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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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Music
Transcript
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
00:36as I do, alright? Let's listen to it.
00:58Let's listen to it.
01:06Let's listen to it.
01:14Let's listen to it.
01:22Let's listen to it.
01:24Let's listen to it.
01:32Let's listen to it.
01:40Let's listen to it.
01:42Let's listen to it.
01:46Let's listen to it.
01:54Let's listen to it.
02:08Let's listen to it.
02:16Let's listen to it.
02:20Let's listen to it.
03:56All 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.
04:58And any tapping in general is about making the notes pop out in the middle of the mix
05:04or your band playing at the same time and making it sound clean and not muddy, because it's
05:10a hard technique to execute, easy to sound muddy.
05:14So, pay attention to that and press the frets really hard.
05:16Okay?
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.
05:39And in between, it's not on the original track, but I like doing the...
05:51Just on the fret 3, so strings D, G, and B. So, very Zach Wild as well, and Sinister Gaze.
05:58I like that stuff like this, dying back there.
06:01I love that shit.
06:03So, second riff goes like this.
06:04Reverse tapping is not the main thing anymore, and I just add on the fills one and two.
06:09So, it, you know, just you can come back to the riff later, so...
06:29Remember, this part of your arm is going to mute everything that's above finger one,
06:33and everything below finger one 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.
06:45And it's really...
06:47A lot of the process of playing something and learning a technique is about observing
06:52how 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 playing,
07:03instead of hitting the other strings below and above and making sounds that you don't want to, okay?
07:10So, second part of the riff is...
07:17So, basically, really simple.
07:21I'm just avoiding the...
07:23You know, so that's why I play first with the...
07:24As I said, an alternative way to connect the notes that, you know, it's really specific on my taste.
07:34So, third and last part that I use the reverse tapping technique on the song,
07:37is basically, you're only going to use the G string.
07:40And this is going to play, it's a little faster, a little more complicated,
07:44but I think it's something really cool for you guys to work on.
07:47And also, you can use this in any solo that you want, any kind of scale that you have.
07:51You can just pick one string, and you can start here and go crawling, you know,
07:56towards the beginning of the next, so...
08:17So, this is a really important thing, as well, in the end, you notice, you can notice that I do...
08:26You know, when Dimebag, for example, you use on the walks all the...
08:30So, it's really important when you do, when you come back...
08:34You, you know, you do that, so...
08:47And also, that's really important, it's like your pick attack when you don't have the pick,
08:52because you don't have enough time to come back with the pick, so just use your finger, all right?
08:56So, guys, hope you like these examples.
09:00I'm loving being here at Guitar World Magazine, it's a dream come true for me,
09:03you cannot actually believe that I'm here.
09:06So, guys, thanks for having me.
09:08Thanks ESP, EMG, for all the support.
09:11And make sure you follow me and my band, Red Devil Vortex, online.
09:15You can find us anywhere from TikTok to Instagram, and check out our merch as well.
09:20If you want to know more about reverse zapping, I have the reverse zapping online course that I
09:24recently dropped, and it's all made by myself, and I, you know, since the...
09:29From the landing page to the actual videos you see, I edited everything, and I put my best on it,
09:34to share with you guys how to incorporate this technique in your plane, all right?
09:38Thank you so much, guys.

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