8 Finger Tapping Out of This World Book v2
8 Finger Tapping Out of This World Book v2
8 Finger Tapping Out of This World Book v2
The idea of 8 finger tapping is a weird combination of wanting to do the most outrageous possible
on the guitar with actually just expanding the the range as much as possible. I see it mostly like
taking the principles of piano playing and trying to adapt them to the guitar. And if you go back in
history with the guitar in mind you will see that guitar players have been imitating other
instruments through time and the fact is also that other instruments are imitating the guitar, most
obviously is the keyboard with the whammy. Another benefit of experimenting with techniques on
the guitar is also that you will create a unique sound. But the most obvious benefit of using four
digits on each hand on the fret board is that actually expanding the possibilities on the fret board
with 100%. The original idea of tapping, or at least one of them was to be able to play some
intervals that would take some serious string skipping with the pick. So the tapping technique
would make large interval playing much easier, but evidently also change the sound from the
percussive nature of the guitar when played with a pick. The most popular story of tapping was
that it was Eddie Van Halen who introduced it but if you dig a little deeper in the history of tapping
you will find that many other guitarists evne before Eddie was making use of the technique.
Actually the first one I know of is Frank Zappa, he was using the tapping technique where he used
the pick to tap just like Joe Satriani did later. But the in my opinion the most innovative player
back then with the technique was certainly Steve Vai who was using extreme ingenuity adding
bends and slides which really added a completely new sound. And as the human nature always
strives to develop and explore other guitarists came along and added more fingers. The first few
ones I know of was Steve Lynch, Jeff Watson and then later and put more into perfection Jenniffer
Batten and Tj Helmerich. Especially the last two mentioned based their whole style on this
technique. And if you go more into detail a guy like TJ Helmerich seems to have developed the
tapping hand even more than fretting hand. As I stated earlier when I first got the inspiration to
play the technique the internet was not existing so I had to do something else, I simply took the
principle of using four digits on each hand to play on the fret board. This idea alone was not really
of much use unless I had some idea to add the technique to, so the most obvious to me was to just
see if it was possible to play scales with that technique and once I laid the scale out on the guitar
using 8 finger tapping I thought to myself that if would be “too easy” to just play a complete scale
on one string and the sound would be too obvious, so I added more strings and octaves which
raised the difficulty level with about 1000%. Descending a 8 finger tapping pattern starting with
the little finger is one of the most difficult things you can do. Some specific patterns are more
difficult than others but in general this technique takes many many repetitions. Anyway that was
my first idea, to use the technique to play scales but the technique also opened doors to other
ideas like arpeggios and not necessarily using the fingers in the same sequence. By the way one
funny story when I came up with the 8 finger tapping patterns, since the exact way of playing
them, like playing scales was new at that time and I had never heard of anyone else playing it that
way, I wanted to come up with a name. so even though im sure there was other people using the
8 finger tapping term it was something I made up myself. Because the first guys who did the
technique mostly used the term two handed tapping. And there was a discussion going on through
email regarding what name was making most sense, some stated that the name 8 finger tapping
did not make sense since one hand was doing hammer on’s and the other one tapping. But its just
a name so its not important. Also when I did my second video sold by Chops from hell I combined
the technique with sweep picking which was also never seen before as far as I know. The cool
thing about the internet is that all information is suddenly available to everyone, but what was
also extremely cool before the internet, was that you were forced to be more resourceful and to
come up with your own thing instead of flipping on youtube and do something a million other guys
have done, not that there´s anything wrong with that. This way can also be a source of inspiration
and a great way to learn from other guitarists experiences. But I would actually like to encourage
you to be creative with the instrument by isolating yourself for a period of time, just you and your
instrument and see what appears when you just play for a period of time of not getting any visual
input. Anyway I feel that I came up with some of my best ideas this way. The thing that can of
course be a bit of a challenge is that you have all the resources today, back then there was no
discussion about it because there was not much available. It was actually even a pain to get the
guitar magazines in Denmark, it was a bit of a specialty, and sure the reh tapes was around, but if
you found a place that was selling them they costed a fortune. One resource that was cool was
just to listen to albums and hearing the solos and then trying to imitate the sound you where
hearing on the album, the cool thing about that was that you found your own way of getting the
same sound. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t believe that things where better when I where
young, I believe no matter what generation you are from there are advantages.
