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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Which Technique Is Harder For You....legato, Tapping Or Ap

Posted by: lcsdds Mar 26 2009, 04:41 AM

I'm curious what most people find to be more difficult out of these 3 techniques. Mine is definitely AP. Legato and tapping just seem to come much easier to me than AP. smile.gif

Posted by: Outlaw2112 Mar 26 2009, 04:47 AM

legato is the hardest for me... ap is fine and tapping is ok thanks to eruption,ap is fine because i grew up playing alot of metallica from their kill em all and ride the lightning albums

Posted by: djohnneay Mar 26 2009, 05:05 AM

I think the technique i will struggle most with is bending.

AP is fine, doesn´t need to be fast (yet), legato goes well enough, tapping seems to be going fairly good....

Bending however is a whole other story.
When I bend, I can´t seem to get it a clear note out, am not able to mute my other strings, and it takes ages figuring out which fret I´m bending to. Not to mention impossible to do vibrato while bending.
The bad part of this is, I really like bending.

Out of the 3 techniques you mentioned however, I would say legato, because I don´t seem to use it very often.

Posted by: lcsdds Mar 26 2009, 05:13 AM

It's interesting.....when I listen to everybody's takes in the collabs it seems like legato and tapping are used the least. I have heard some takes on here of people who seem to have great AP chops.

Posted by: fkalich Mar 26 2009, 05:31 AM

QUOTE (lcsdds @ Mar 25 2009, 10:41 PM) *
I'm curious what most people find to be more difficult out of these 3 techniques. Mine is definitely AP. Legato and tapping just seem to come much easier to me than AP. smile.gif


Legato is definitely the easier of the three when you have cats crawling all over you.

Posted by: JamesT Mar 26 2009, 05:42 AM

AP is the hardest for me by a lot. My bending is pretty good since I spent a lot of time with it early on. Legato, is good as far as left hand goes, but I need to work on smoothness and evenness ...like with a metronome making sure I'm playing 16th, 16th triplets, 32nds, etc instead of just slurring a bunch of notes together. I can do tapping, but need a better "vocabulary" with it. And sweeps are new to me. Sweeps are fun and helping my right hand skills a lot.

Posted by: AlexLion Mar 26 2009, 07:50 AM

QUOTE (fkalich @ Mar 26 2009, 06:31 AM) *
Legato is definitely the easier of the three when you have cats crawling all over you.

biggrin.gif
Well to me 2 handed tapping is most hard and sweeps with slides/tap are horrible at the moment, but oh well, it progress somehow.

Posted by: superize Mar 26 2009, 08:57 AM

Legato and tapping is harder for me especially pull offs.... I have practised AP very much and can play it pretty good. Tapping i havent practised that much so i am not so good at that.....

Posted by: Andrew6 Mar 26 2009, 09:10 AM

I started off playing a lot of maiden/metallica so my picking and legato are alright I find my bends are where I get hurt the most and sometimes rhythm laugh.gif

Posted by: Artemus Mar 26 2009, 09:14 AM

AP above 150-160bpm for me, especially if there's string skipping. Also tapping if it involves a lot of position shifts and wide interval string changes or if it's 8 finger tapping - the problem is muting the unwanted strings. I know what to do but it takes me a LOT of practise and I'm a long way off being any good with those techniques
Legato I like and I'm happy to say I'm fairly good at but only thanks to learning lots of Satriani numbers.

Posted by: wrk Mar 26 2009, 09:29 AM

AP, ... hopeless!
I should practice tapping more and switch to a Chapman stick .. that would be an elegant way out of my troubles with AP laugh.gif



Posted by: Chris Evans Mar 26 2009, 09:41 AM

I`d go with tapping for me, I`m fine with certain licks, adding a few tapped notes to the end of a sweep etc, but tapping licks accross several strings have me stumbling, something I`m working on at the moment to improve though! smile.gif

Posted by: vampire18 Mar 26 2009, 09:57 AM

personally im finding legato the most difficult but is not really right because i practiced ap a hack of a lot more.
tapping and im guessing you mean 3 or to finger tapping(like eruption) is fairly easy to master. i think that if you take 2 weeks and learn krises lessons and than take on eruption you can become a fairly good tapper. out of the three its definitely the easiest to master.

