how do you tap correctly?

[flying_whale]

Dear ladies and gentlemen, that is the question.
I've been tapping without any guidance for a while now, and i don't think i'm doing it correctly. I:
tap the note with my middle finger of my picking hand, without doing something to the pick, but holding it so it doesn't touch the strings, and then i pull the string slightly downwards and then i do the pull offs, hammer ons with my fretting hand. what am i doing wrong?
I noticed on the guitar world video that steve taps the notes with his index finger and does it upwards, that is why i'm asking here.
I tried with my index finger and i can't actually hear the tapped note, and i'm hammering really strong on the fretboard.
Please Steve and the guys around here enlighten me!
Thank you,
Paul

 

[Liverslapper]

you are correct to use the middle finger, cause then you can quickly pick something right after your done, for example how Steve does the Psalm of Lydia Solo, and Jeff with the Final Product solo, you can switch quickly from tapping to picking. Jeff does a lot of that.

i created a horrible wav file to let you listen and ill quickly tab it out. This is tuned down half a sted eb-ab-db-gb-bb-eb (b is flat)

http://www.yousendit.com/download/QRgzOk6GQa8=

I - Index
P- Pinky
M - Middle
I P M
B|--2-5-9--- 5X B|--2-5-10--- 5x B|--4-7-12--- 5x


the 2 and the 5 are played with the left hand of course, index finger for the 2nd and pinky for the 5th, and the right hand index finger for the 9th fret.

get that down then add another finger with your left hand, experiment you can work your way up and down the neck with tapping.
play it slow, like i am and make sure its fluent. build your speed...

one you got that you can add your middle finger in and the other finger as well, just make sure that one note comes right after the other...like a ladder and they are played all fluent so it sounds nice.

If i had a video camera i would record that but im trying my best to do it like this. i just got off work.

But anyway play around with that

if you hammer on harder the more loud the sound will be, if you can hammer on and off at the same speed with both hands, then it will sound good, that is what makes the tapping sound cool, cause if your speeds are off on both hands it will sound like crap.

hope i helped!

 

[flying_whale]

thank you, it helped a lot, thanks for posting a clip.
Paul

 

[Liverslapper]

also when you get good enough at that, you can pull some stuff that Jeff does on this Final Product solo with upward tapping, thats fun to do i still cant build up to his speed on that solo yet.

then when you get really good you can do some sweep-tapping stuff like what Michael Angelo Batio does and some other crazy crap.