In my opinion tapping is one of the most overused and misused guitar techniques out there. Poorly executed tapping sounds juvenile, whereas majestically executed tapping sounds beautiful. If you want to hear some absolutely superb tapping technique check out Nuno Bettencourt on the songs "He-Man Woman Hater" and "Get the Funk Out". Nuno tends to play arpeggios via tapping and that is one of the most fluid, smooth ways to play arpeggios. If Nuno's technique doesn't get you fired up, then check out Jeff Watson's solo on the Night Ranger song "You can Still Rock in America". There Jeff shows off his 8 finger tapping technique for which he is well known.

In this lesson I will go over some basic tapping exercises and then end with some more advanced exercises that demonstrate tapped arpeggios.

This is the most basic imaginable tapping exercise, but it is a great exercise to get started on developing your tapping technique. The exercise actually amounts to playing a C Major triad using tapping.

Here we see a C Major triad spread out on the E string.

With this exercise, use your right hand to tap onto the 15th fret. Use whatever finger you feel comfortable with. Don't need a pick for this one!