Electric Guitar: Van Halen Style Finger Tapped Triplets

Tapped triplets on electric guitar are not usually a good idea. You know, the triplet-based arpeggios that Eddie Van Halen played in his famous "Eruption" solo. Guitarists immitating him played triplet-based arpeggios for the too-manyth time after Eddie's solo became extremely popular. So in my opinion if you are a modern musician you should probably stay away from those during live gig situations, since they will immediately date you back to the early 80s.

Although he wasn't the first musician to use the technique, Edward Van Halen greatly popularized two-handed finger-tapping by using it extensively in his guitar solos (a guitarist by the name of Jimmie Webster is thought to be the first person to make recordings in which he displayed finger tapping - although it's now known that the virtuoso violinist, Niccolo Paganini, also used some form of finger-tapping on his violin in the 1800s!). By "finger-tapping" I am of course referring to the technique whereby fingers of the picking hand are used to reach up and fret notes (execute hammer-ons and pull-offs) directly on the fretboard itself, which produces a distinctive legato sound.

If you aren't too familiar with finger-tapping technique, and you also need something to practice, or if you simply want to have fun hectoring people with out-of-date guitar techniques, or if you want to just tap some triplets for fun, then they are a good exercise for beginning guitarists. But before playing them you should make sure that you take your guitar deep inside a shed far away from civilization, and don't turn on any lights, then turn your amplifier down really low and bolt the door. Only joking.

Try this triplet based finger-tapping pattern (all notes are either tapped, hammered-on, or pulled-off to):

High E string: |-17-9-12-17-9-12-17-9-12-| B string: |-17-9-12-17-9-12-17-9-12-|
...

G string: |-16-9-11-| D string: |-18-9-11-| A string: |-16-9-11-| Low E string: 17-9-12--|

The first two bars are written out, with the arpeggios repeated three times. After that only the fingerings for different arpeggios are listed as they descend the strings, and you should repeat those three times as well, even though that suggestion isn't explicitely written out in the tablature. The pattern for the arpeggios roughly follows a C# minor pentatonic scale.

Hopefully, if you aren't already too familiar with finger tapping licks, the exercise above will get you used to this simple technique, since it really isn't all that difficult. The only thing to keep in mind with finger-tapping triplets is to make sure to mute all the strings you are not playing, by resting your tapping hand against them lightly for dampening purposes. With high gain on an electric guitar, it is almost always important to prevent extraneous string noise. Have fun experimenting with other three note finger tapping patterns played on all areas of the neck and try not to be turned off by the retro 80s sound they produce.

Reference:

"Finger Tapping," How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Jason Earls, Pleroma Publications, 2007.