finger tapping... finer points to increase speed?

[rutrho]

so, one of my projects lately has been developing my finger tapping... and. Well I'm hella bad at it, other than stubbornness and practicing and building up to it slowly, anyone have any suggestions on improving with it? I'm finding muting to be a challenge as well as being clear with my notes.

I always have a compressor on in my signal chain which does help but. well, Im at a loss other than just practicing more. Also I only play fretless, to make it more interesting/challenging.

 

[misterCRUSH]

i too only play fretless, and have had trouble with muting. my compressor helped but what really was a game changer was a 'fretwrap'. it goes around the neck by the nut and really helped all my 'accidentals' from ringing out.

 

[SteveCS]

so, one of my projects lately has been developing my finger tapping... and. Well I'm hella bad at it, other than stubbornness and practicing and building up to it slowly, anyone have any suggestions on improving with it? I'm finding muting to be a challenge as well as being clear with my notes.

I always have a compressor on in my signal chain which does help but. well, Im at a loss other than just practicing more. Also I only play fretless, to make it more interesting/challenging.

I'll post some concepts from the Stick method later...

 

[thewildest]

so, one of my projects lately has been developing my finger tapping...

I always have a compressor on in my signal chain which does help but. well, Im at a loss other than just practicing more. Also I only play fretless, to make it more interesting/challenging.

Hi there: tapping is a journey on itself, and brings infinite possibilities. Some styles are building complex rhythmic structures (I’d check Tony Levin, Trey Gunn, Stewart Hamm). You could also embellish your solos by using tapping as one of your tools (many guitar players use that). Another way is to play chord and melody, Stanley Jordan , Victor Wooten, S. Hamm). I’d start defining what is more attractive to you and check some of these artist’s work to see what is possible.

For many mechanical reasons, I’d discourage using a fretless instrument for some of these applications. The height of a fret gives you the minimum room required for your tapping hand to obtain enough percussiveness to generate sound. This is what apparently is making you use a compressor to offset this effect, but on the long run this will affect the dynamics you’d like to bring into your music.

Also, as you progress your brain will be pretty busy resolving the position of 8 fingers at the same time, real time; frets would not only help positioning your fingers right, but it will reduce the infinite deviations resulting from 8 fingers figuring their position across the board.

I hope it helps,

 

[rutrho]

i too only play fretless, and have had trouble with muting. my compressor helped but what really was a game changer was a 'fretwrap'. it goes around the neck by the nut and really helped all my 'accidentals' from ringing out.

I've been trying to avoid grab a fretwrap but I'm not seeing much of a way around it for this... I'll snag one and give it a shot.

I'll post some concepts from the Stick method later...

that'd be awesome.

 

[misterCRUSH]

I've been trying to avoid grab a fretwrap but I'm not seeing much of a way around it for this... I'll snag one and give it a shot.



it's a bit of a different angle but as far as muting for my regular playing, i have been able to ditch the fretwrap and utilize the floating thumb technique. it's really cleaned up my playing .

 

[rutrho]

it's a bit of a different angle but as far as muting for my regular playing, i have been able to ditch the fretwrap and utilize the floating thumb technique. it's really cleaned up my playing .

Yeah, Its great to know fo sho. I've been using it for years as part of my regular playing and its essential for keeping my 5 string quiet.

 

[Les Fret]

Just don’t practice with a compressor or fret wrap. It will mask your technique. Better get your technique right and then only use the compressor on gigs. I did a lot of bass tapping in the 90’s (my Stu Hamm phase) but I got bored with it after that. I don’t like it too much now and can’t watch tapping videos anymore but still use it occasionally. I think it got the point where it is overdone now. I like it a little more on guitar. I also played Stick for many years but also stopped with that. I still miss that Stick sometimes though.

 

[Jazz Ad]

It's all about setup and light strings really. It you struggle to get the string ringing with a light touch, your strings are too heavy and your setup is bad.
A light mute at the nut is fine to control ringing. It pretty much takes an entire instrument to make it good for tapping.

 

[SteveCS]

It's all about setup and light strings really. It you struggle to get the string ringing with a light touch, your strings are too heavy and your setup is bad.
A light mute at the nut is fine to control ringing. It pretty much takes an entire instrument to make it good for tapping.

All true. Low string tension also helps. With the standard Stick setup, at least my old-school 34" one, the lowest bass string is 0.92" tuned to C below E on the bass. This, combined with <1mm action means the touch required is incredibly light. Of course a light touch means not much string volume, which means the pickups are designed to be very close to the strings.

@rutrho Hang in there - I'm still writing out some Stick stuff for you but I'm in the middle of a really busy couple of week. But I do have a question - are you more concerned with the left hand or right hand?

 

[EchoEcho]

The only person I ever saw playing tap was a former bassist who sadly lost his arm in an accident, so he got a special bass made so that he could keep on playing but using tap instead. He was really good but every song(he used to have a duet with a drummer so there was just the 2 of them) sounded the same after a while because it was like he was just filling the space with notes. I always wondered if he ever changed his style, but maybe the fast notes was specifically to overcome the muting problem.