As I stated in the opening of this video I experienced especially in the beginning a lot of difficulties
in a few of different elements in the 8 finger tapping technique. Especially the descending part of 8
finger tapping scale patterns where you enter a new string with the little finger so before we dig
into the fun stuff I want to isolate and drill this. Also for me I have a lot of difficulties with playing
the Ionian scale pattern with a four note pattern in the fretting hand and I believe that other
guitar players have the same problem. The problem is not really playing it so much as it is making
sure that you hit the right notes when the speed is increased. The reason is hammering on a whole
note between the long and ring finger and then hammering on a half note with the little finger
immediately after. It does not make much sense because for me it’s actually easier to hammer on
two whole notes in a sequence with those same fingers, I think it’s because the first example takes
a more subtle muscle control than the second example, so this too is something I want you to drill
before diving into the crazy chops.
Drills
The first few drills is something I want you to do and find a little time to do here and there and not
something you sit down with for hours, its only to get the fingers work in your favor. So it can be
something you do in the beginning and end of other lessons or just picking the guitar up and spend
a few minutes with the drills, maybe before you rehearse with a band or before you practice
anything that you would normally do. Also the drills are composed so they focus solely on things
that typically can become a problem so they are not necessarily very musical or inspiring but they
do leverage you’re 8 finger tapping. And some drills like that can kill the motivation so you need to
find your own balance on how much of this stuff you can do before you get tired of it. The material
is meant to be inspiring and excite you to play and practice more, so don’t get to a point with the
drills where you lose the excitement and joy of playing
Drill 1
This first drill is focusing exclusively on the fretting hand, and it’s a drill that probably will make you quite
tired in the hand because you do the four finger stretch of the Major scale with two whole notes and one
half step. You hammer on once with all fingers and then pull off twice with all fingers, it’s a really effective
drill that helps you being able to play these very demanding intervals and stretches that if not rehearsed
properly you will not be precise enough when speeding the scale up to make it sound good.
Drill 2
This drill focuses solely on the tapping hand so the fretting hand just stays on one note. The
tapping hand is also in this drill playing the Major scale intervals which are the most difficult to get
really clean when sped up. So also in this drill hammer on one time with all four fingers on the
tapping hand and pull off twice with all four fingers. I call it hammer on and pull off even though it
is the tapping hand and the reason is that over all the technique is of course called tapping but
still. The individual mechanics can still be divided into these two movements. Hammer on and pull
off. Also to make it easier to understand what exactly is going on
Drill 3
This drill is really intense partly because it focuses on such a small but critical part of being able to
play 8 finger tapping. It’s important to say here that this lesson has nothing to do with speed, its
only about coordination and also it’s not a lesson that I recommend that you spend hours on end
with, just a little here and there to gradually build more and more to your coordination
Drill 4
This drill can if not paying attention to what your musculature is telling you give you a sore
sensation in your arm, well it did to me when I did it the first few times. It’s basically the concept
used in the tapping hand for the tapping hand in the advanced tapping arpeggios. This part is
certainly the most challenging of the arpeggios. So isolating that movement and drilling it is very
beneficial for your overall advanced tapping arpeggio playing
The tapping hand
If you are right handed and use the right hand naturally for most things the whole issue that you
normally experience when you are learning to play scales or guitar in general might not be a
problem at all. That was one of the things I noticed when I started using four fingers on the
tapping. Of course I still had to develop the 8 finger technique but the stretching of the fingers
