Here's the deal. I have no issue whatsoever with people having different opinions about how something should be done, and expressing rational thoughts on why their argument is sound. It's good for people to debate, usually in the end, each side has a better perspective on what is right, even if they never admit it in the context of the debate.
What is absolutely, abhorrently, and unbelievably stupid is the opinion that 'there is no right way to do something, it's all just personal taste'. I am so sick of this sentence coming out of people, it is ridiculous and wrong!!
Take that sentiment to it's logical extension.
If there is NO right or wrong way to do something, you have to allow for every single possibility of approach as having equal merit. If there was no right or wrong way to play guitar, some people would be playing with their feet, other people would be playing with their teeth. That is NOT a facetious argument, that really is the logical extension of allowing complete subjectivity. That hippie 'I can do whatever I want' attitude is a great way to become very mediocre at everything you do.
I played with the guitar sitting on my outside leg for much of my guitar playing career, it was more comfortable for me. When I switched to between the legs, it was not comfortable for a while, but I knew it was the right thing to do, just like I knew when I finally stopped letting my thumb hook the top of the neck it was the right change to make, and when I stopped making every effort to avoid using my pinkie it was the right change to make, and when I learned to hold my wrist properly it was the right change to make - though none of those things felt at all comfortable when I first started doing them.
There are flat out good ways and bad ways of doing things. There does exist a point where 'personal preference' comes into play - but that is so far down the line where one way and another way are so close to equally good that it doesn't really matter as much as the variables of a person's personal comfort. For example. if you are tapping the high note on a sweep arpeggio and plan to sweep back down afterward, you should tap with your middle finger because you don't have time to make the pick switch. If you are tapping the first solo to Sins and Shadows you should use your index finger because of the importance of muting while you move your hand across 5 strings of the guitar (and you have to mute all 6 because of the legato notes on the low E). If you are tapping the beginning of Hot for Teacher, then you can let 'personal comfort' be a deciding factor, because it really doesn't matter either way - you have plenty of time to make the pick switch if you want to go index, you don't have any particularly challenging muting if you want to go middle.
A debate about which finger to tap with between index and middle is reasonable, because both have certain merits. Tapping with your pinky, would be WRONG, objectively stupid and incorrect - it's not my fault that is the case, it is the nature of the design of the instrument and the nature of the design of the pinkie finger - two things that exist in reality and as a result have REAL consequences. Because of the nature of the way a horn is made, you would have a hard time playing it by plucking - you have to blow into it, again, RIGHT vs WRONG based on the way things are in existence in reality.
Meedley, I'll address your earlier post because you write and think like a reasonable person:
You first off seem to be arguing my same point but acting as if you are taking the opposite stance. My whole point about holding the guitar between the legs as being better was about wrist posture at the upper frets. If you hold it on your outside leg, your arm hits your body as you approach the upper frets, and as a result you have to angle your wrist back. If you hold it between your legs, you can have the same wrist posture regardless of your position on the fretboard.
In terms of mentioning tappers who use middle vs index, Vai is an amazing tapper, but he is also running through 3 zillion pedals etc for a very saturated, compressed, gated, etc, sound. In other words, he has a lot more leeway in terms of muting needs when tapping than a player with a more honest tone (the lead tone on, say, Twilight, is pretty dry but those taps in Smoke and Mirrors are clean as can be). You are right that 'just because MJR does is' doesn't make it the right thing to do, and honestly I wouldn't have even said that if I did not expect to be catering to a large number of people with the 'there is no right or wrong way' attitude. I would prefer to leave my argument pro-index tapping as based entirely on the logic which I also presented regarding the accuracy of the finger and the superior position it leaves your hand in for muting.
Take your hand and hold it like you were going to tap. Then move your index finger independently of your other fingers away and towards the rest of your fingers. Now try it with your middle finger. The range available to the index finger is far wider for independent movement, the other fingers move around quite a bit when you try to move the middle finger far independently.
I completely agree that there is a slight speed advantage to the middle finger which makes it advantageous in certain situations, but I think then you really ought to agree that there is a slight muting advantage to using the index finger because of points I have already made. Not all scenarios may necessarily entail a level of difficulty where that slight gain comes into play, but then again there are not very many scenarios where the speed advantage of the middle finger actually comes into play. I've tapped the high notes on sweeps and successfully made the pick tuck and return to get the rest of the downward sweep - I just feel it is a bit less consistent and a little riskier (though that risk diminishes with practice).
Check out the first solo in Sins and Shadows and the first solo in Communion. My original inability to get those to sound as clean as I wanted due to muting issues is largely what lead me to try the index finger thing, and I found that I could get them to be far more clean than with the middle finger. I don't believe this to be a matter of personal comfort - I believe it is because when moving across large portions of the neck diameter, not having to move around the rest of your hand as much is majorly beneficial to proper muting. In terms of accuracy, this one MAY be a personal comfort thing, but I have also always found that when you do a quick tap like before the key change in the Damnation Game opening 'solo', the tap right before the sweep arpeggio down where you have to hit the same note twice very quickly sounds temporally so much more accurate with the index finger than with the middle.
In terms of those ppl who for some reason felt the need to contribute 'this thread is useless', go back to your Friday Five and the other threads that have nothing to do with music, or musicians who want to learn and share. If I can save one person from wasting 5 years of his guitar playing life holding the guitar on his outside leg only to eventually realize that there was a plateau this created where certain licks in the higher fret simply would never come out as cleanly as the other way, it was definitely worth the post. I wish someone had alerted me to that so I did not waste my time until I happened to notice it on the MJR video. Sorry I wasted your time posting about guitar tapping technique on a Symphony X message board, what ever was I thinking!
