FOLLOW US ON:
0 Cart £0.00

Contrapuntal Tapping

< BACK Subscribe Now Subscriber Login

If you have worked through the Beginner Tapping course, you will have learnt how to use the two-handed tapping technique to play a variety of different lines. These include outlining chord progressions using voice leading, and providing accompaniment parts using chords and arpeggiated figures. Consequently, you should by now be quite comfortable with the basic mechanics of the technique. This course will develop the rhythmic independence ideas that were covered in the previous course and demonstrate how they can be used to play contrapuntal lines.

Counterpoint is the relationship between two or more parts that work together, but which are rhythmically independent. Music written in this way is described as ‘contrapuntal’. This course will explore some basic contrapuntal ideas on the bass, most of which will consist of a bassline performed by the fretting hand, and a melody or chordal motif performed by the picking hand.

As you work through this material, you might find the following courses useful (all included in the monthly subscription cost):

Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get the PDF worksheet and audio files for this course (available to subscribers only).

This course is 1 HOUR & 34 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. Exercise #1

This exercise is a swing jazz piece with a walking bassline played by the fretting hand and some partial chord voicings played by the picking hand.

2. Exercise #2

This is an indie/rock-style line. There are two distinct parts here: the fretting hand plays an eighth note bassline, while the picking hand plays a simple melodic part.

3. Exercise #3

This exercise has a reggae feel. The fretting hand plays a simple reggae bassline while the picking hand taps out a ‘guitar part’ using partial chord voicings.

4. Exercise #4

This exercise is similar Exercise 1. The difference is that some alternative rhythms have been added to the chordal part to make it more interesting/authentic.

5. Exercise #5

This exercise has a Latin rock feel. A common Latin groove is played by the fretting hand, while the picking hand reinforces the harmony with a chordal part.

6. Exercise #6

This exercise is similar in style to Stuart Hamm’s famous rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s ‘Linus & Lucy’, better known as ‘The Peanuts Theme’.

7. Exercise #7

This exercise is a slow funk groove in the style of the popular Billy Cobham track ‘Red Baron’. The chord voicings used reflect the harmony very effectively.

8. Exercise #8

This is a more complex jazz line. This time the progression is a jazz blues (a 12-bar blues with some added chords for extra colour), played at a medium swing tempo.

9. Exercise #9

This exercise has a similar progression to ‘Blue Bossa’. The fretting hand plays a bossa nova bassline, while the picking hand plays chords using simple Latin rhythms.

10. Exercise #10

This exercise is a slow blues in 12/8 time. The fretting hand plays a basic shuffle rhythm, whilst the picking hand plays double stops and simple melodic fragments.