TAPPING for Beginners (More Than Just a Shred Trick)

Tapping has an image problem.

Most guitarists associate it with 80s hair metal excess — a flashy visual trick designed to impress audiences rather than make music. And because of that association, a huge number of players either avoid it completely or treat it as an optional extra that serious musicians don't really need.

That's a mistake. And it comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what tapping actually is.

Tapping isn't a shred trick. It's an extension of legato technique — a practical solution to a specific technical problem that, once you understand it properly, becomes a genuine vehicle for musical expression rather than just a party piece.

In this post I'm going to reframe tapping completely, show you the right way to approach the mechanics, and give you a foundation you can build on without developing the bad habits that hold most players back.

What Tapping Actually Is

Here's the technical problem tapping solves.

When you play arpeggios and wide interval ideas on the guitar, you often run into stretches on a single string that are physically impossible to reach with the fretting hand alone. The notes are simply too far apart for four fingers to cover without a position shift that interrupts the flow of the line.

Tapping solves this by bringing the picking hand onto the fretboard as an extension of the fretting hand. Instead of being limited to the four fingers of your left hand, you now effectively have five — or more — with your tapping finger adding notes that would otherwise require an awkward stretch or position change.

When you understand it in that context, tapping stops being a showboating technique and starts being a practical tool for playing musical ideas that would otherwise be very difficult or impossible to execute cleanly.

Tapping and Legato — The Connection

The reason tapping belongs in the same category as legato is that it operates on exactly the same principles.

Legato technique — hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides — is about connecting notes smoothly using the fretting hand rather than individual pick attacks. The result is a fluid, connected sound where the picking hand takes a back seat.

Tapping extends this logic. Your tapping finger hammers onto the string exactly like a fretting hand hammer-on, just from the other side of the neck. The pull-off motion of the tapping finger is exactly the same mechanical principle as a fretting hand pull-off.

The sound you can achieve with tapping is something genuinely unique — a smooth, legato quality to arpeggios and wide interval ideas that you simply can't get any other way. It's not just about playing fast. It's about a particular kind of fluid, connected musical expression.

The Most Common Mistake — And How To Fix It

Here's where most players go wrong with tapping from the start.

When they bring their picking hand onto the fretboard, they hold it completely free in the air — moving the tapping finger up and down without any contact with the guitar body. The result is a cascade of extraneous string noise that makes the technique sound messy regardless of how accurate the notes are.

The solution comes directly from your legato technique foundation.

When you play legato with a distorted tone, you keep everything clean through a combination of fretting hand muting and picking hand muting. Your fretting hand mutes the strings above the notes you're playing. Your picking hand rests lightly against the lower strings to prevent unwanted noise.

With tapping, you need to maintain exactly the same muting disciplines.

Here's the approach that works:

Keep your pick held between your thumb and first finger — don't change your grip to accommodate the tapping. This is crucial because it allows you to transition instantly back to normal playing without having to reposition your hand.

Use the lower part of your picking hand palm to mute the lower strings, just as you would with normal playing. Then grip the underside of the guitar neck lightly with your third and fourth fingers to give your tapping hand a stable, locked position. With your hand anchored this way, your tapping finger can move freely while everything else stays clean and controlled.

The payoff is immediate. With this technique your tapping sounds as clean as your legato — clear, controlled, with no unwanted string noise.

Tapping Into Arpeggios — The Musical Application

The most immediately musical way to use tapping is over arpeggios.

Take an A minor arpeggio — A, C, E. Instead of playing those notes in a conventional arpeggio shape, lay them out in a linear fashion along a single string using legato technique. Then add your tapping finger to extend the range of the arpeggio beyond what the fretting hand alone can reach.

The result is a smooth, flowing arpeggio sound with a legato quality that sounds completely different from a swept or picked arpeggio. It has a particular softness and connection between the notes that's unique to the technique.

Once you've got this working over a simple three note arpeggio, you can apply the same principle to more complex arpeggio shapes, wider intervals, and full solo lines that move across the neck using both hands.

On Practice Time — An Honest Perspective

I want to be honest with you about something that the transcript of this lesson touched on.

When I was 17 or 18, I dedicated an hour a day to each technique — legato, alternate picking, sweep picking, tapping — in isolation. That's how I built the foundation I have now. And if you have that kind of dedicated practice time available, it will absolutely accelerate your development.

But most people don't. And even if they did, I'm not sure I'd recommend that approach now.

What I'd do differently is take a more consolidated approach — practicing fretboard knowledge, technique and musical vocabulary together simultaneously rather than in isolation. Working on technique in a musical context, as part of actual vocabulary development, rather than as a separate drill.

That's exactly the approach we're moving into in the next module of this course. Technique stops being an exercise and starts being music.

Your Complete Technical Foundation

With tapping in place alongside legato, alternate picking, and sweep and economy picking — you now have all four core technical areas of modern rock guitar covered.

That's a complete toolkit. Everything you'd need to execute virtually any musical idea you'll ever want to play in a rock or fusion context.

But here's the thing I always tell my students at this point in their development: technique on its own is just exercise. What makes it musical is vocabulary — knowing how to take your technical ability and turn it into genuine expression over real chord changes.

That's exactly where we're going next. And it's my favourite part of the whole curriculum.

If you want to study all of this with me directly rather than working through it alone — the Cutting Edge Guitar Institute is where that happens.

As my student you get:

• A complete course library — 25+ courses from beginner to advanced, built around fretboard knowledge, technique and musical vocabulary

• A monthly rock guitar solo study programme with Guitar Pro files, PDFs and backing tracks

• Monthly live sessions with me — part structured lesson, part open Q&A

• A private Discord community of serious rock guitarists with me actively involved every day

• Optional monthly 1:1 lessons for students who want the most direct route to results

Become My Student — Join the Cutting Edge Guitar Institute

Anthony George is a Guitar Institute (ICMP) graduate and professional guitar teacher with 20 years of experience. He founded the Cutting Edge Guitar Institute to bring music college level rock guitar education to players everywhere.