Tapping is the technique Eddie Van Halen made famous (although he was not technically the first person to do it). Tapping involves hammering on the fretboard with the 1st or 2nd finger of your picking hand to produce a note then pulling off to notes fingered by your fret hand. The involvement of the picking hand in this fashion is called a tap. It is usually represented by a “T” in tablature.
In most cases of tapping the fretting hand uses a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs in conjunction with the tapped notes from the picking hand to facilitate a series of quick, smooth, fluid notes.
Getting Up To Speed
There are some things that you need to be aware of and think about as you practice tapping.
In the example below, you can see that it is a 3-note pattern repeated. The 1st note is performed by tapping on the fretboard with your picking hand and pulling off onto the 2nd fret which is fingered with the fretting hand (we suggest your 1st finger). The last note in the pattern is performed by hammering on the 5th fret with the 3rd or 1st finger of your fret hand.
It’s easy to get a simple pattern like the one below quickly. Practice it until it sounds smooth, then try pumping up the speed.
