Modern Tapping

Richard Henshall delivers a JTC debut packed to the rafters with tapping concepts to make your own. Funk, fusion, rock and blues combine in a celebration of unorthodox thinking.

“Modern Tapping” is built around three towering performances specifically written to show off a carousel of tapping and soloing ideas. Bursting with rhythmic phrasing, interesting position shifts and a fully blown platter of articulation ideas, there’s everything you need to elevate your sound.

As you peel back the veil and delve into Richard’s solos, you’ll make use of tap bends and slides. You’ll call on a whole host of rhythmically rich 3 against 4 ideas and make use of chromatic passing tones to add fluidity to your lines. You’ll also use the pentatonic scale alongside wide intervallic stretches. You’ll shine the spotlight on legato, stay loose for some alternate picking and smoothly navigate the fretboard with plenty of octave jumps.

As you uncover the soloing magic of “Slam Funk”, “Kraken” and “Raindrops”, you’ll test and develop your tapping precision, vocabulary and endurance.

With every track comes a collection of slow licks. Played to click at 30% of the speed of the original, they are a chance to see exactly what’s happening and to build your muscle memory from the ground up. Alongside these licks comes Richard’s personal notes, where he shares both the influences behind each phrase, and the theory behind it.

In total this release includes three full performances, 21 slow licks, 3 backings (fast and slow), a PDF study guide and full and accurate tab/notation in PDF and GP format.

Open up the tapping puzzlebox and expand the phrasing and character of your solos with a suitably bold debut, from an especially bold player.