Editing Tapping (section)

==Techniques==
{{Unsourced section|date=November 2024}}

===Two-handed tapping===
[[Image:Emmett chapman 1969.jpg|thumb|[[Emmett Chapman]], jazz guitarist and inventor of the [[Chapman Stick]] guitar, using the Free Hands tapping method in 1969.]]

Tapping can be used to play [[polyphony|polyphonic]] and counterpoint music on a guitar, making available eight (and even nine) fingers as stops. For example, the right hand may fret the treble melody while the left hand plays an accompaniment. Therefore, it is possible to produce music written for a keyboard instrument, such as [[J.S. Bach]]'s [[Inventions and Sinfonias (J. S. Bach)|Two-part Inventions]].

The main disadvantage to tapping is reduced range of [[timbre]], and in fact it is common to use a [[audio level compression|compressor]] effect to make notes more similar in volume. As tapping produces a "clean tone" effect, and since the first note usually sounds the loudest (unwanted in some music like [[jazz]]), dynamics are a main concern with this technique, though Stanley Jordan and many Stick players are successful in this genre.

Depending on the orientation of the player's right hand, this method can produce varying degrees of success at shaping dynamics. Early experimenters with this idea, like Harry DeArmond, his student Jimmie Webster, and Dave Bunker, held their right hand in a conventional orientation, with the fingers parallel with the strings. This limits the kind of musical lines the right hand can play. The Chapman method puts the fingers parallel to the frets.

===One-handed tapping===
One-handed tapping, performed in conjunction with normal fingering by the fretting hand, facilitates the construction of note [[interval (music)|intervals]] that would otherwise be impossible using one hand alone. It is often used as a special effect during a shredding solo. With the electric guitar, in this situation the output tone itself is usually [[distortion (guitar)|overdriven]] — although it is possible to tap acoustically — with drive serving as a boost to further amplify the non-picked (and thus naturally weaker) legato notes being played.

The overall aim is to maintain fluidity and synchronization between all the notes, especially when played at speed, which can take extensive practice to master.

===Pick tapping===
Some guitarists may choose to tap using the sharp edge of their [[plectrum|pick]] instead of fingers to produce a faster, more rigid flurry of notes closer to that of trilling, with a technique known as pick tapping or pick trilling. Using the pick enables faster speeds by means of 'vibrating' (or effectively seizing up) the wrist Guitarists such as [[Joe Satriani]] and [[John 5 (guitarist)|John 5]] Lowery have been known to use it, with Lowery nicknaming it a "Spider-Tap".

===Tapped harmonics===
Tapped [[String harmonic|harmonics]] are produced by holding a note with a player's fretting hand, and tapping twelve frets down from that note with the player's tapping hand (i.e. the note on the 4th fret of the A string is tapped on the 16th fret of the A string). Rather than hammering-on and pulling-off with the right hand, harmonics are produced by hitting the fret with a finger. This method of tapping can be heard in [[Van Halen|Van Halen's]] songs "[[Women in Love (Van Halen song)|Women In Love]]" and "[[Dance the Night Away (Van Halen song)|Dance the Night Away]]". Early [[Metallica]] bassist [[Cliff Burton]] also utilized tapped harmonics on bass guitar on his noted instrumental piece "[[(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth]]".