This section of the site contains exercises that I have taught to various students over the years and will hopefully improve your technique. More lessons will be added in the future and if you have any suggestions please contact me.

E-Mail tonyhallinan@tonyhallinan.net

 
THE TAPPING TECHNIQUE

There has been a great variation over the years of this particular technique which is based on a style developed by Eddie Van Halen in the late 1970's. Most people play a repetitive pattern with their left hand and only vary the notes that they are tapping with their right hand. It also works the other way round. For instance you can tap the root note of a chord with your right hand and vary the pattern with the left. This however is much harder, but is used to great effect by players like Joe Satriani.

Let's start with a simple "hammering" in the key of A major. First we need to know exactly what notes we will be needing for this particular exercise .

In the key of "A" major, the notes we are going to use will be the 1st note of the a major scale {which is of course "A"} and then the 3rd {C sharp} and then the 5th {which is "E"}. These 3 notes are used to construct a major chord {1st,3rd,5th} and these are the notes we'll be tapping out!

The first step is to pick the 5th string {A} open with the right hand and then to hammer on the 4th fret {C sharp} with the first finger on the left hand, then again hammer on the 7th fret with the fourth finger {E} And then to hammer on at the 12th fret with your 2nd finger on the right hand, descending is the same procedure but in reverse.This is pretty hard on the A string because of the string tension, but if you can master it on this string it will be much easier when you transfer to the more common "B" or top"E" string.

You have to be careful to damp the other strings by using palm damping when ever possible as you don't want unwanted notes ringing out.
Amajor score
A major tab

When you are happy with the basic technique try varying the notes that you are playing with your left hand, i.e. add a 7th or a sus4 to your basic tritone chord. When tapping during a real solo try playing relevant arpeggios over the backing and you will find that the solo will sound different to the usual tapped solo which has been done to death!

I always find it is best to have some sort of timing device to accompany any exercise {drum machine, metronome, or computer}. It is very easy to play out of time and not realise it when you are practising. Playing to a constant tempo is essential if you are working in a studio where you will be forced to play to a click track. The object of this exercise is not speed, but achieving a smooth like consistency. This technique is easy to execute fast, but not as simple performed at a slower tempo when any slight timing errors will be heard.