Bend and Tap

One quick tip for your lead guitar playing is a concept called "Bending and Tapping". Everybody knows what bending is obviously, but when you bend a note say the 7th fret of the 3rd string I might bend that up a whole step and rather than just releasing it, like that, I can bend it up, reach here with the right hand, tap maybe the 12th fret and the thing about it is the 12th fret is normally a 'G' and this 7th fret is normally a 'D'. I have bend the 'D' up to an 'E' the whole step because I tapped the 12th fret the note that comes out that sounds is actually an 'A', because the string is already bent up a whole step so you get.

So, what I did there is I bend the 'D' up to the 'E' and then I tapped what would normally be a 'G' it sounded as an 'A'. I slid before I even released the bend. I slid up a whole step to a note that we normally think it was an 'A' on the fret board that was now a 'B' because again the string was bent. I released the bend, brought it down to a 'C' and then slid up to a 'D' and then tap the 'D' on the 19th fret of the 3rd string so, again.

So, if you try that maybe but on the 2nd string I guess I have bent the 8th fret, it would look like that. I am bending the 8th fret now up a whole step a 'G' to an 'A' tapping what would be a 'C', 'C' at the 13th fret of the 2nd string and I am going to slide it, it's going to sound as a 'D' and then tap the 20th fret there on the 2nd string for an octave.

So, it's really just a matter of applying some right hand taps to an already pre-bent string and may be sliding some of the right hand stuff around as well. You can come up with some cool melodic ideas and things that really sound unusual in terms of your lead guitars. That's just a little tip on bends and taps.

Hi! I am Eric Mongrain and I today I am going to try and show you how to play the Lap Tapping technique. The point here is this technique is mostly improvisation. For me I would say 75% improvisation and 25% structures.


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