part was not an issue at all. So in the first example you will experience what i´m talking about. The
biggest issue in playing 8 finger tapping is developing the preciseness of the individual fingers in
the tapping hand. I recently taught a guitar player some 8 finger tapping chops and seeing him
trying to do it made me think back and remembering some of the other issues I was really
struggling with learning this technique. Just being able to make sound at all with the tapping
fingers. The index and or long finger might be fairly easy but the ring and especially the little finger
will most certainly be a real pain. So other than being able to hit the right frets with these fingers
will probably only be fifty percent of the struggle. Im only telling you this so you will be prepared
to experience a technique that will take a lot of determination to master so in other words you will
probably not make use of 8 finger tapping unless you are really serious about practicing technique
Scales
In this section I will show you a way of playing scales using the 8 finger tapping technique. And im
not going to lie to you, it’s going to take a lot of effort and repetitions to get the technique down
and sound good. You will notice that you actually cover almost four octaves, or to be more precise
three octaves and a third. Which is almost the entire specter of the guitar, at least a guitar with 24
frets and six strings which in total from the lowest note to the highest which is E covers four
octaves. A typical scales box shape played on the guitar covers two octaves or two plus a fourth if
you play the three notes per string shapes. so in other words you cover an extreme amount of fret
board and octaves with this technique. If you have never used this technique before I strongly
suggest that you don’t skip the drills, but continue with those until you feel more comfortable with
tapping with more than the index finger or long finger. I will show you a basic way of just playing
the scales up and down and then give you a few pointers and ideas that you can continue to
expand yourself to make the technique fit your own style. Where I just make it a little more
interesting and when played up the speed it becomes more of a phrase instead of solely a scale.
But first we will go through all the seven modes of the major which starts with the Ionian scale.
And as I mentioned in the opening the interval whole, whole and half note which this scale starts
with is really vindicate for me because the whole note stretch between the long and ring finger
feels a little uncomfortable in the beginning and for some reason when adding the half note step
with the little finger it really requires control of the individual fingers. As I described before
regarding the tapping hand that even though you need to build control and fine touch in the
tapping hand since this hand will be completely new to move around on the fret board but as I
stated before if the hand that you use for tapping is also the main hand you use for everything else
you may not experience the same amount of problems with stretching, so that’s definitively a step
in the right direction for developing your 8 finger tapping chops. Now as we move along through
the different modes of the Major scale you should take note on the similarities in the patterns.
What I mean is that for example when you play the first mode you´ll notice that you play the same
pattern in right and left hand on the low E string. And also the pattern played on the G string with
the fretting hand is repeated in the tapping hand and this system is again repeated in the high E
string as well. So now that you have taken note and you move on to the next mode you should
keep this system in mind because some of the basics are now repeated again, hwt I mean is that
for example the second mode intervals played with the fretting hand are also repeated in the
tapping hand and when you move into the G string the pattern played by the fretting hand is again
repeated in the tapping hand. In this mode the pattern on the high E string is not repeated though.
So this can make it easier to pick up the pace a little quicker maybe, but it can also make it a little
harder to tell the difference between the modes.
Ionian scale
I will give you a few examples on how to perform this scale. The long one where we play close to
four octaves, just back and forth which is actually the most intense and certainly the most difficult.
