Guitar technique
Tapping is a guitar technique where the picking-hand fingers strike notes directly onto the fretboard, allowing wide interval jumps and fast passages that would be impossible with conventional fretting.
Free for the first 3 songs.
What it is
Tapping became widely associated with rock guitar in the late 1970s and is now a standard part of rock, metal, and progressive guitar vocabulary. Two-hand tapping combines hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapped notes from the picking hand to produce flowing patterns across the fretboard. Some players tap with one finger; others use multiple picking-hand fingers for chord-like tapping.
How to read it
Tab notation uses 't' or '+' to mark tapped notes, often combined with 'h' and 'p' for the legato passages between taps. A common pattern looks like: t12 p5 h7 — tap the 12th fret, pull off to 5, hammer back to 7.
See the full guide to reading guitar tab for the complete symbol reference, or browse the glossary for related terminology.
How audio2guitar detects it
Tapped notes have a distinct attack envelope: the strike is more percussive and shorter than a hammer-on, with a sharper transient. The pipeline identifies tapping by combining this envelope signature with the typical patterns (large interval jumps, repeated tap-pull-hammer sequences) seen in tap-heavy passages.
Where it shows up
Tap notation marks tapped notes but does not currently distinguish picking-hand taps from fretting-hand taps. Most tablature conventions assume taps are picking-hand and hammers/pulls are fretting-hand.
Every tapping our pipeline detects gets marked in the tab automatically. First 3 songs free.