How do I do tapping?

[Fassa Albrecht]

Can someone explain how to do tapping? I'd love to be able to play the bass version of Moonlight Sonata by Stu Hamm, except I can't tap!

[southpaw76]

Well if you have never tapped before, I would probably suggest playing around with some basic stuff first to get your fingers familiar with the motions. Take for instance, whatever you would play with your fretting hand and split it up between both of your hands.

Other things you could do may include tapping out arpeggios, scales and chords, etc..etc.. There is a whole world of fun stuff out there you could convert into tapping ...

Please feel free to ask anymore questions ...

[MyUsernameHere]

If you're asking about the basic mechanics of tapping all it is is depressing the string hard enough so when it hits the fret it rings out without having to be struck.

If you're asking for some kind of specific exercise to make you be able to do it well quickly, I'm sure someone on the forum has probably come up with something--just not me. You might try starting by composing a simple walking bass line that your left hand will play and a simple melody your right hand will play. Gradually build up each line's complexity until they sound "musical".

This is just my personal experience but the real difficult thing in trying to double tap is learning to make both hands play musical lines independently from each other. Real fast flashy runs aren't all that hard in comparison.

[MaxZolt]

That piece is actually the first one I tried any tapping with. The hardest part for me was to train my hands to move more independently from one another. I would suggest playing each line independently, then gradually meshing the two together.

In terms of physical technique, a quick google search should dig up some tapping tutorials to get you started. You should also make sure your bass is set up well - when I first started, my action was so high that I was fighting the bass every step of the way. With a low action, you can use less force, which results in a better, cleaner tone.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Click here. Hope that helps.

[Pork_soda]

I learned to tap to "Jerry was a Racecar Driver" and just by watching that music video. lol. By watching it I mean studying it for 2 hours

[alankroeger]

Originally Posted by Pork_soda

I learned to tap to "Jerry was a Racecar Driver" and just by watching that music video. lol. By watching it I mean studying it for 2 hours

In the end that is what it all boils down to. Get your action as low as is possible and land close to the fret.
Patience I haven't gotten too far myself but I am enjoying the heck out of playing with two hands. Even having gotten just so far with the technique you come up with a lot of useful and interesting things in a week or two.

Have you read Stanley Jordan's (guitar) lessons there are some tips there too which are useful.
http://www.stanleyjordan.com/Technique/starting.html
Read it top to bottom it what's in it is pertinent to Bass or Guitar, it helped me a lot. Practice and have some patience with any deficiencies they can be overcome.

[santucci218]

any person who taps will pretty much tell you the same thing. Start REALLY slow, and keep it clean.

[Valerus]

Originally Posted by Alvaro Martín Gómez A.

Click here. Hope that helps.

Thanks!

[axisluminary]

in addition to what advice has already been given, i would suggest picking up a real book, transcribing the melody of a song, then get the chords down and then put the two together as best you can in tapping format (i.e. right hand for melodies above 12th fret, while left hand is doing a lower register walking bass through the chords). i tried autumn leaves not too long ago and it was fun, and sounded pretty cool too.

also, if you like minus the bear, try to play a lot of their guitar parts on bass.

[chaosMK]

You can look up some videos on youtube.

I've found that a high quality bass and fairly low action really facilitates tapping. I wasnt really able to take off with it with my old late 90s Ibanez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAErjhbwRzw

[alankroeger]

You know whats even more amusing... After a month of steady right hand tapping practice I am finding my right hand capable of things I never tried with the left hand (oops more work)
Sure I got plenty of preliminary practice left to work on but it really doesn't take too long to catch on to this stuff. I am quite sure I have plenty of frustrations ahead of me (practice learning wise) but I wasn't in a rush anyway
Might be that being somewhat fingerstyle fluent helped a bit but I couldn't be sure. After all it isn't tapping just plucking with fingers and thumb.

[tswd]

First off, +1 to the posts saying to lower your action and start slow. It's very easy to play tapped stuff sloppy, meaning not letting the notes ring or getting too much buzz.

What I did to get a bit better was to get a book of piano music and transcribe it. Play the bass clef with your left hand, treble clef with your right. Remember that open strings will require you to strum the string (can't tap an open string), which may take some getting used to. You'll either have to do some acrobatics with your right hand or learn to strum with your left.

The first song I did was Silent Night. Easy, slow song. Good one to get you used to separating your hands and playing both parts at the same time.