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.
01:52Let's listen to it.
02:00Let's listen to it.
04:04All 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...
04:29One thing that's very important, whenever you leave the fret like this...
04:34Make sure you really make a pull-off, you know, and you pull the string hard so it sounds very
04:43aggressive.
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
05:07making it sound clean and not muddy, because it's a hard technique to execute, easy to sound
05:13muddy.
05:14So, pay attention to that and press the frets really hard, okay?
05:17So, second part is...
05:28So, this is a little feel that I do...
05:37So when you get to...
05:39You come back to the riff.
05:43And in between, it's not on the original track, but I like doing the...
05:50Just on the fret 3, so strings D, G, and B. So very Zach Wild as well, and sinister gaze,
05:58I like...
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 one and two, so
06:10it, you know, just you can come back to the riff later, so...
06:13So...
06:17Remember, this part of your arm is gonna mute everything that's above finger one and everything below finger one will be muted by this finger here, okay?
06:25This is the best tip I can give you to mute the strings.
06:28And also make sure you press really hard the strings, as I said before.
06:32And it's really...
06:33And it's really...
06:34A lot of the process of playing something and learning a technique is about observing how
06:39it feels to play it right, and how it feels when you play it slow and you can mute everything.
06:43So basically, just get used to really aiming at the D string, which is the only one you're playing,
06:46instead of hitting the other strings below and above and making sounds that you don't want to
06:48want.
06:49Okay?
06:50So, second part of the riff is...
06:51So basically, really simple.
06:52I'm just avoiding the riff, so...
06:53How it feels to play it right, and how it feels when you play it slow and you can mute everything.
06:57So basically, just get used to really aiming at the D string, which is the only one you're
07:03playing, instead of hitting the other strings below and above and making sounds that you
07:09don't want to, okay?
07:10So, second part of the riff is...
07:13So basically, really simple.
07:21I'm just avoiding the...
07:23You know?
07:24So 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
07:38you're only gonna use the G string.
07:41And this is gonna play...
07:42It's a little faster, a little more complicated, but I think it's something really cool for you
07:46guys to work on, and also you can use this in any solo that you want, any kind of scale
07:50that you have.
07:51You can just pick one string and you can start here and go crawling, you know, towards the
07:57beginning of the next.
07:59So, this is a really important thing as well, in the end, you notice, you can notice that
08:09I do...
08:10You know when Dimebag, for example, you use on the walks all the...
08:17So, it's really important when you do, when you come back, you know, you do that, so...
08:23And also, that's really important, it's like your pick attack when you don't have the pick,
08:30because you don't have enough time to come back with the pick, so just use your finger, alright?
08:43So, guys, hope you like these examples.
08:44I'm loving being here at Guitar World magazine, it's a dream come true for me, you cannot actually
08:50believe that I'm here.
08:51So, guys, thanks for having me.
08:53Thanks ESP, EMG, for all the support, and make sure you follow me and my band, Red Devil Vortex,
09:00online.
09:01You can find us anywhere from TikTok to Instagram, and check out our merch as well.
09:07If you want to know more about Reverse Zapping, I have the Reverse Zapping online course that
09:08I recently dropped, and it's all made by myself, and I, you know, since the...
09:12From the landing page to the actual videos you see, I edited everything, and I put my best
09:17on it, to share with you guys how to incorporate it.
09:20So, thank you so much for having me.
09:21Thanks ESP, EMG, for all the support, and make sure you follow me and my band, Red Devil Vortex,
09:24online.
09:25You can find us anywhere from TikTok to Instagram, and check out our merch as well.
09:28If you want to know more about Reverse Zapping, I have the Reverse Zapping online course
09:31that I recently dropped, and it's all made by myself, and I, you know, since the...
09:33And I put my best on it, to share with you guys how to incorporate this technique in your
09:38plane, alright?
09:39Thank you so much, guys.