Use this tapping lick to sound

like a killer on the guitar!

…Combining the pentatonic with tapping

The following solo passage is definitely worth a try!

Theory about pentatonic and tapping

In this little piece of music which is in the key of F# minor we use the pentatonic by skipping strings and we add a high note on top that is tapped by the picking hand. This gives the whole thing a very melodic feel although its played quite fast.

For the tapped notes we use some notes from the F# minor scale that are not included in the F# minor pentatonic. These notes are G# and D while the notes of the pentatonic are F#, A B, C# and E.

You may like the idea of skipping strings while playing the pentatonic as much as I do because it just sounds so musical and gives you a new but simple approach to playing phrases that sound interesting and creative.

Technique of pentatonic and tapping

So much about the theory… lets dig into the technical specifics here!

Here are some key points to pay attention to while you practice this etude:

Make sure to mute the lower strings that are not supposed to ring with your picking hands palm and the higher strings with your fretting hands index finger. Especially when you play with a lot of distortion the unmuted string noise can become super annoying!
I use the picking hands middle finger for the tapping of the highest note of each string that is played. I hold the pick in my usual position between thumb and index finger because I need to switch between picking and tapping quite quickly here.
In order to make it sound really clean you have to pay specific attention to the articulation of each note. First of all make sure that your tapping, hammer ons and pull offs are approximately at the same volume. Then make sure that the notes which fall on the beats are a bit louder than the others. It can be helpful and a good practice to play it unplugged because it forces you to play with really good articulation.

Check out the material for the etude

Here you can find the piece on YouTube so you can hear how it is supposed to sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF78b_Qpkw8

You can also find the tab sheet as pdf and guitar pro file as well as two different backing tracks on this website:

https://www.shredfactory-augsburg.de/killershredlicks/

To create this short piece of music was real fun for me and I hope you enjoy playing and practicing it as much as I did.

If you struggle with the technical details make sure to talk about it with your local guitar teacher who can surely help you out!

Abouut the author:

Constantin Einzmann is a professional musician, guitar teacher and skilled mechanical engineer. He is the founder of the ShredFactory, a successful music school offering Gitarrenunterricht in Augsburg Germany.