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8 Finger Tapping:

A technique and a magic trick

The very appeal of 8 finger tapping is it’s appearance of being an almost superhuman feat of dexterity and control.  But appearances can be deceiving.  In fact, much like how a magician can amaze an audience by fooling them, 8 finger tapping is designed to create an illusion of an impossible level of skill. 

The illusion itself has proven to be good enough to keep its own secret.  Most guitarists never even attempt to learn 8 finger tapping because they are intimidated by what appears to be something that only “specially gifted” or “obsessive players” can achieve.  

Guitarists who master the technique are more than happy to keep the secret whether intentionally or unconsciously.  It’s no secret that ego is a prime motivator for achieving high levels of skill in any area and guitar is a perfect example of that fact.  There is a sense of significance that is downright addictive when being seen as “one of the very few” who can amaze an audience so perfectly with something that “only they can do.”  

But it’s all smoke and mirrors.  The truth is, 8 finger tapping is no more difficult than learning to play the piano at a basic level of competence.  And if the player learning it has already reached a level of proficiency on the guitar, they already know most of what they need to know – they just don’t know it.

Now, none of this is to say that 8 finger tapping is an invalid or worthless technique.  It’s quite the contrary.  Not only does 8 finger tapping work as a brilliant show stopping performance technique but it also allows things to be played on the guitar that would otherwise be impossible.  It opens up doors for creativity and composition and can practically transform the guitar into another instrument altogether.  It is invaluable.  

It’s just that it’s a LOT easier than it looks.  That is, assuming you know an effective way to approach it.

If you’ve ever attempted learning an 8 finger tapping pattern and quit after getting frustrated, there’s a very good reason of why.  You were skipping a key step that you didn’t know about and assumed that the technique itself was too difficult.  

The secret is in how you train your “tapping hand” and how you transfer what you already know from one hand to the other.  The rest is no different than learning any new pattern.  

You can play things with ease by fretting with your fretting hand because you’ve developed those fingers over time with practice.  But more than that, you’ve developed an understanding of the fretboard that becomes intuitive over time.  The reality is, you do not need to develop that understanding all over again to achieve 8 finger tapping.  You just need to “transfer” what you know.  

First and foremost, simple scale patterns can be played with only your tapping hand.  Just a little bit of time spent every day.  This will build up the muscles in those fingers and develop muscle memory.  It’s true that it will be very awkward at first, but that goes away much more rapidly than you’d expect.  

You’ve no doubt used scales as warm-ups throughout your time developing your current skills.  It’s the same process, only now with your tapping hand and approaching the fretboard from a different angle.  

Once your tapping hand becomes comfortable running these warm-ups, you can simply begin learning basic multi-finger tapped patterns and start working your way up. 

A very motivated guitarist could master the technique in a matter of months.  Sometimes in a surprisingly shorter period of time, depending on their level on the guitar and how much time they are willing to spend.  

You can master 8 finger tapping and it doesn’t have to become your job for the next few months.  Simply incorporating some basic warm-ups and exercises into your current practice routine is enough to get you there.

This approach is integral in my course, The Infinite Tapping Method.  This revolutionary course is designed to give you all the tools necessary to master all types of finger tapping, taking you from the basics all the way up to advanced 8 finger patterns.  All the while, giving you the warm-ups, exercises and instruction on how to build up your tapping hand gradually over the course of the lessons.  

It doesn’t include or require any leaps in skill.  It’s meticulously designed to help you work your way up gradually and organically so you build the muscle memory, dexterity and intuitive understanding that is enjoyed by the masters of these techniques.  

If you follow the course as intended, it can and will make a tapping master out of you.  But more than that, it will give you the understanding and ability to craft an infinite array of new tapping patterns in real time, as you need them. 

The skills and understanding you will gain from this course will also carry over into all areas of your playing and help you towards your goal of total mastery over the guitar.

Take a moment now to check out The Infinite Tapping Method.  With nearly 3 hours of video material and 121 optimized exercises (with no filler), The Infinite Tapping Method will truly be your last stop for total tapping mastery.  

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One of the most frustrating aspects of trying to master the guitar are the various points where progress seems to stop.  This can happen in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.  