 

[lyonaudio]

Use what the pros use.

Lots of cocaine.

 

[SteveCS]

@rutrho

At first glance these exercises will appear trivial, and from a musical standpoint they are. But they are devised to illustrate and help develop one of the basic principles of smooth and fluent tapping, which is to never (at least as far as possible) play two consecutive notes with the same finger. The usual bass/guitar concept of one finger one fret, or playing in position, just doesn't work.

The numbers in circles are the string number (1=G, 2=D, etc), and the numbers below the notes are the left-hand fingers used to play the note. There are no real stretches or reaches involved - the whole hand has to glide smoothly up and down, keeping the fingertips close together as a unit when playing the same note.

The other technical element to focus on is ensuring that the finger that is playing a note is completely out of the way and has released the string from the fret before the next note is played. You will know when this is not happening as there will be a flubby or absent attack in the second note.

I shot a short video to show the idea, but the site only takes animated .gif files. It looks a little jerky because the online .mp4 to .gif converter has overdone the compression and lost the audio, but you should get the idea... Hope this helps a little.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I find Charles Berthoud's approach and work fresh and inspiring.

 

[rutrho]

@rutrho

At first glance these exercises will appear trivial, and from a musical standpoint they are. But they are devised to illustrate and help develop one of the basic principles of smooth and fluent tapping, which is to never (at least as far as possible) play two consecutive notes with the same finger. The usual bass/guitar concept of one finger one fret, or playing in position, just doesn't work.

The numbers in circles are the string number (1=G, 2=D, etc), and the numbers below the notes are the left-hand fingers used to play the note. There are no real stretches or reaches involved - the whole hand has to glide smoothly up and down, keeping the fingertips close together as a unit when playing the same note.

The other technical element to focus on is ensuring that the finger that is playing a note is completely out of the way and has released the string from the fret before the next note is played. You will know when this is not happening as there will be a flubby or absent attack in the second note.

I shot a short video to show the idea, but the site only takes animated .gif files. It looks a little jerky because the online .mp4 to .gif converter has overdone the compression and lost the audio, but you should get the idea... Hope this helps a little.

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Thanks, this is actually super helpful. I started playing around with the first couple and yeah, I'm going to have to re-think the entire way I've approached tapping and stuff, but this is very much a nudge in the right direction.

This:

illustrate and help develop one of the basic principles of smooth and fluent tapping, which is to never (at least as far as possible) play two consecutive notes with the same finger.

... Was a big piece of missing info for me. Thanks again!

 

[SteveCS]

Thanks, this is actually super helpful. I started playing around with the first couple and yeah, I'm going to have to re-think the entire way I've approached tapping and stuff, but this is very much a nudge in the right direction.

This:

... Was a big piece of missing info for me. Thanks again!

Thanks. I firmly believe that the music comes from you, so rather than suggest pieces of 'tap' music (whatever that might be) or cite tappers from this that or the other style, I think simple targetted exercises that give insights into the fundamentals that will unlock the techniques are far more useful. That is also the spirit of Emmett Chapman's book that comes with the Stick.

The right hand uses a similar approach, but is primarily based on only 3 fingers. The main reason for this is that deploying the pinky actually compromises the ideal tapping posture of the other three fingers, leading to contortion, tension and cramping. That is not to say pinky never gets used, but for tbe most part it is not an equal partner.

 

[misterCRUSH]

Just don’t practice with a compressor or fret wrap. It will mask your technique. Better get your technique right and then only use the compressor on gigs. I did a lot of bass tapping in the 90’s (my Stu Hamm phase) but I got bored with it after that. I don’t like it too much now and can’t watch tapping videos anymore but still use it occasionally. I think it got the point where it is overdone now. I like it a little more on guitar. I also played Stick for many years but also stopped with that. I still miss that Stick sometimes though.

you're absolutely right! after reading this i took off my wrap and turned my compressor off. not too bad, but still noticed what i needed to work on more that's for sure. this will make me better. thanks!

 

[SteveCS]

Just don’t practice with a ... fret wrap. It will mask your technique.

Actually I don't think the fret wrap is a bad idea. It is no different to the mutes installed on the Stick, which I consider an integral part of the instrument that frees the player rather than a band-aid without which the player ends up spinning too many plates. YMMV.

 

[MrLenny1]

Just play the bass. Work on 16ths and
with a metronome.

 

[Les Fret]

Actually I don't think the fret wrap is a bad idea. It is no different to the mutes installed on the Stick, which I consider an integral part of the instrument that frees the player rather than a band-aid without which the player ends up spinning too many plates. YMMV.

I agree. On Stick it is different because it is designed for tapping and it has more string so the mute is essential. But on bass you often 'have' to switch techniques. So you also have to be able to tap clean without a fret wrap. Nothing wrong with a fret wrap though But if you are only practicing with the fret wrap you don't learn how to damp. So that's why I would not advise beginners to use it at first.

Also it is not necessary for all tapping stuff. I never saw Stu Hamm use a fret wrap. Also not Billy Sheehan I think.