. All Tapped Out The first time I heard Eddie Van Halen do his tapping thing, I sat in disbelief that hat I as hearing as guitar. Of course, so many of us guitarists became so enamoured of that sound that e all learned ho to do it. Eventually it became a cliche. Many guitarists came after Eddie to bring the technique further, most notably Stanley Jordan and Jennifer Batten. I think their most important contribution as to bring it beyond a mere "stupid guitarist" trick to an actual vocabulary. Explaining ho to do it is easy. Instead of one hand picking and the other fingering, both hands finger the fretboard. The hand that normally picks goes over the fingerboard. You can almost think of the ay to position your hands on the fretboard as holding a baseball bat left-handed. It ill make sense hen you try it. In traditional to-handed tapping (a la EVH), many times the pick-hand notes pull off to frethand notes. In this case, the pick-hand notes are alays hammer-ons. Any line that crosses from left to right (or vice versa) does not include pull-offs. Any pull-offs that occur in this piece are in the frethand only. Making it sound good is hard. Because none of the notes you play are picked, you rely entirely on the strength of the hammer-on to create the tone. Getting your pick-hand pinky to fret ith the same strength as your fret-hand index takes practice! Another difficult task is keeping unintended strings from vibrating. What I found fascinating as ho much musical independence this technique affords. Each hand is capable of playing its on separate part, much like a piano.the to hands can also ork in tandem to play lines that are unplayable otherise. This is a piece I rote that takes advantage of many of the available textures using this technique. Like many pieces I've ritten, the inspiration comes not only on an emotional level, but also to push my on musical boundaries. Be sure that hen you set up the tone, there is an even balance beteen lo and high strings.you may find you'll have to adust your touch quite a lot to get the desired effect. Fairly lo action is probably advisable too. In the notation, all the notes played ith the pick-hand are ritten ith the noteheads "staves up" hile the fret-hand is "staves don." The pick-hand notes are indicated in the tablature by the box around the note The piece benefits a great deal from the kind of expressiveness e guitarists love to engage in: dynamics, tempo shift and ell-placed vibrato being among them. On a physical level the piece is very difficult to master. 8
Performance Notes -The repeating dotted 8th note rhythm in the melody in measures and 6 (sometimes notated as a quarter tied to an eighth) creates an interesting rhythm against the eighth note pattern that the frethand plays. If you play each part separately, you'll notice they are fairly easy. The challenge is hen they are combined. This is the kind of thing drummers and pianists call "independence" -Measure 9 is a challenge for the pick-hand. It sounds smoothest hen you use different pick-hand fingers (almost as if you're playing an upside-don guitar). I found that you almost have to "slam" that high G ith your pinky in order to get it to ring. Once the note sounds, adding vibrato helps sustain it for the intended length. -Measure and 6 is a break from the tapping technique. Here, you play a fairly simple line hile creating a neat texture by letting the strings ring in to each other. Hold each note and let it ring until the string is needed for another note. Use your pick-hand to pluck the strings. -Measures and is another instance of the repeating dotted quarter note rhythm in the melody. But here there are to differences: The rhythm starts on the "and" after beat one, and this part uses double stops in the right hand. -In measures and 8, both hands ork in tandem to create a single line. Deliberately speeding up the tempo a bit here adds to the effect of moving to a different segment. -The middle section (measures 9 thru ) uses another variation of "tandem lines." These textures are similar to hat you ould find in many solo piano pieces. Even though the right hand plays double stops, the highest note is considered to be the melody. The line in the left hand seamlessly connects to the double stops in the right hand. Be sure that the double stops are held to their full value (sustaining on top of the left-hand lines that continue under it)! -If you've picked up the tempo for the middle section, use the lines in measures and to slo don to the original tempo before you get to the main melody. It's been said that if the car you drive can't handle the road, you have to choices: iden the road or drive a car that handles better. For me, this piece does both. Photo by Atsushi Sato 9
All Tapped Out By Jon Finn (0:00~) & # Tap each note ith fret hand... Slide & # (0:09~).. & # melody played by tapping ith pick hand... Slide 0 0 Gma9 0& #.. Cma9. 0
& # Am9 Slide N/C P.O. 0 Let Notes Ring... P.O. 0 9 0 9 9 0 0 6 & # 0 0 0 0 Ritard... 0 0 0 0 (0:~) Gma9. A Tempo Slide. Cma9 9& # G 6 9 Gma9... 0 9 & #. Cma9(#)
& # Am9 N/C 9 0 9 9 9 0 9 (0:~) 8 & # Accellerando Πb n b. Faster Bb ma9(#). b n n. 8 0 0 8 6 0 8 6 & # Bb 6(#). b n n. b. b n. b. b n. b 0 8 6 0 8 6 0 8 6 & # Πb n b. Bb ma9(#). n b n G m9. Bb 6(#). n b n. Gm(add9) 0 8 6 0 8 6 0 8 6
& #. n b Gm(add9). b. n b Gm(add9). b Am(add9) ΠF6(#). n 0 8 6 0 8 6 8 9 9 0 & #... n F(add9) Am Bm(b9). # #. 8 0 0 9 0 0 9 9 & # Bm Gma9 #.. Gma9. #. Bm(b) Bm(add9). #. 6 6 9 9 9 6& # Bm(add9). #. Πb n b. Bb ma9(#). n b n. 9 0 8 6 0 8 6
9& # Bb 6(#) G m9. n b n. Gm(add9).. n b b. n b Gm(add9). b 0 8 6 0 8 6 0 8 6 & # Em(add9) Œ. Am(add9). Ritard... D. (:~). A Tempo 8 9 9 9 0 0 0 & #. 8& # Gma9.. Cma9.
6& # Am9 9 0 9 9 6& # Gma9 Am9 9 0 9 9 6& # (:0~) N/C P.O. P.O. 0 Let Notes Ring... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 9 & # G 8 0 "Today is the tomorro you ere dreading yesterday."