Tapping

:This article is about the music technique. For other uses, see Tapping (disambiguation)

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Tapping is a playing technique (generally associated with electric guitar playing, though the technique can be performed on any string instrument) executed by using the fingers of the picking hand to tap the strings against the fingerboard, sounding notes. Tapping (also known as a two-hand hammer-on), performed in conjunction with normal fingering by the fret hand, facilitates the construction of note intervals that would otherwise be impossible using the fretting hand alone. Tapping usually incorporates pull-offs as well, where the finger that just tapped the fingerboard to sound a note is then swept off with enough lateral motion to sound that same string again — this time on a lower note than the tap (fretted by another finger before the pull-off, or simply left open).

Related Topics:
Electric guitar - String instrument - Fingerboard - Hammer-on - Pull-off

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Perhaps the most famous employment of tapping is the short piece "Eruption" on the first Van Halen album, which features very fast tapping arpeggios and formed the blueprint of heavy metal lead playing throughout the 1980s. While Eddie Van Halen is generally credited with inventing tapping, the practice had existed in some form or another for centuries; Paganini utilized similar techniques on violin. Credit for the first application of this classical technique to popular music may more accurately be given to Steve Hackett of Genesis, who used the technique both live and on recordings in the early 1970's, or Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin's use of it in the solo for Heartbreaker in 1969.

Related Topics:
Eruption - Van Halen - Arpeggio - Heavy metal - 1980s - Eddie Van Halen - Paganini - Violin - Steve Hackett - Genesis - Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker

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A related technique is "tapped harmonics", where the fret hand acts as a barre, while the harmonic is tapped. Eddie van Halen does this in the acoustic guitar solo "Spanish Fly".

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Stanley Jordan uses a style similar to tapping called "touch guitar", where the pick hand is used to play lead while rhythm is played simultaneously with the fret hand.

Related Topics:
Stanley Jordan - Rhythm

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The Chapman Stick is an instrument built exclusively for tapping.

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An earlier recorded example before Van Halen is on Orchestra Luna's only album Orchestra Luna, on the outro to "Doris Dreams". Randy Roos is the guitar player.

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