We've now covered most of the basic tapping techniques used 
by the likes of 
Stu Hamm. We'll develop these further in future lessons, but 
we'll take a brief
time out from that style to briefly consider the tapping used 
by Sheehan. This 
syle is more closely releated to Eddie Van Halen's guitar, and 
relies heavily 
on interplay between both hands on a single string. Physically 
these techniques 
are simpler, but require a lot of experience to make them work 
in a song.

Normaly only a single note is tapped at a time, so its personal 
preference 
which finger you choose — either the index or middle finger is 
fine. Sheehan 
places his middle finger behind his index finger to give extra 
strenth (and 
his little finger behind his ring finger when needed). You may 
or may not find 
this beneficial — it is however important to hit each note cleanly, 
and somewhat
harder than in previous lessons.

Starting of with a simple line on the top G string:
                                         
|—12—7——0——12—7——0——|   
|———————————————————|        
|———————————————————|   
|———————————————————|   


Tap the octave then pull of to the preplaced left hand, then pull 
of to the 
open string. By moving bits of the pattern around complex harmonies 
can be 
implied. This works well on bass, as the large intervals between 
the notes 
ensure that the sound does not get muddy:
                  
|—12—7——0——12—7——0—|—12—5——0——12—5——0—|—10—5——0——10—5——0—|—9——5——0——9——5——0—|
|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|
|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|
|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|——————————————————|

(this chord progression is based on the intro to "Equinox").

The next thing to do is turn the whole thing upside down! Rather 
than starting 
at the top, and using pull off's start on the open string, and 
hammer on the 
7th, then tap the octave. This requires slightly more precise timing:
      
|—0——7——12—0——7——12—|   
|———————————————————|          
|———————————————————|   
|———————————————————|   

once you've got this, try reversing the Equinox line to use hammer 
ons.

Once you're comfortable playing the riff in each direction, 
try combining both 
up and down paterns:

                  
|—12—7—0—7—12—7—0—7—|—12—5—0—5—12—5—0—5—|—10—5—0—5—10—5—0—5—|—9—5—0—5—9—5—0—|
|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————|  
|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————|
|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————————|———————————————|

As always experiment different numbers of repeats, and tempo's.

Now lets make the left hand work a little harder, by introducing 
a few more 
notes:
                 
|—12—7—5—0—5—7————|   
|o———————————————o|          
|o———————————————o|   
|—————————————————|   


or:
                                             
|—12—7—5—4—5—7————|   
|o———————————————o|         
|o———————————————o|   
|—————————————————|   

Of course there's no need to just move in a single direction at 
a time. Try:
                                                 
|—12—4—7—4—12—4—5—4—|   
|o—————————————————o|   
|o—————————————————o|   
|———————————————————|   


The variations on this sort of riff are endless, but one particularly 

interesting twist can be found on the track "Summer Nights" 
(Van Halen — 5150).

|—————————————————|————————————————————————————————————————————————————|  
|—————————————————|————————————————————————————————————————————————————|
|——————————5—4—0——|—7—4—0——4—7—12—/14—\12——7———————————————————————————|
|—————————————————|————————————————————————————————————————————————————|
                               T  s   s

This riff is played by both guitar and bass immediatly before 
the chorus. The 
left hand is all hammered on. The right hand part slides the tapped 
note up a 
tone and then back down in a particulary cool fashion. Practise 
this to make 
sure so can do it cleanly and quickly (its easy overshoot the 
top note). We'll 
encounter more complex slides in the next few lessons.

Thats about all there is to say about single string tapping — 
the basic 
techniques are very simple. The hard part is knowng how they 
can be applied. 
Practise moving different parts of the riffs around, using 
different intervals —
pretty much anything sounds good on its own, so you just have 
to try everything,
and learn how it sounds ready for when you need it. Try and work 
out how the 
notes can be related to chords, as this will make it easier to 
integrate ideas 
into songs.
 

This weeks final example is a bit of a killer — the bass intro to 
Mr Big's 
"Addicted to that rush". Billy himself is quoted as saying of 
this track: 
"It's like a tightrope walk —it's fun; you've got to balance 
and it's a little 
precarious. Playing it live, you have to be ON, but the challenge 
makes it 
more interesting", so lesser mortals are likely to have some 
problems (the 
main one being the 224 BPM tempo).

|—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—14—12—|
|—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————|
  T  p  H  p  T  p  H  p  T  p  H  p  T  p  H  p  T  p  H  p  T  p  H  p

This is played 7 times (all those notes are only the first bar! 
— for the 
curious they're tripplet semiquavers, everyone else just 
play 'em as fast as 
you can :—(). The A is played alternatly by the left and right 
hands. There's 
then 8 bars of guitar before the bass joins in again:

|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—13—10—12—10—7——10—13—10—12—10—7——10—|—13—10—12—10—7——10—13—10—12—10—7——10—|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|

|—12—9——11—9——7——9——12—9——11—9——7——9——|—12—9——11—9——7——11—17————9——12————12—|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|

                                                   gs                  g s
|14—12—9———————————————————————————|—12—9—12—13—12—9/11—14—12—14—17—14—12/14|
|————————13—12—10—12—10—12—13—12—10|————————————————————————————————————————|
|——————————————————————————————————|————————————————————————————————————————|
|——————————————————————————————————|————————————————————————————————————————|

                                                              ^1/2
|—17—14—17—20—17—14—20—17—19—17—14—17—|—20—17—19—17—14—17—20————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|
|—————————————————————————————————————|—————————————————————————————————————|


Don't worry to if you can't play this at full tempo — start slowly, 
and learn 
the pattens (you should find that much of it is just variation 
on what you've 
already seen). Build up the speed slowly making sure you're 
still getting all 
the notes cleanly.

That should keep you busy for a few weeks!