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How To Get Better at Tapping on Guitar (5 Exercises)

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How To Get Better at Tapping on Guitar (5 Exercises)

So you’ve learned how to tap on guitar and even got it going pretty well. But something is still holding you back from tapping fluently and effortlessly: the ability to create more challenging rhythms and more intricate patterns. In other words, you either struggle with your tapping routine’s speed or complexity. 

You can get better at tapping on your guitar with regular exercise. Tapping is an awesome technique that can add spice to your playing. It’s teachable to anyone regardless of skill level. The only catch is that it takes some time to get good at it, but, the more you practice, the better you’ll get.

So if you’re looking for new ideas to take your playing to the next level, read on for five exercises that will help you get better at tapping your guitar.

Related: best guitar exercises and guitar warm-ups & exercises. For the full overview, see our self-taught guitar roadmap.

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tapping on your guitar with regular exercise

What is Tapping?

Although learning guitars for the first time can get quite challenging, there are only so many chords you can play before getting bored. New techniques and skills are constantly being developed and added to the standard playing methods. You’re not alone if you’ve wondered what exactly tapping your guitar means.

Tapping refers to a particular fingerpicking technique commonly used on the electric guitar. It involves playing a sequence of notes by hammering on or pulling off from one chord to another while fretting other notes with the fretting hand, all at the same time.

Fretting involves using the fingers of the fretting hand to strike a string either directly above or below its intended target point. This creates unique sounds and patterns that wouldn’t be possible with normal fingerpicking techniques.

While it may seem like a challenging and perhaps awkward technique, once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to integrate into your playing as part of a solo or riff. 

5 Guitar Tapping Exercises

If you’ve ever listened to metal, progressive rock, or any subgenre of rock, you’ve probably heard someone playing fast arpeggios with one hand while hammering out power chords with the other. This can be quite a challenge for any guitarist, regardless of the skill level. Luckily, we’ve broken down the steps into simple exercises for you:

1. Warm-Up Exercise

It’s important to master as many chords as possible before learning to tap your guitar (especially if you’re a beginner). Warming up before tapping lets you focus on one note at a time and later play many individual notes as fast as possible.

That said, here’s a simple warm-up exercise to help you get started: 

  1. Hold down the 9th fret with your index finger at the low E string (the 6th string). 
  3. Start tapping from the 9th fret of the E string, going to the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th fret on the same string.
  4. Switch to the next string (A string) and repeat the process (9, 10, 11, 12, 13 frets).
  6. Move on to the D, G, B, and the higher E string of the guitar and tap their 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13th frets.
  7. Once you’re done tapping the 1st string (higher E string), move back upwards to the B string and all the way to the lower E string while tapping their 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13th frets in that order.

This simple exercise helps with muscle memory and hand coordination. It also helps build up your calluses as you practice. The more you do it, the faster and better you’ll get in the following guitar tapping exercises.

guitar tapping exercises

2. Tapping Trills

Trills are also one of the most challenging rhythmical concepts to master on guitar. The technique is a series of fast hammering and pull-offs.

  1. Hold the 10th fret of the high E-string with the index finger of your fretting hand.
  2. Strum the E-string on the 12th fret with your index finger