Luís Kalil stopped by Guitar World studios to give us a lesson in reverse tapping in his song, Reverse Strike"
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MusicTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hey, everyone.
00:07 My name is Luis Calil.
00:08 And today, I'm at Guitar World magazine
00:10 for a presentation of reverse tapping.
00:13 So basically, my biggest goal as a guitar player
00:21 since the beginning was to find my voice on the guitar.
00:24 And I always wonder why some people sound unique
00:27 and others don't.
00:29 And I came to realize it always came down
00:31 to how they connect the notes and their ideas.
00:35 So this is what reverse tapping is about.
00:37 It's an alternative way to connect notes
00:40 in your phrasing where you reverse
00:42 the usual position of your hands when doing the usual tapping
00:45 technique like this.
00:46 And it's just an alternative way where
00:48 you reverse the position of your hands
00:50 compared to the usual tapping technique
00:52 that you usually do like this, where
00:54 it opens the door for a lot of new sounds
00:57 and new possibilities to connect notes, ideas, and phrasing.
01:01 So now I'm going to play for you my song "Reverse Strike"
01:04 featuring Dirk from Megadeth on drums.
01:07 And I hope you like it.
01:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:11 [MUSIC - DIRK, "REVERSE STRIKE"]
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05:19 All right, so now I'm going to break it down step by step
05:22 of how to play the first riff of "Reverse Strike" that
05:25 has a lot of reverse tapping stuff.
05:27 So you might ask why I play like this.
05:30 And it's because when I was 14 years old,
05:32 I was very into practicing two-hand tapping and stuff
05:35 like that.
05:36 And I was practicing 1, 2, 3, 4 with my right hand.
05:39 And I quickly realized that I would never
05:42 be able to be as good with this hand as I am with this,
05:45 because it's so obvious.
05:46 So I was like, man, why when we're doing tapping,
05:49 all the more complicated stuff is here on the low register,
05:53 while I only add some notes with my fingers
05:56 on the high register?
05:58 So what if now the more elaborate phrasing is up here,
06:02 and I only do details with this hand?
06:04 And that opened the door for a lot of new sonic possibilities
06:08 in my playing and things that I noticed that I
06:10 could connect the notes with.
06:12 So in this, riff is not different.
06:15 So let me walk you through how I play this, OK?
06:18 All right, so we start off on a D chord, so strings D and G.
06:23 Very Sackwell kind of thing, with a little bit of harmonic.
06:28 So-- so the rhythm here, the subdivision is 16 triplets, so--
06:41 And now the second part, you're going to do a little run that's
06:50 going to be--
06:51 And then you're going to do this slide.
06:57 So this is one of the main things of reverse stepping,
07:00 that it opens up the possibility of you going back and forth
07:03 like this, without hearing a lot of the pick.
07:06 And when I do like this, for example,
07:11 if I was going to play with this hand,
07:13 I'm going to be sliding back and forth all the time,
07:15 and I don't like that sound.
07:17 I want things to be more direct, like I
07:19 had 10 fingers in one hand.
07:20 So that's not possible, so that's why I do what I do.
07:25 All right?
07:25 So second thing, so starting the riff.
07:28 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:31 So--
07:40 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:43 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:46 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:50 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:53 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:56 [GUITAR PLAYING]
08:00 [GUITAR PLAYING]
08:03 Just make sure you pay attention on this fast run here.
08:06 [GUITAR PLAYING]
08:09 I'm doing a double stop, and also I lay down my finger
08:12 a little bit so I can hit the two strings, both strings,
08:15 with one finger only.
08:17 And then you slide towards the direction of your pickup.
08:21 OK?
08:22 And also a quick tip for you to mute the strings
08:26 when playing reverse tapping.
08:28 You're going to use this part of your arm as your best friend.
08:31 So everything that is above your last finger here,
08:34 it's going to be muted by this.
08:36 And everything below this finger will
08:38 be muted by your right hand.
08:41 So after you do--
08:43 [GUITAR PLAYING]
08:46 So this is how you finish up.
08:54 [GUITAR PLAYING]
08:57 So--
08:57 [GUITAR PLAYING]
09:00 Then you come back to--
09:07 [GUITAR PLAYING]
09:10 [GUITAR PLAYING]
09:13 Cool?
09:17 That's the first riff.
09:19 And I would say it's a good introduction of how
09:21 to riff with reverse tapping.
