That driving, ecstatic, climactic sound of properly executed tapping on a guitar has driven many a crowd to a screaming, writhing peak! The tablature for tapping can seem intimidating, but it is actually a relatively easy skill to learn if you start slowly and focus on your technique.

Tapping is the process of performing rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs (slurs), with both your left and right hands. Learning to tap means that you can:

• Play triplet or quadruplet slurs in places across the fret board that would be impossible to reach with just your left hand

• Play slurs at a much higher beat count than you can with one hand

To learn to tap, you will first need to learn to hammer on and pull off. Tapping is basically a series of hammer on-pull offs. To hammer on with your left hand:

• Fret any note with your left index finger

• Pluck it with your right hand and leave it to ring

• Use your middle, ring or pinky finger of your right hand to quickly and gracefully change to a new note further up the fret board.

Pull offs utilize the same technique as hammer ons, but are played down the fret board, instead of up. That is, they move from a higher to a lower note. To pull off with your left hand:

• Put your pinky, ring or middle finger on a note on the fret board

• Put your index finger on a note behind it on the same string

• Pull the higher finger away, making sure that you pull at the string a little as you do so to help create a sound.

Once you've practiced hammering on and pulling off for a while, you'll notice that the two flow together. You can hammer on to a note, and immediately pull off back to the original one. This is the basis of tapping. When you hammer on and pull off to the same two notes, it is known musically as trilling.

To learn how to tap:

• Start off trilling two notes - for example, use the 5th and 8th frets on the B string. Do the trilling slowly, even if you've practiced enough to be quite quick.

• Once you have a rhythm going, use your right hand middle finger to hammer on to the 12th fret, after you've hammered onto the 8th.

• Pull off the 12th fret, and then continue to pull off the 8th fret as you would have.

• You've created a three-note trill - also known as tapping.

• Quadruplet trills are also possible. It is much easier to practice with three fingers of your left hand, and the middle finger of your right, rather than using two fingers on each hand.

Good songs for practising tapping:

• Thunderstruck, AC/DC

• Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne

• Hot for Teacher, Van Halen

• Midnight, Joe Satriani

• Building the Church, Steve Vai