Limb Independance... and screw stu hamm!

[Jublian]

I've just started two handed tapping seriously again.
after some noodling around playing some guitar esque solo-ey stuff i decided to have a bash at mary had a little lamb, playing a simple bass line with my left hand and the melody with my right






damn this **** is hard.

i also had a bash at the peanuts theme arranged by stu hamm, not suprisingly more difficult.

oh well, practise makes perfect.

[HaVIC5]

Think about it - tapping is no mentally different than playing a piano. If you're having trouble playing Mary had a Little Lamb, just imagine playing a four part fugue on piano! Same thing pianists go through.

The way young pianists are taught to develop hand independence is to break down every note to the smallest component in the piece, and then figure out exactly what note is played when compared with the notes on the other hand. This is especially useful for syncopated mish mashes of rhythms found in tunes like the Peanuts Theme.

[saxofunk]

Originally Posted by HaVIC5

Think about it - tapping is no mentally different than playing a piano.

This is exactly why I play saxophone and bass, I haven't figured out the two-hand thing yet, after several years of piano lessons as a kid (I'm 35 now).

I tried tapping Silent Night a bit last year with a simple arpeggiated bass line, under the delusion that I might work up a Christmas CD... maybe for '09.

If you're having trouble playing Mary had a Little Lamb, just imagine playing a four part fugue on piano! Same thing pianists go through.

Bach was a machine, as is anyone who can control a pipe organ and pedals.

[jenich CZ]

Ok..this is the way i teach my students:

for starters forget about bass. Just knock with you fingers on your desk or sth. Try very easy rythms for beginning like: Left hand: 4/4 i m i m i m i m and Right hand: 3i 3i 3i (3 means triplet) . Find your own excercises. If you start immediately on bass you have to press the correct position, press the string right, change finger, etc.

Each of your fingers knows how to knock so take it from here.

[chicagodoubler]

As mentioned above, tapping on the bass is really simple compared to playing the piano.

My first piano recital I completely froze up and forgot where I was in the Bach Invention I was playing. My piano teacher actually started singing the next part to me from the audience...

Beyond embarassment.

There's alot of talk up here about tapping. In addition to the independence stuff, also try working on some of the Sheehan/ Wimbish/ Van Halen derived stuff. Less demanding for the independence stuff, and it really impresses guitarists.

When I got my first lesson with Wooten in the early 90's, he gave me an exercise that took years to master. If you really wanna tap, try playing unison major scales, starting with lh middle finger on 8th fret E string, rh middle on 15th fret A string. Unison 4 finger C major scales. Then try in harmony. Then offset the rh an 8th note. Etc...

Oh yeah when you get frustrated, why not work on some meat and potatos bass? I still know very few guys who can play Jamerson's line on What's Goin On from memory.