Tapping With String Changes

Prologue: Please do not continue if you find it hard to tap on one string consistently as you will likely find yourself getting frustrated with the sound. Also know that this is my technique for doing it. Other guitar players (Reb Beach) have their own special ways of doing it. This is the way that works best for me.

That being said, let's begin.

Legend:
p = Pull Off
h = Hammer-on
t = Tap (wont always be there)
~ = Hold note (+ tremolo if you want)

The fundamentals of tapping and changing strings is a fairly simple technique to master, it involves the following:

1. Start tapping on one string.
2. Tap a new note on a different string
3. While that note is down move your left hand to said string and complete the sound (don't be afraid to get exotic)

Rinse and repeat as desired.

Here is a simple riff using this technique:

e|--18p12h15t18p12h15----------------------------------------------||
B|--------------------18p12h15t18p12h15----------------------------||
G|--------------------------------------17p11h14t17p11h14----------||
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------||
A|-----------------------------------------------------------------||
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------||

Practice this riff a bit until you get it down fairly solid. The faster the better it will come out sounding.


After practicing that and hopefully experimenting a bit on your own, you should have a fairly good understanding of the concept and should be able to do this at a moments notice.

Moving up:

Here is a fantastic pentatonic major scale using string tapping. Note that if you are unable to complete the above scale with ease that you might not want to attempt this:

e|-14p9h12t14p9h12-------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------14p9h12---------14p9h12-------------------------|
G|-------------------------13p9h11---------13p9h11--------13p9h11--|
D|-------------------------------------------------13p9h11---------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------------------------||
B|-------------------------------------------------||
G|-11p6h9t11p6t9-----------------------------------||
D|---------------11p6h9t11p6t9---------------------||
A|-----------------------------11p6h9p6------------||
E|---------------------------------------9~~~~-----||

Being able to play that, you should have a good understanding of this technique and should be able to apply it.

Hopefully you understand how it works and how you can derive you own riffs from it. It's best to use scales unless you are feeling crazy.

Remember the faster you can do it the better it will sound. But sometimes slower is ok.