Posted by: Rapitap Mar 26 2009, 09:59 AM

I dont know, yet. blink.gif

Posted by: Andrew6 Mar 26 2009, 10:08 AM

QUOTE (vampire18 @ Mar 26 2009, 05:57 AM) *
personally im finding legato the most difficult but is not really right because i practiced ap a hack of a lot more.
tapping and im guessing you mean 3 or to finger tapping(like eruption) is fairly easy to master. i think that if you take 2 weeks and learn krises lessons and than take on eruption you can become a fairly good tapper. out of the three its definitely the easiest to master.

Tapping is such a broad topic though if you look at some of Juan's or Aleksander's lessons it gets pretty extreme blink.gif

Posted by: Marek Rojewski Mar 26 2009, 10:18 AM

I am poor at everything dry.gif My AP is better than my other techniques, but it can't be said it is good.

Posted by: lcsdds Mar 26 2009, 10:55 AM

QUOTE (vampire18 @ Mar 26 2009, 09:57 AM) *
personally im finding legato the most difficult but is not really right because i practiced ap a hack of a lot more.
tapping and im guessing you mean 3 or to finger tapping(like eruption) is fairly easy to master. i think that if you take 2 weeks and learn krises lessons and than take on eruption you can become a fairly good tapper. out of the three its definitely the easiest to master.

If you are talking about eruption type licks then I agree about about tapping being the easiest. Try playing the Vai tapping lick I posted in another thread and tell me if you think it is the easiest to master. laugh.gif tongue.gif Same thing with AP...I am pretty good on a single string but when I start doing runs and crossing strings then not so good anymore. tongue.gif

QUOTE (Chris Evans @ Mar 26 2009, 09:41 AM) *
I`d go with tapping for me, I`m fine with certain licks, adding a few tapped notes to the end of a sweep etc, but tapping licks accross several strings have me stumbling, something I`m working on at the moment to improve though! smile.gif

What has you stumbling Chris? Is it changing strings by doing left hand hammers?

QUOTE (wrk @ Mar 26 2009, 09:29 AM) *
AP, ... hopeless!
I should practice tapping more and switch to a Chapman stick .. that would be an elegant way out of my troubles with AP laugh.gif

I actually bought an Alto chapman stick Andy....sold it after a week....it was NOT easy at all. tongue.gif laugh.gif

Posted by: wrk Mar 26 2009, 11:01 AM

QUOTE (lcsdds @ Mar 26 2009, 10:55 AM) *
..
I actually bought an Alto chapman stick Andy....sold it after a week....it was NOT easy at all. tongue.gif laugh.gif

hm .. was a nice dream .. will try to find my picks back in the garbage and continue to practice AP laugh.gif



Posted by: berko Mar 26 2009, 11:11 AM

8 FINGER TAPPING blink.gif wacko.gif

I know Monte that you're a legato God I've seen your vids. I'm, on the other hand, an AP fan, and I really need to improve on my tapping&legato skills. It's interesting that doing taps with the right hand already made my picking more easier! It gives strength to the picking hand and compared to tapping, picking for me becomes much more relaxed. IMO all techniques can help other techniques a certain way - it's hand coordination after all.

Posted by: Chris Evans Mar 26 2009, 11:22 AM

QUOTE (lcsdds @ Mar 26 2009, 09:55 AM) *
What has you stumbling Chris? Is it changing strings by doing left hand hammers?


String muting when changing strings, if for example a tapping lick accross 3 or 4 strings I dont get them clean enough, the actual tapping and hammering on etc is ok its just the muting side of it, any tips?

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 26 2009, 11:29 AM

QUOTE (Chris Evans @ Mar 26 2009, 11:22 AM) *
String muting when changing strings, if for example a tapping lick accross 3 or 4 strings I dont get them clean enough, the actual tapping and hammering on etc is ok its just the muting side of it, any tips?

That is quite difficult to keep clean...I guess that's why so many pro tappers use a string dampener of some kind!

I still think it's possible to keep clean without a dampener though - with correct left hand finger angle to dampen unwanted thinner strings, and the top of your left hand fingertips to damp unwanted thicker strings.

edit - I find AP to be hardest as well. I find legato easiest because the right hand can do so much muting work.

Posted by: Chris Evans Mar 26 2009, 11:36 AM

QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Mar 26 2009, 10:29 AM) *
That is quite difficult to keep clean...I guess that's why so many pro tappers use a string dampener of some kind!

I still think it's possible to keep clean without a dampener though - with correct left hand finger angle to dampen unwanted thinner strings, and the top of your left hand fingertips to damp unwanted thicker strings.

edit - I find AP to be hardest as well. I find legato easiest because the right hand can do so much muting work.


