly. I have to apologise, I left the camera mic sound in the video

https://youtu.be/UBpm3CYF3GM


Advice always welcome.

Cheers

Phil

[Phil66]

Thanks Todd,
I think a lot of the fear about doing it comes from knowing the fretboard enough to keep in key when tapping. I haven't worked out if the pentatonic box I used there suited the tapped part.

Cheers

This post has been edited by Phil66: Aug 21 2018, 09:52 AM

[Todd Simpson]

You can get a lot of ground covered just with the High E. 12th Fret, 15th, 17th.

Todd

Thanks Todd,
I think a lot of the fear about doing it comes from knowing the fretboard enough to keep in key when tapping. I haven't worked out if the pentatonic box I used there suited the tapped part.

Cheers

[Phil66]

You can get a lot of ground covered just with the High E. 12th Fret, 15th, 17th.

Todd

Please, if you have time, expand on that.

Thank you

[Todd Simpson]

I"m saying that if you are working say in the key of E, and you are at the 12th fret. The high E string is a great place to do some tapping! Much like the high fret example in this quick licks. We are keeping the left hand in the same spot and just moving the right hand tap up the neck. Take a look at this image from the scale generator. It's Pentatonic Minor in E. Now, the image is from the lower part of the fret board. But it's the same thing if you move up 12 frets. Just think of the open string as the fretted 12 th string and bam It's all transposed!! So look at the High E string. Keep this chart in front of you and use the tapping idea from this quick lick. Now move your right hand up toward the bridge tapping at each marked point in the scale per the image. You can go back and forth as well, down the neck and back up. Make up any pattern you like, just make sure you hit one of the notes that you see in the diagram. Give that a whirl!!

Now add in the blues notes.

Please, if you have time, expand on that.

Thank you

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Sep 3 2018, 10:07 PM

[Phil66]

Thanks Todd,

I was thinking that those frets covered a few different keys, DOH

You can get a lot of ground covered just with the High E. 12th Fret, 15th, 17th.

Todd

[Todd Simpson]

It all depends on what Key you are playing in The same patterns in scales work all the way up and down the neck and if you learn the pentatonic minor in the key of E, then you just have to land on different root notes depending on what key you are in. Or just shift the entire scale set to where your root note is. Either way can work. Typically it's easier to just move the primary scale position to whatever key the song is in. So many songs are in the keys of E and A that it's good to know the first few positions of the pentatonic minor so that you can shift it between E and A just by moving the entire thing up a few frets

Todd

Thanks Todd,

I was thinking that those frets covered a few different keys, DOH

[onetabmat]

This post has been edited by onetabmat: Dec 1 2018, 09:47 PM

[Todd Simpson]

NAILED IT!!! That's it. You've got the EDDIE VANHALEN thing down cold. Nice!! It's the foundation of all tapping imho so it's good to be able to replicate his core technique. Now that you have it down, you can expand on it in just about any way you can imagine. You can run scales with it, use it with open and close fret licks, add double/triple taps for kicks, etc. It's quite versatile. You've got a really good handle on it so go nuts!! You just....
LEVELED UP!!!

Todd

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Dec 2 2018, 04:39 AM