Electric Guitar: Tapping Licks Using Pedal Point and Staccato

Another finger-tapping article. More digits placed upon the fretboard to trigger compelling notes; there is no better way to do that than to perform more finger-tapping techniques. It isn't such an 80s style guitar technique, is it? I mean restricted to the 80s decade? Maybe. But we can update it. We can do different things to bring it into the early 2000s, and even the 2500s, and also attempt to make it so modern it would be at home in the 3000s, couldn't we try to do that? Think about the 3000s. Will anyone be reading this article in the year 3009? Or will it just be forgotten? Nobody can tell. But I should try to write as well as I can in case someone who hasn't been born yet reads this article in the future with the hope of playing their guitar better.

Let's return to the topic of finger tapping. I would like to provide you with two finger-tapping licks that involve two concepts commonly played on an electric guitar: Pedal point and staccato. Pedal point, you may remember, is simply repeating one certain note in a musical phrase, referring back to it regularly, usually on every other note, while other tones in the scale are played as well (I mentioned pedal point in one of my other articles posted on Associated Content, refer to it as needed); while staccato involves playing short choppy notes on the guitar, cutting them off right after they have sounded - brief moments of silence separating them. It's basically the exact opposite of legato. Both of these are fun techniques to perform on an electric guitar and you can have a wonderful time playing them. We are going to use them with finger-tapping in this article. First try this exercise. (Again, every note listed below is either tapped, hammered-on, or pulled-off to, but I didn't want to muddy up the tablature by including that info.)

A string |-12t-7-12t-5-12t-3-12t-2-|-12t-0-12t-2-12t-3-12t-5--|

A string |-12t-7-12t-5-12t-3-12t-2-|-12t-0-12t-2-12t-3-12t-5--|

Notice we are staying on the A string the entire time, and all tapping is done on the 12 fret only. Keep repeating the lick as long as you like. Notice the pedal point tone comes from the 12th fret and steadily repeats throughout. Shift your fretting hand smoothly down the string following the scalar pattern (it's in the key of A minor). Notice the lowest note is the open A string, try to keep that note clean. Personally, I slide my pinky back and forth from 5th to 7th fret as my main position shift.

Now on to the staccato part of this article. This is sort of weird yet fun lick, since tapping and staccato playing are normally not used together. But I wanted to demonstrate how two seemingly unrelated concepts can be combined to generate something greater than its parts (synergism).

You may be thinking staccato can't be performed well with tapping. But it can. The tablature below will be a little different for this lick. I inserted (s) symbols after the groupings of five and six notes to indicate where the space, or silence, should occur. That's our staccato. Not true staccato, but one type, nonetheless. Get the tapping fast but with a short and choppy feel using silence between the five and six note groupings. But play the prior notes quickly.

high E: |-10t-8-7-5-10t-(s)-10t-8-7-5-10t-(s)-|

high E |-10t-8-10t-8-6-5-(s)-10t-8-10t-8-6-5-(s)-|

Again, the actual tapped notes won't be short and staccato. Only the silences occurring between the pitches will provide that quality. Remember to mute the strings when putting "space" between the notes (indicated by the (s)'s), to eliminate any extraneous string noise. And that's all there is to it.

Two different concepts that may not seem related, but they can still be combined effectively. Try out other combinations of different techniques to see if they will work for you. You may just surpass your own expectations of what you think works in music.

Reference:

"One and Two-Handed Tapping," How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Jason Earls, Pleroma Publications, 2007.