Luís Kalil stopped by Guitar World studios to give us another lesson in reverse tapping. This time for his song, "Boulevard," the title track from the 2-song EP featuring Dirk Verbeuren (former Soilwork) on drums and Lucas Arruda (Jack The Joker) on bass.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hey everyone, my name is Luis Calil and today I'm at Guitar World. I actually can't believe
00:10I'm saying that. I'm here to play my song Boulevard and present for you guys my technique
00:15of reverse tapping, where you basically reverse the position of your hands and it opens a lot
00:20of new sounds and possibilities sonically. And I'm gonna be playing on this awesome ESP-LTD H3-1000
00:28featuring EMG, pickups, TW models and I'm in drop D tuning so hope you guys like the song as much as I do, alright?
00:36Let's listen to it.
00:58Let's listen to it.
01:06Let's listen to it.
01:16Let's listen to it.
01:25Let's listen to it.
01:34Let's listen to it.
01:43Let's listen to it.
01:48Let's listen to it.
01:52Let's listen to it.
04:02All right, so now I'm going to show you guys how to play the riffs and lead parts that
04:13I use the most reverse tapping in this song.
04:16So basically, the riff, we're going to start off like this.
04:19Remember, we're in drop-D tuning, so...
04:22One thing that's very important, whenever you leave the fret like this, make sure you really
04:37make a pull-off, you know, and you pull the string hard so it sounds very aggressive.
04:44Also, one very important tip, whenever you're using your right hand and your left hand, make
04:50sure you play and press the frets as hard as you can, because you've got to push the sound
04:55and separate the notes.
04:56This is the hardest thing about reverse tapping, and any tapping in general is about making
05:01the notes pop out in the middle of the mix or your band playing at the same time, and making
05:07it sound clean and not muddy, because it's a hard technique to execute, easy to sound muddy.
05:13So, uh, pay attention to that and press the frets really hard, okay?
05:17So, second part is...
05:27So, this is a little feel that I do...
05:36So, when you get to...
05:38You come back to the riff.
05:43And, in between, it's not on the original track, but I like doing the...
05:48Just on the fret 3, so strings D, G, and B.
05:55So, very Zac Wilde as well, and...
05:57Sinister Gaze, I like that.
05:59Stuff like this, dying back there, I love that shit.
06:02So, second riff goes like this.
06:04Reverse tapping is not the main thing anymore, and I just add on the fills 1 and 2, so, you
06:10it, you know, just you can come back to the riff later, so...
06:13So...
06:14Remember, this part of your arm is gonna mute everything that's above finger 1, and everything
06:34below finger 1 will be muted by this finger here, okay?
06:37This is the best tip I can give you to mute the strings.
06:41And also, make sure you press really hard the strings, as I said before, and it's really...
06:47A lot of the process of playing something and learning a technique is about observing how
06:52it feels to play it right, and how it feels when you play it slow and you can mute everything.
06:58So basically, just get used to really aiming at the D string, which is the only one you're
07:03playing, instead of, you know, hitting the other strings below and above, and making sounds
07:08that you don't want to, okay?
07:10So second part of the riff is...
07:13So basically, really simple.
07:20I'm just avoiding the, you know, so that's why I play first with the...
07:28As I said, an alternative way to connect the notes that, you know, it's really specific
07:33on my taste.
07:34So third and last part that I use the reverse tapping technique on the song is basically you're
07:38only gonna use the G string.
07:41And this is gonna play, it's a little faster, a little more complicated, but I think it's
07:45something really cool for you guys to work on, and also you can use this in any solo that
07:49you want, any kind of scale that you have, you can just pick one string and you can start
07:54here and go crawling, you know, towards the beginning of the next, so...
08:08So this is a really important thing as well, in the end, you notice, you can notice that
08:22I do...
08:26You know when Dimebag, for example, you use on the walks all the...
08:31So it's really important when you do, when you come back, you...
08:35You know, you do that, so...
08:42And also, that's really important.
08:50It's like your pick attack when you don't have the pick, because you don't have enough
08:53time to come back with the pick, so just use your finger, alright?
08:57So guys, hope you like these examples.
09:00I'm loving being here at Guitar World magazine, it's a dream come true for me, you cannot actually
09:04believe that I'm here.
09:05So guys, thanks for having me, thanks ESP, EMG for all the support, and make sure you
09:11follow me and my band, Red Devil Vortex, online.
09:14You can find us anywhere from TikTok to Instagram, and check out our merch as well.
09:19If you want to know more about reverse zapping, I have the reverse zapping online course that
09:23I recently dropped, and it's all made by myself, and I, you know, since the...
09:28From the landing page to the actual videos you see, I edited everything, and I put my best
09:33on it to share with you guys how to incorporate this technique in your playing, alright?
09:38Thank you so much, guys.