The most common cause of limitations on progress is poor practice habits. 

Many guitarists have never been exposed to the concept of practice theory and/or the idea that practice is a skill in itself.  This can lead to guitarists spending years spinning their wheels by simply “practicing” what they feel like almost at random, without focused attention on any particular thing and without practicing correctly. 

Let’s look at three specific problems that lead to limited or blocked progress on the guitar and what can be done about it.  

1.  Sloppy Practice

For technique or speed, this can mean running through something over and over again at maximum speed hoping to get faster and achieve a cleaner sound.  Nothing will be more frustrating since you’re literally cementing the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve into your mind and muscles. 

As you’ve heard me say in the past, however you practice something is how you will learn it.  If you practice something sloppy, it will always be sloppy.  If you practice something with perfect articulation, your end result will always have perfect articulation.  

Of course, the way to always practice with perfect articulation is to practice very slowly with the metronome, only gradually increasing your speed over time.  It’s not as exciting at first and it takes some discipline, but that’s how those techniques are achieved.  There are no shortcuts in that regard.

2. Lack of focused practice

This idea of practicing things almost at random is actually a serious flaw in any guitarist’s practice routine.  

Every guitarist enjoys picking up their guitar and simply playing whatever they feel like playing.  However, the problem happens when these random playing sessions become confused with actual practice.  While you will absolutely benefit from every time you play the guitar, a focused and measured effort is required to achieve the higher levels of technique and general mastery of the instrument. 

If you find yourself getting frustrated with practicing something and needing to take a break from it before mastering it, all that means is that you are practicing something that is a little too advanced for where you are.  Sometimes you can get away with jumping forward a bit, but this should never be a common approach.  Without a solid foundation for your technique, you will never be able to achieve the level of playing you are working towards. 

It is critical to know exactly what you are going to practice, and why, before every true practice session.  

You must segment a dedicated amount of time in your practice routine to each individual thing you are working on.  For true optimization, this can mean breaking something down into its elements and spending time on each element separately. 

For an example of this, a guitar solo could be practiced as a whole for memorization while the techniques used in that solo could be practiced separately with the metronome before attempting the whole thing at full speed. 

There are a large variety of ways this can be done and it’s an area where creativity can really come in handy.

This ties in and brings us to our last point…

3. Poor goal setting and failure to reach goals

Specific goals are absolutely critical to any effective practice routine. Goals are what tell you where you are going and give you the stepping stones to get there.  If you’re not setting realistic short-term goals that work you towards realistic long-term goals, you are just spinning your wheels.

Obviously, every guitarist has what we could call an “arch-goal” that defines what they are hoping to achieve in the long run.  This could be something like one day playing as well as a favorite guitarist or even becoming a rock star.  And while this arch-goal is key for maintaining motivation to practice at the core, it’s not what we’re talking about now. 

In every practice routine, there must be a hierarchy of  short and long-term goals.  Breaking them up further is even more effective.  Let’s look at a specific example. 

A long-term goal can be something like becoming a master of alternate picking at Shred speeds.  Now, this goal can potentially take a year or more to achieve.  If that’s the only goal you bring with you to your practice sessions, you will feel that you are failing to achieve it every day.  You won’t be able to track your progress and this will lead to lack of motivation and eventually burnout.

On the other hand, you can set specific reachable short-term daily goals that will guarantee satisfaction and momentum in every practice session. 

In the case of our example, your daily goal could be about reaching a specific BPM on your metronome with your alternate picking.  Again, this has to be something realistic or else you will run into the same problem.  If you set this goal and reach it every day, you will build momentum and actually see far clearer and faster progress than you would otherwise.  

As a side-note, you could consider mastering specific patterns to be something like mid-term goals that could be spanned out over days, a week or more.  This is also incredibly effective. 

The more you apply these principles, the more you will understand the relationship between practice, your mind and your level of skill.  This will cause you to actually become more skillful in practice itself and you will begin to optimize your practice time more and more.  This happens naturally and will cause your progress to increase almost exponentially over time. 

If you’re looking for something new to practice, check out my brand new course: The Infinite Shred Method.

Dan Mumm