Two Handed Tapping on Guitar
Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008
by Trevor James
Voltos Industries
Playing by guitar tapping (or bass tapping) means tapping the fingers upon the fretboard strings to play notes. No striking, picking, plucking, or strumming is employed.
Generally this is called two-handed tapping, meaning to use the technique with both hands. The tapping technique can be used for bass lines and rhythm chords at the same time. It can be used to play baroque music, and two-part songs as given in piano scores, and like Bach two-part inventions.
Tapping can be used to play polyphonic and counterpoint music on a guitar or upon one of the new specialty instruments created for two-handed tapping, and designed especially for this technique.
Both hands can be used at the same time on the melody strings for playing melodies and improvising solos with extremely rapid flurries of notes, or alternately upon the bass strings for playing funky, funky bass lines. In several ways this feels very much like a kind of drumming upon the strings.
This finger tapping system is basically quite simple. Plug in an electric guitar, your bass, or a specialty tapping instrument like the Chapman Stick. Turn up your amplifier. Touch one of the strings to a fret. There you go -- you've just played a note.
Of course, becoming fluent with the finger tapping method of making music takes some practice. However, if you're using a sensible learning method, and you're using a tuning for the strings that you already know from playing guitar or playing bass, progress can be pleasingly rapid. Two handed tapping is sometimes called 'touchstyle,' or 'touch style,' because playing music this way can feel more like gently stroking than thumping the string.
Two handed tapping is performed on an amplified instrument to make notes loud enough to hear them. Because it can be done with both hands, then both hands can be used simultaneously, similar to the way a piano player makes music.
Creating musical notes on an electric guitar this way is easy as pie. And although learning to use it fully could in theory take many years, actually, lots of great music can be developed fairly quickly, and the practice is almost universally reported to be a lot of fun by musicians who try it.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)At what level of player would you be addressing this to?
This is actually intended as a 'What is two-handed tapping?' for people who don't know what it is. I see that you have written many articles here, and if you have any suggestion how this article might have been better, I'd be grateful to hear it, as this is new to me. Or, alternately, if you are a guitarist and found this way too simple but you'd like a method book (free) that actually makes very complex two-handed tapping become surprisingly simple, then go to our Mobius Megatar website, and sign up for the free newsletter (which comes with the book as a bonus). Naturally, if the newsletter is anything less than quite interesting, you can always unsubscribe with one click. Nothing to lose; something to gain. That is, if this is an interest of yours. I cannot post the web link here, but Mobius Megatar is very easy to find via search. Google is our friend.
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