That was my thoughts on it with regard to using a dampener, I want to do it cleanly "without" one, I shall continue to work on it concentrating on left hand muting, thanks for the tip smile.gif

Posted by: Crazyfret Mar 26 2009, 11:47 AM

mmmm interesting question. Not great at most things so find them difficult wink.gif

I'd prob go for tapping, sweep picking and economy picking / string skipping as I hardly use them because I'm not proficient to incorporate them into a collab to torture fellow GMC'ers laugh.gif

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Mar 26 2009, 12:37 PM

I would say tapping is hardest for me, I rarely practice that technique.

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Mar 26 2009, 12:57 PM

Legato and tapping is by far easier than alternate picking for me as well smile.gif

Posted by: JVM Mar 26 2009, 01:21 PM

I've always had trouble with alt picking, but legato came quickly to me. Tapping I haven't even gotten into yet. I intend to, as I really need to begin diversifying my technique. Legato is one of the few things I'm really good at, all but the hardest legato passages are doable for me. Alternate picking on the other hand, begins to fall apart at higher speeds. I'm working on it, and definitely showing improvement though. Maybe learning tapping is what I need, to improve my coordination.

Posted by: Canis Mar 26 2009, 01:33 PM

Legato is the hardest for me. AP and Tapping isn't much of a problem anymore ^^

Posted by: vampire18 Mar 26 2009, 01:40 PM

QUOTE (Andrew6 @ Mar 26 2009, 11:08 AM) *
Tapping is such a broad topic though if you look at some of Juan's or Aleksander's lessons it gets pretty extreme blink.gif


it is true that tapping has many lvls but what i meant was that if you take a non guitar player and tell him to study a lvl 5 alternate picking solo, a lvl 5 legato and a lvl 5 tapping. tapping would probably be the one he would complete the fastest and easiest.

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Mar 26 2009, 02:16 PM

Legato and Tapping far easier then Alternate picking - if we are talking about insane tempos and rhythms here smile.gif

Posted by: Artemus Mar 26 2009, 02:46 PM

QUOTE (Chris Evans @ Mar 26 2009, 10:36 AM) *
That was my thoughts on it with regard to using a dampener, I want to do it cleanly "without" one, I shall continue to work on it concentrating on left hand muting, thanks for the tip smile.gif


This is my goal too and also a technique that I seem to progress with really slowly. LH muting down at the bridge I can handle well enough with concentration and practise but when I have to mute up over the fretboard I struggle - not so much for pentatonic stuff or where tapping lick just go from string to string but more for things like tapped arpeggios where I'm tapping/hammering-on strings that aren't adjacent

Posted by: lcsdds Mar 26 2009, 03:12 PM

QUOTE (Artemus @ Mar 26 2009, 02:46 PM) *
This is my goal too and also a technique that I seem to progress with really slowly. LH muting down at the bridge I can handle well enough with concentration and practise but when I have to mute up over the fretboard I struggle - not so much for pentatonic stuff or where tapping lick just go from string to string but more for things like tapped arpeggios where I'm tapping/hammering-on strings that aren't adjacent

I think with tapping that LH muting is VERY important. When doing "hammer-ons from nowhere" it is important to try and use the tip of your left hand index to mute adjacent stings. Muting is definitely the biggest challenge with tapping. I think if you practice doing runs across all 6 strings you will get used to positioning your RH properly. Just a lot of practice I guess....just like anything else. smile.gif

Posted by: Artemus Mar 26 2009, 03:16 PM

Yeah, I whole-heartedly agree. Muting is so very important. Well, I assure you I'm practising this (as I have for the past few years - slow progress as I said)

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Mar 26 2009, 03:17 PM

AP seems to me like a hardest technique of those 3 definitly smile.gif

Posted by: helo92 Mar 26 2009, 03:33 PM

for me legato is the hardest

Posted by: ErikEklund Mar 26 2009, 03:39 PM

alternate picking is definitly the hardest smile.gif

Posted by: TheOldOnes Mar 26 2009, 04:01 PM

When I joined GMC 8 months ago, I was unable to AP, legato was a little better (but not by much) and tapping was limited to knowing the intro to Paschendale by Iron Maiden. Because of the amazing number of good AP lessons here, I've come along way in that regard. My tapping repertoire has improved but I think I will try learning eruption to get it going. Legato hasn't changed much for me but I suspect it would improve immensely if I took advantage of some of the lessons here.

Posted by: Matt23 Mar 26 2009, 04:11 PM

Tapping since I've never really done much practice on it.

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