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Two Handed Tapping Bassics

Technique Advanced 1 min read

Updated

Two-handed tapping on bass guitar lets both hands articulate notes on the fretboard, opening up solo bass arrangements the way players like Trip Wamsley and Darren Michaels have built careers on. Like any technique, it starts with physical conditioning: organizing the hands and building muscle memory for relaxed, independent motion before the musical ideas can follow.

Originally published June 23, 2014, lightly edited for clarity.

Two-handed tapping on bass guitar asks a lot of your hands, so the technique starts with physical conditioning — organizing the hands and building independent, relaxed muscle memory before any musical ideas can land. Two handed tapping on bass guitar has become a very popular technique on bass guitar. You have bass players like Trip Wamsley and Darren Michaels making entire bass careers out of solo bass concerts using this innovative way of playing the bass. As with all techniques on an instrument, one of the 1st things to start working on is getting physicality organized and the muscle memory programed. The following video, recorded during a real online bass lesson, shows a couple of things to work on to get two-handed tapping into your own playing. Two-handed tapping is one of the styles I teach. For personalized coaching on tapping technique, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.

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