Tapping
Tapping is a technique where your picking hand joins the fretting hand in playing notes on the fretboard. A 'tap' is essentially the same as a hammer on except that it is done with the picking hand. The end result is the ability to play a fast fury of notes not possible to play with traditional picking technique.
Tapping is alot easier to learn without a pick. Later you will learn what do to with your pick when tapping, but for now drop the pick.
The first step is to move your picking hand away from the pickups and bridge of the guitar and move it over to the fretboard. The idea is the same as a hammer on but with your picking hand. Take the following example.
e:-t12------12-------12---|
B:------------------------|
G:------------------------|
D:------------------------|
A:------------------------|
E:------------------------|
In tab, a tap is usually indicated as either a 't' before the fret number or having either a '+' or a 'T' above the tab. In the above example it is shown to tap onto the 12th fret of the high E string. Take your index finger of your picking and try to tap onto the 12th fret. You may find this ackward, mainly because you have no stability in the right hand.
To gain stability take your thumb and plant it on top of the neck, and plant the rest of your fingers on the bottom of the neck. You should have a good hold of the neck. Now try to tap onto the 12th fret with your index finger. It should be tremendously easier. Also try to remember to keep your hand, wrist and forearm in one straight line. You do not want to bend the wrist, this will cause serious injury.
Also, you may find that your tapping doesnt sound just quite right. This may be because the other strings on the guitar are vibrating when you tap, or when you tap you hear two notes instead of one. This is because there is nothing muting the other strings on the guitar. To compensate for this, even though your tapping with your picking hand, use your fretting hand to mute all the strings.
This is basically how you perform right hand tapping. In part two you will learn how to incorporate right hand tapping with left hand hammer ons and pull offs to create some crazy lines.
Part II - Adding hammer ons and pull offs.