Two-Handed Tapping
Who invented guitar tapping? Opinions vary. Some say Eddy Van Halen. Some say Jimmie Webster. Some say Emmett Chapman.
They're all right.
Because each of these men invented a different style of guitar fret tapping, or guitar finger tapping on the strings.
So what *is* two handed tapping?
It’s like the word ‘touchstyle.’ It just means any system of playing guitar or playing electric bass where you touch the string to the fret to sound the note, rather than plucking or struming the strings.
Bass two handed tapping, or guitar tapping techniques, whether you're taking bass tapping lessons from a teacher, or following some step by step guitar tapping technique and guitar tapping exercises from a book or from guitar tapping videos, it's all ... two hand tapping.
How to Guitar Tap
The basic method is this: Turn up your amp, touch the string to a fret to sound the note, hold your finger there while it sustains, and then let go to end the note.
Since the first electric guitar invention, this has been true.
TWO SCHOOLS OF TAPPING
And from this point there are two main schools of tapping ...
METHOD #1
Hold your guitar as usual, and with your left hand you'll either hold a chord or play some notes. Your right hand will be further up the neck, and as a left finger hits some note, you'll quickly use a right finger to play a note higher up the neck.
What note?
Whatever sounds good to you, of course, but one simple way to think it through is just to play your diatonic or pentatonic scale or a given chord with your left hand, and with your right hand play that same diatonic or pentatonic scale but higher on the neck.
It's the rapid alternation of your left fingers and right fingers that gives the Van Halen style it's drive and interest.
METHOD #2
This method is more like playing a bass and guitar at the same time, or (with the right instrument) it's is more like piano playing.
Here you are not going to alternate two hands on the same string. At least, not very often.
Instead you'll play low notes (like bass) or chords with your left hand near to the nut.
And with your right hand you'll play melodies or rhythmic chords on the strings higher up, closer to the body.
A Powerful, Piano-like Technique
It's more like a piano, for example, with chords in the left hand and melody in the right.
Or like a piano where you play roots and bass patterns low and left-handed, and rhythm chords or melody higher-pitched with the right hand.
This method actually offers a wider range of response, and if you have a Mobius Megatar touch-style bass, you'll have a set of low bass strings for your left hand, and a set of high melody strings for your right hand.
And, oddly, learning to play this way is actually simpler than learning the Eddy Van Halen trick.
Two hand Tapping Lessons
If you're a bass player seeking two handed tapping electric bass lessons, or if you're seeking guitar tapping instructions, you'll discover two-handed bass playing techniques and a demonstration of two hand tapping on guitar in this same touchstyle section. Click here to see the two handed tapping tutorial video.
Do not be misled by the extreme simplicity of the examples. This is not some kind of guitar for dummies. In fact, although they look very simple, you can use these identical building blocks to create some of the most rocking and most intricate music you can imagine.
If you examine the history of bass guitar, and the history of two hand tapping on guitar, you'll find many variations, many artists, many methods. But it's more than a bass guitar exercise, more than a new way to play guitar song chords.
It's a revolution.
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