Then I will show you a version where I play only between two strings, but still it’s the same
patterns so keep the tablature close as a reference. the low E and the G string and the reason for
this is because this way you can really zoom in on the descending part which is extremely
demanding. The version where I exclusively move between the G string and the high E string I do a
very large skip, not between strings but between frets so this really calls for a extensive overview
of the neck. The final version is a more free and improvised version where it more becomes a lick
instead of solely a scale which is much more usable in a musical context. In this version you pretty
much have three elements which would be the patterns on each string that you can just play
around with until you get bored with the sound and want to move on
Dorian scale
As explained before this scale as opposed to the previous does not follow the same basic pattern
of repeating the same pattern in both the fretting and tapping hand. On the high E string you
change things around a bit but other than that I consider this scale as one of the easier ones
because you don’t get the punishing interval whole note between the long and ring finger and
then half step between ring and little finger. That pattern is easily the most challenging for me. But
that does not mean that you will have the same experience of course. When it comes to isolating
two strings at the time this is certainly also easier than the Ionian scale since in my opinion the
intervals are quite a bit easier to perform and another cool this is when you move between the G
string and the high E string is that there are only a half-step from the final note on the G string to
the first note on the high E string which means that the amount of the neck that you need to cover
becomes smaller and therefore easier. And this again makes it a much easier to improvise and
make it into a lick and just freely throw it around if you want to use it for you own improvising
which I strongly recommend which is the ultimate test and thus it becomes a part of you instead
of just another lesson
Phrygian scale
This one´s a real killer because of the way it moves into the G string. It starts nice and easy out on
the low E string with a repeated pattern again in the tapping hand but since you only have a half
step from the final note on the low E string to the first note on the G string and on top of that
you’ve got all whole notes in the fretting hand from the third fret on the G string so there´s a lot of
stretching going on here which is why I really suggest that you drill the moving between the low E
string to the G string in this one a lot before you move on to connecting the complete pattern. And
really take your time with this, it takes a long time to develop this technique. I experienced that
even though I felt I had it down and it was working for me, it really took a long time before it
actually sounded good when I was playing it fast. One more thing regarding practicing this first
part of this scale is that you should really wear you guitar way up high to be able to perform
something like this. It´s simply not possible to play these licks with the guitar hangin´ way down in
a rock pose. And you might even experience some aches in your fretting hand in the beginning but
don’t be alarmed, the tissue just have to adapt to this, it took a few weeks for me. But you could
also move the scale further up the neck until your hand gets used to it. Finally I want to say that if
you are worried you should contact a physician for advise, but I personally only experienced some
unease in the hand for a few weeks or maybe less
Lydian scale
The Lydian scale really challenges you on the low E string with the three whole steps in a row and
then added to the half step between the fretting hand and the tapping hand because of the raised
fourth and the natural fifth
Mixolydian scale
The mixolydian scale is in my opinion getting us a little bit back to the easier patterns like we had
in the first two shapes.
The major difference is just that all the shapes are different, so no repetitions between the fretting
and tapping hand like we had in the first two shapes. the major stretches that we get in this one is
fortunately the final shape which is of course positions on the high E string where stretching is not
a big deal
Aeolian scale
the Aeolian scale is one of those that it also makes sense to get very familiar with since most
people has a tendency to get acquainted with this shape for soloing which is something we will get
more into detail with later in the program. One cool thing about this shape is that we get some
repeated patterns on the high E string which is always helpful
Locrian scale
The locrian scale is really a challenge, the low E string consists of two different patterns plus you
only have a half step between the right and left hand and because of the flat nine we have to go
all the way down to the third fret on the G string which obviously makes the stretches quite big on
the G string. Fortunately the high E string is a bit easier, with the so called easy patterns and also
fortunately the right and left hand are similar on the high E string
Arpeggios
The arpeggios I am going to show you are four note arpeggios, that means they consists of root
note, third, fifth and seventh, there are a few different ways that you can execute this, I prefer the
version where you play root and third with the fretting hand and then the fifth and seventh with
the tapping hand. Since the arpeggios only consists of four different notes and I play four notes in
each pattern I actually just repeat the patterns in two octaves which is three strings. Then I will
also present to you a more subtle way where the fingers in a way gets to work more individually
and spans over three octaves instead of two. I believe that both ways of playing the arpeggios will
challenge you if you are a newbie to 8 finger tapping but its no secret that the second version that
I will present to you was a bigger task for me to successfully play simply because your tapping
hand gets to play all the subtleties that the fretting hand is used to.
Major7
This first shape is in a way quite easy because once you master playing the intervals with the
fretting hand and tapping hand you pretty much just repeat that. The challenge in this one is to
enter each new string without missing the note which will keep you at it for some time. Once this
works for you the speed is not the challenge anymore
The second version is as I described before more subtle and also more demanding especially in the
tapping hand. So when we move into the tapping the index finger really gets tested because you
start the pattern by hammering on with the index and long finger and then immediately move into
a pattern starting with the index finger as well and then hammering on with the little finger
afterwards. On the descending part you might get tested even more on this section, it’s the same
pattern but personally I think it´s even more challenging in the descending part. The remaining
part of this arpeggio just expands a little bit in the fretting hand because you add the seventh to
the pattern that you started out with which was just a Major triad. The final part is really easy
though, you just play the Major seventh and root note and then descend the arpeggio. I came up
with this type of arpeggio trying to make use of both almost equally. And this was done without
any thoughts on how the level of difficulty would turn out. So once I was clear on the role of each
hand and which strings that made the most sense so on and so forth. I recommend that you really
zoom in on the exact mechanics that’s going on when the tapping hand moves between the A and
D string and that’s why I have made a little drill out of just that.