09:23 So now there's a second riff before the solo section
09:26 in the song where I use the reverse tapping in many ways.
09:31 But this time, I'm going to basically follow
09:33 the chord progression, which is D, and then A over C sharp.
09:39 Then C. Then G over B. OK?
09:45 So what happens here basically is
09:47 that I'm going to be back and forth with slides
09:50 and some hammer-ons to match what's
09:53 going on in the chord progression.
09:54 So this is what it sounds like.
09:56 So basically, we start off with a variation of the first riff.
09:59 So--
09:59 [GUITAR PLAYING]
10:02 OK?
10:08 So--
10:09 [GUITAR PLAYING]
10:12 Then you do--
10:32 [GUITAR PLAYING]
10:35 Open string.
10:35 OK?
10:36 [GUITAR PLAYING]
10:39 When the chord progression hits, what you're going to do
10:43 is basically adapt to what's going on.
10:45 So it goes like this.
10:46 [GUITAR PLAYING]
10:49 Then you repeat it again.
11:05 So one more time.
11:06 [GUITAR PLAYING]
11:09 So you play that twice, and that's it.
11:26 You move on to the solo.
11:28 And one thing on the solo that I wanted to point out,
11:30 I think it's really interesting for you guys to pay attention.
11:32 Two things, actually.
11:34 One is completing with both hands the phrasing
11:37 that you're doing.
11:37 For example, there's this phrase.
11:39 [GUITAR PLAYING]
11:42 I think it's really cool.
11:45 And you follow up with an inversion of the A major triad,
11:50 which I think it's something really cool.
11:52 You can do reverse timing.
11:53 So--
11:53 [GUITAR PLAYING]
11:56 And also, you could do--
11:57 [GUITAR PLAYING]
12:02 Stuff like that, when you're doing the speed of light,
12:04 sounds really cool.
12:06 So in the song, basically, I just do--
12:07 [GUITAR PLAYING]
12:10 And then also, third tip, I would
12:13 say you can use your right hand to do some rhythm.
12:18 And the last thing on the solo that I think it's really cool,
12:20 you can use a reverse tapping, is you can actually
12:22 use double stops with your right hand.
12:24 And it's just something more related to-- it's more focused
12:27 on rhythm than anything technical, really.
12:30 So--
12:31 [GUITAR PLAYING]
12:34 So that, I think, it's really cool.
12:38 So--
12:39 [GUITAR PLAYING]
12:40 So it goes like this.
12:41 [GUITAR PLAYING]
12:44 So everything that I play, it's much more
12:54 about having the impact, that people hear me
12:58 and they say, man, my guitar didn't come with these notes.
13:02 So that's what I want people to say when they hear me.
13:05 So everything I'm doing here is way more focused on the sound
13:08 than how it looks like or how difficult it is to play
13:13 and stuff like that.
13:14 I don't really care about that.
13:15 It's very hard, but it's hard because it is hard,
13:17 not because I want it to be.
13:19 You know?
13:20 And also, I never settle with the idea
13:23 that everything in metal and rock was already made.
13:26 And I'm always trying to dig new sounds and dig new stuff,
13:30 even though I'm a very classic guy.
13:33 You know?
13:34 Randy is one of my favorite guitar players.
13:35 Slash made me start playing.
13:37 Eddie Van Halen, for me, is the best of all time.
13:40 And all my influences, like from Sinister Gates to Kiko Loureiro
13:44 to Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, all those guys
13:47 are very classic.
13:48 And I want to be one of them as well.
13:50 But I also think there's a lot to still discover
13:55 in metal and rock guitar.
13:56 So this is my contribution, I would say.
13:59 So I hope you like it.
14:00 All right, so I hope you guys enjoyed the video.
14:03 And if you want to know more about reverse tapping,
14:05 I recently dropped an online course
14:08 about this technique, which I subdivided in rhythm and lead
14:12 guitar playing, a lot of lessons, a lot of tips and tricks
14:15 that you can add to your playing.
14:17 And also, you get to stay in contact with me, too.
14:20 Ask me any questions, anything like that.
14:22 So follow me on social media, @luizcalil_.
14:25 And Facebook or anything, Instagram, TikTok nowadays.
14:29 And also follow my band, Red Devil Vortex.
14:32 We're dropping a new album very soon.
14:34 And this is something I'm really proud of to be part.
14:37 And yeah, thanks for listening.
14:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
14:44 (upbeat music)
14:47 you