We all know by now that Eddie Van Halen didn't invent tapping.
Vittorio Camardese tapped the hell out of a song in 1965 - and it's incredibly safe to assume he wasn't the inventor of the technique.
Still, it's always nice to be reminded of how old tapping is.
Take this video featuring Roy Smeck, who was known as "the Wizard of the Strings" in his day. Smeck was shredding on ukuleles and other instruments in the Twenties and Thirties, as seen in this clip. He even played at President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933.
The song in the video above is "Rubenstein's Melody in F," and while we can't exactly pinpoint the film this performance is taken from, we know it is available on a DVD called Smeck Shorts.
Smeck, who was born in 1900 and died in 1994, played banjo, guitar, steel guitar and ukulele. For more about the Wizard of the Strings, head here.
P.S.: The bulk of the tapping in question starts at the 1:26 point in the video. Enjoy!
“I took from the best and tossed in little bits of myself. Before long, it started to sound like me.” Eric Gales shares his secret for developing your own guitar style
“He makes it sing, and he makes it cry. He can do it all.” Jeff Lynne explains why a "campfire classic" proves George Harrison's slide playing was second to none