Major7 advanced version
Minor7
I would consider calling the first version minor 7 arpeggio that I will show you the easiest in the
program. There’s no stretching going on at all and once you know the first pattern you know them
all, so you´ll “just” have to move those around. The more subtle and advanced version of the
arpeggios immediately faces you with larger intervals between the fingers in the tapping hand and
I had a little discussion with myself on what fingering was the least uncomfortable I should say,
when I play between the A and D string. On the D string there´s really no discussion I think but on
the A string you could either go with the index finger and long finger or index finger - ring finger.
The obvious interval calls for the ring finger but actually I personally feel the long finger feels more
right and therefore easier and feels like it would be quicker to increase the speed in this one.
Actually you should also decide what fingering feels most natural for you in the fretting hand in
the first pattern. Again the obvious thing would be to use the ring finger I think. But I think a lot of
people choose the long finger for something like this because it´s stronger by nature. I personally
have a tendency to use the ring finger a lot but the ring finger is not very strong and you have less
control over it than the long finger and also even the little finger has more control and the reason
for this is because the tendons used to move the ring finger is shared with the long finger but if
you take a look at the anatomy there´s no doubt that the long finger gets the larger piece of
tendons and you can also check this yourself just by trying to move the individual fingers and see
that the ring finger is the least flexible and hardest to control. But again I actually suggest that you
make the sessions learning these arpeggios less rigid and just fool around with them and don’t use
a metronome until you feel good about them. I find it much more fun and inspiring to practice
something that is very alien to the fingers by just noodling around and have fun with it, and after
some amount of repetitions it will in a miraculous way start to feel easy
Lick 3 Dominant with the Mixolydian scale from the low E string
Augmentet lick
Diminished Licks. 2 versions
Extreme Benefits
I want to give you a system that positively secures you to actually start using this material and the
technique. Because as I see it theres nothing worse than just getting another instructional
program to fill up your shelves or your computer. If you only learn this section of the program you
are actually successful. So if you don’t make use of any of the licks or lessons in this program this is
the section that secures your benefit of the program. So please promise yourself that you dedicate
a little time every day for this system. This system will make sure that you actually add something
to your guitar vocabulary and therefore after using this program you can actually easily measure
what you are now capable of. The idea is really simple and I have tested it myself getting fantastic
value from it. The idea is to take only one of two shapes that are simplified to some degree from
the 8 finger tapping scales. I am guessing that you have some knowledge and experience with the
major and minor scale since you are working with this program which I would consider being quite
intense and high in level. Most people have one or several scale shapes that they have a tendency
to rely on and sort of fall back into when they are either practicing, playing or just noodling
around. For me its often the first position of the Major scale, even though I use them all I often
end phrases when I do some sort of improvising in this particular position. I know a lot of people
are mostly using the sixth position or the Aeolian scale shape, in either case I want you to force
yourself to start using one of the two simplified 8 finger tapping shapes from one the shapes that
you have a tendency to play all the time. I want you to do this for 21 one days until it has become
a habit, this means that every time you catch yourself being in one of those two shapes you have
to force your self to play the 8 finger tapping scale. And its not important at all how fast you can
play it, even if you have to struggle getting through the strtching and being precise enough to hit
the right notes, at some pont you will have done it so many times so you are bound to improve.
But the real benefit is that once it has become a habit to do this you are suddenly a guitar player
using the 8 finger tapping and even with out thinking about it, much like you probably have some
other licks that you play without thinking about it because it just has become a habit. If you are
not playing any of the before mentioned scale patterns I strongly suggest that you start doing so,
this lesson will be of major benefit to you
Your Major spot