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Hey guys! I am happy to be bringing you some shred ideas for Guitar Messenger in the next few months. My contributions will be focusing on tapping and ways expand your vocabulary of ideas.

For many guys that want to tap better, they do not have the hand strength or built up dexterity to hammer onto the fretboard hard enough. You must hammer with some real power and try to be as accurate as possible in the placement of the hammering finger relative to the fret and adjacent strings. I recommend using the guitar flat on your lap and practicing the tapping while watching television to make it easier to stay focused on building strength.

Fret the 10th fret on the high E string with your fret hand and practice very slowly pulling off to the 10th fret the 15th, 17th, and 19th frets using the 2nd finger, 3rd, finger and 4th finger while holding the pick. This can be awkward since you are restricting power from your tapping hands index finger. You may even try trilling between the notes with a 2nd and 3rd finger trill, 2nd and 4th finger and then the 3rd and 4th. Increase your interval as much as you can to get additional options for your tapping hand like extended pentatonic ideas and arpeggio’s.

After you have enough strength to get these going, try and extend them into a run or series of fast arpeggio shapes. Having the pick available for bending notes or picking them immediately will increase the fluidity of integrating shapes like these into your playing. This month’s lick ideas are extended arpeggios that add the first 3 notes of the relating diatonic scale.

Here are G major and A minor extended arpeggios that add the first 3 notes of the relating diatonic scale using sweep picking and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, finger of the picking/tapping hand. Of course these shapes are universal and can be applied to any other key. If you are attempting these lick ideas, it is assumed that you already have some sweeping and tapping technique. If you cannot do it easily just yet, then work hard at a slow pace to play it smoothly.