It’s biomechanically optimized for efficiency and injury prevention. A student raised her hand, a young woman with a Les Paul across her lap. What about using different fingers? Or approaching from underneath instead of over the top? I’ve seen videos where Marcus cut her off with a patient but firm shake of his head. Those are improper techniques.
They might work in the short term, especially for guitarists with natural talent who can compensate for inefficiency, but they create bad habits that will limit your development. There’s only one biomechanically correct way to tap, the way I’m showing you. It’s been studied, measured, and validated. If you can’t do it this way, you’re not ready for advanced techniques.
You need to build the proper foundation first. Eddie shifted in his seat, increasingly bothered by the absolutism. That wasn’t true. Eddie’s own tapping technique came from underneath the neck, not over the top. His hand angle was completely different from what Marcus was prescribing. His thumb often went over the top of the neck, which Marcus had just called incorrect, and it had worked fine for 40 years.
Marcus continued, warming to his theme. The problem with self-taught guitarists is they develop these idiosyncratic techniques that feel natural, but are fundamentally wrong from a biomechanical standpoint. They’re working against their own anatomy. Proper instruction eliminates those bad habits before they become ingrained.
That’s why formal education is so valuable. It gives you the correct approach from the beginning. Another student raised his hand, a teenager with an Eddie Van Halen poster visible on his notebook. But what about Eddie Van Halen? His tapping technique is completely different from what you’re showing. He approaches from underneath the neck.
His hand position is nothing like this. And it obviously worked. Marcus smiled in a way that suggested he’d been waiting for this question, that he had a prepared answer. Eddie Van Halen is a perfect example of natural talent overcoming poor technique. Yes, his approach is unorthodox. Yes, it clearly worked for him.
I’m not denying his success or ability. But, from a pedagogical standpoint, he could have been even better with proper formal training. His technique is inefficient, biomechanically suboptimal. He compensated with exceptional natural ability and thousands of hours of practice. But, for students learning now, there’s no reason to adopt his inefficient methods when we have the correct, scientifically validated approach available.
Eddie felt his eyebrows go up. He could have been even better with proper training? That was That was something. He spoke up from the back row, keeping his voice neutral. Actually, there are several ways to approach tapping. Different hand positions work for different players in different musical contexts. The entire class turned to look at him.
Marcus stopped mid-demonstration. I’m sorry, Marcus said with barely concealed irritation. Are you teaching this class? Do you have advanced technique credentials? No credentials, Eddie admitted, just experience. Marcus set down his guitar and crossed his arms. Well, experience without proper training usually leads to bad habits.
That’s the entire point of formal education. To correct the mistakes that self-taught players make. He looked at Eddie more carefully, seeing just a regular middle-aged guy in a baseball cap. But, since you seem to think you know better than established pedagogical methods, why don’t you to up here and demonstrate your alternative approach? The challenge was clear and condescending.
Marcus was expecting to embarrass a student who’d spoken out of turn. Eddie looked at the 20 students, all watching this exchange with interest. He glanced at the empty chair where Dave should have been sitting. Dave would have loved this. Eddie stood up and walked to the front of the class.
Marcus handed him a guitar, a Fender Stratocaster that belonged to MI, set up for teaching. “Please,” Marcus said with a slight smirk. “Show the class your unorthodox technique.” Eddie took the guitar and adjusted the strap. “Before I demonstrate, can I ask you something?” “What?” “Do you know who Eddie Van Halen is?” Marcus looked confused by the question.
“Of course, we just discussed him. Natural talent, poor technique, could have been better with formal training. Why?” “Because I’m Eddie Van Halen,” Eddie said calmly. “And I’d like to demonstrate why different approaches to tapping aren’t wrong. They’re just different.” The classroom exploded.
Students gasped, pulled out phones, started recording. Marcus’s face went from condescending confidence to absolute shock. “You’re what?” Eddie removed his baseball cap. “Eddie Van Halen, and you just said I could have been even better with proper training. I’m very curious what proper training would have taught me that 40 years of playing didn’t.
” Marcus sat down heavily in the instructor’s chair, his face pale. Eddie addressed the class directly. “Here’s the thing about technique. There is no single correct way. There are efficient ways and inefficient ways, approaches that work for you and approaches that don’t. But the idea that there’s only one biomechanically correct method, that’s false.
” He demonstrated his tapping technique, hand coming from underneath the neck, different finger angles than Marcus had prescribed, using thumb position that Marcus had called incorrect. This is how I tap. It’s different from what Mr. Vance showed you. It’s not wrong. It’s adapted to my hands, my playing style, my musical goals.
I’ve been doing it this way since 1978. No injuries, no problems. It works. He played through several tapping patterns, showing different approaches, two fingers, three fingers, thumb included, various hand angles. See? Multiple ways to get the same result. Your job as a student isn’t to find the correct technique.
It’s to find your technique, the one that works for your hands and your music. Marcus tried to recover. Mr. Van Halen, I didn’t mean to suggest You said I could have been even better with proper training, Eddie interrupted gently. What did you mean by that? Marcus fumbled for words. I just meant theoretically, from a pedagogical standpoint.
You meant that self-taught players have bad habits, Eddie said, and that’s sometimes true. I absolutely have habits that a classical instructor would consider incorrect. But those incorrect habits are part of my sound. They’re part of what makes my playing recognizable. If I’d been trained to play correctly, I might have lost that.
He handed the guitar to a student in the front row. Can you play something? Anything you’re working on. The student, nervous, played a scale exercise with tapping. His technique was exactly what Marcus had demonstrated, textbook perfect, rigid, mechanical. That’s technically correct, Eddie said, but it sounds stiff.
