Tapping - History

History

Tapping has existed in some form or another for centuries. Niccolò Paganini utilized similar techniques on the violin. A similar technique, called selpe, is used in Turkish folk music on the instrument called the bağlama. Tapping techniques and solos on various stringed acoustic instruments such as the banjo have been documented in early film, records, and performances throughout the early 20th century. The clavichord was an early acoustic keyboard instrument that used a mechanical hammer to "fret" a string for each key. It was followed by an amplified version, the Hohner Clavinet, in 1968.

Roy Smeck used the two-handed tapping technique on a Ukulele in the 1932 film Club House Party. Jimmie Webster made recordings in the 1950s using the method of two-handed tapping he described in 'Touch Method for Electric and Amplified Spanish Guitar', published in 1952. Webster was a student of electric pickup designer Harry DeArmond, who developed two-handed tapping as a way to demonstrate the sensitivity of his pickups. The two-handed tapping technique was also known and occasionally used by many 1950s and 1960s jazz guitarists such as Barney Kessel, who was an early supporter of Emmett Chapman.

In August 1969, Los Angeles jazz guitarist Emmett Chapman discovered a new way of two-handed tapping with both hands held perpendicular to the neck from opposite sides, thus enabling equal counterpoint capabilities for each hand for the first time. Chapman redesigned his 9-string long-scale electric guitar, calling it the Electric Stick. In 1974 he founded Stick Enterprises, Inc. and began building instruments for other musicians. With over 5,000 instruments produced as of 2006, The Chapman Stick is the most popular extant dedicated tapping instrument. Chapman influenced several two-handed tapping guitarists, including Steve Lynch of the band Autograph, and Jennifer Batten.

One of the first rock guitarists to record using the two-handed tapping technique was Steve Hackett from Genesis. Two examples of Hackett's complex Bach like tapping can be heard on the song "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", from 1973, and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed", from 1971.

Harvey Mandel utilized extensive two-handed tapping techniques on his 1973 album Shangrenade. Ritchie Blackmore has said that he saw Harvey Mandel utilize two-handed fretboard tapping as early as 1968 at the Whisky a Go Go.

Randy Resnick of the Pure Food and Drug Act used two-handed tapping techniques extensively in his performances and recordings between 1969 and 1974. Resnick was mentioned in the Eddie Van Halen biography for his contribution to the two-handed tapping technique. Lee Ritenour mentioned in Guitar Player Magazine January 1980 that

Randy was the first guitarist I ever saw who based his whole style on tapping

in reference to Randy playing with Richard Greene And Zone at the Whisky a Go-Go in 1974. Resnick also recorded using the two-handed tapping technique in 1974 on the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers album "Latest Edition" and has said that he was attempting to duplicate the legato of John Coltrane's "Sheets of Sound".

Various other guitarists such as Frank Zappa, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, Brian May from Queen, Duane Allman from The Allman Brothers Band, Larry Carlton (Kid Charlemagne 1976), and Leslie West from Mountain were using the two-handed tapping technique in the early and mid 1970s as well. Ace Frehley and Frank Zappa used a guitar pick for their style of two-handed tapping.

Eddie Van Halen helped popularize the two-handed tapping technique for the modern audience and influenced many guitarists to start utilizing two-handed tapping techniques. His explanation is that he was inspired to use two-handed tapping after hearing the fluid left-hand only pull-offs in Jimmy Page's guitar solo for "Heartbreaker", and expanded this technique by adding his right hand finger(s) out of necessity in reaching higher notes.

George Lynch has said in an interview that he and Eddie Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel utilize two-handed tapping techniques at the Starwood Club in the 1970s. From a March 2009 Metal Den George Lynch interview,

We both witnessed Harvey Mandel from Canned Heat do a neo classic tapping thing at a club called the starwood in Hollywood back in the 70’s. Other people were doing it to a limited extent, Brian May from Queen dabbled… George Van Eps was doing it in the 50’s.

Perhaps the most well-known employment of two-handed tapping is "Eruption" on the first Van Halen album. Released in 1978, it featured very fast two-handed tapping triads and formed the blueprint for heavy metal lead guitar playing throughout the 1980s.

During the 1980s two-handed tapping developed much further with many players such as Stanley Jordan and Enver Izmaylov using a 2 or more finger tapping technique.

Two-handed tapping on the bass guitar was not as popular as the guitar, but in some cases was done before Eddie Van Halen popularized the technique. Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Victor Wooten, Stuart Hamm, John Myung, Les Claypool, Cliff Burton, Alex Webster, Sean Beasley and Arif Mirabdolbaghi used two-handed tapping techniques on the bass guitar.