There's a moment in every guitarist's life when they discover two-hand tapping and immediately try to play a Van Halen solo, fail spectacularly, and retreat to sulk. This lick is the gentle on-ramp before all that: nineteen seconds of tapped Am7 arpeggio that sounds like you've been shredding for years and took you an afternoon.
It's Lick #6 from my series, and it's built entirely on an Am7 arpeggio (A–C–E–G, for those keeping score). Two hands, one chord, and a cascading waterfall of notes that tumbles up the neck. PDF and Guitar Pro files are waiting for you, so you have zero excuses.
How this tapped Am7 arpeggio works
The trick is division of labour. Your tapping hand (the right one) grabs the highest chord tone on each string, while your fretting hand hammers the two lower notes underneath it. Three notes per string, all belonging to Am7, and suddenly one string spells a big chunk of the arpeggio on its own. Move that same shape up the neck string by string and the chord tones stack into that fluid, cascading sound tapping is famous for.
The concrete takeaway: pull the tapping finger sideways off the string, not straight up. That little sideways flick re-plucks the string cleanly and sets the next fretted note ringing, which is the whole difference between a smooth waterfall and a muddy puddle. If tapping is brand new to you, start with the basics or the beginner version first, then come back and let this one cascade.
Nail it and you'll sound like you have a secret third hand. Fail it and you'll sound like a wet sponge falling down stairs — but that's what practice is for. Want the PDF, the Guitar Pro file, and more licks like this? They live on my Patreon.