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This Metal Licks free weekly guitar lesson series is by Scott Allen, who currently has an interactive TrueFire classroom called the “Metal Shop.” Tune in there for more from Scott, or subscribe to this series for more!

Video Guitar Lesson:

In 1978 a skinny kid from Holland with a funny last name turned the guitar world on its ear. He rewrote the rule book for what a rock guitar player was supposed to be able to do with a guitar. He instantly changed not only how guitars are played, but how they are built, what kinds of amps they are played through, what kinds of pickups are used in them, and he helped popularize the Floyd Rose tremolo system which in turn freed guitarist’s creativity to conjure sounds that only existed in our imaginations. Eddie Van Halen’s contributions to rock guitar are almost too numerous to count but one of the most obvious things he brought to the forefront is two handed tapping. EVH didn’t invent the technique, but everybody and their brother sure did jump on the bandwagon once they saw what Eddie could do with it!

For this example we will look at the basics of tapping on one string as well as cross string tapping. I would recommend using your middle finger to tap, and be sure to use your ring finger to pluck the adjacent string as you ascend. As always when playing a loud distorted guitar it is very important to mute everything that you are not playing by using a combination of the left and right hand. Like any new lick this should be played very slowly until the visualization of the scale patterns are comfortable and the mechanics of tapping become more natural. This lick is a blazing example that would be at home over any hard rock track in the key of A minor (What else!!!!).

This Metal Licks free weekly guitar lesson series is by Scott Allen, who currently has an interactive TrueFire classroom called the “Metal Shop.” Tune in there for more from Scott, or subscribe to this series for more!