Legato & Tapping
Push hammer-ons and pull-offs to their limit and you get legato playing. Add a finger from the picking hand onto the fretboard itself, and you get tapping — two hands fretting at once.
Legato: minimal picking, maximum smoothness
A fully legato lead line uses hammer-ons and pull-offs for almost every note, picking only occasionally — often just once at the start of a phrase, or once per string. Because so few notes get a fresh pick attack, legato lines have a rounded, liquid quality where notes blur gently into each other rather than each standing apart with a sharp attack.
Tapping: the picking hand joins the fretboard
Tapping takes legato one step further by bringing the picking hand into the game as a second fretting hand. A finger (usually the index or middle) taps down on a fret far up the neck, essentially performing a hammer-on from a hand that isn't normally involved in fretting at all. Because two independent hands are now covering the fretboard, tapped lines can leap across much wider intervals, at much higher speed, than either hand could manage alone.
Common questions
What is legato guitar playing?
Playing a line mostly through hammer-ons and pull-offs rather than picking each note, for a smooth, fluid sound.
What is tapping on guitar?
Using a picking-hand finger to fret a note directly, letting a single player sound very fast, wide-interval lines.
How is tapping different from a hammer-on?
A hammer-on uses the fretting hand alone; tapping adds the picking hand as a second fretting hand for wider jumps.
Who popularized guitar tapping?
Eddie Van Halen brought it to mainstream popularity in the late 1970s, though the technique existed before him.
Take your lead playing further
Melody Monkey's slow-down and looping tools are built for exactly this kind of advanced technique practice.
Open the free app →Still stuck? Ask Your Personal Music Teacher about Legato & Tapping →