PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Eddie Van Halen guitar playing

Found this solo track and thought some of you might like to hear Eddie soloed out of the mix a bit.

panama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxA4WgIZmO8#t=19

running with the devil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3E_m7IhSfY

look around there's a few more there on Youtube

enjoy

This guy was my idol - many, many years ago. Brings back great memories. That guitar sound was a huge part of his trademark, besides the great rhythm/melody/hook lines. I wonder what he sounds like to the youngsters of today - at least those that have not been brainwashed by their dads (or moms) ha ha

1st of all I am an old guy, OK got that out the way here it comes . . . I have never been impressed with shredding and loads of distortion so Mr. Van Halen was never a must see/hear for me. Keeping in mind I respect his command of his style, just not a fan.

In my day (wow did I say that?) the players who played on and around a melody with just the great tone of their ax and amp were my must see/hears.

Now get off of Rharv's lawn before I call the cops!

Later,

Ok Danny C. - your point is well taken; I'm sure if I heard EVH now, after having grown up, the many parts of my amygdala (e.g. evocative emotions of youth) would not light up as they were trained when this guy was 'it' for young guitar players.

I'm convinced that many people like certain artists and songs not for the inherent musicality of them, but for the memories they evoke, at a time they were more 'easily influenced' by pop culture and peers as much as the melody,harmony,lyrics, rhythm combinations.

So all that said - who were some of your early favorite artists, guitar or otherwise ?

Just a quick mind check brings up memory of Tony Mottola, Chet Atkins, Beck, Clapton, Gary Moore, BB King, Albert King, Albert Collins and maybe the greatest of my time Tommy Emmanuel.

Soooo many.

later,

Danny, for each era of music and entertainment, there are people that are credited for defining style, technique, talent, etc.

I am with Joe V here, being a teen in the 80's, EVH was THE guy. Just as giants before him, he built on foundations from before, and brought new techniques to the masses. Quite honestly, he wasn't the most distorted sound of his era (weird talking about him in past tense), and the basically 3 piece with a singer/gymnast that they were, cranked out some huge sounds that did define a generation of hard rock. So many different hard rock guitar techniques that are still employed today were brought to the forefront by this guy.

I'm not an admirer of the lifestyles portrayed by these guys, but if you go back and listen to any of their recordings they were pretty dang influential. Alex Van Halen's double kick drum techniques are used almost ubiquitiously by today's hard rock drummers. Many bands have to have two electric players to cover the territory that EVH covered on his own.

I can dig Charlie Christian, Les Paul, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Jimmy Page, Jimi, Eddie, Paul Gilbert, Nuno, and my new favorite, Dimitar Nalbantov (who has built on melodic instrumental rock and does some great stuff at his home studio www.nalbantov.com - that's mainly for Joe V's benefit). Hey since I've mentioned him again - here's one where Dimitar has stood on EVH's shoulders (as do all the greats), and composed something that sounds hopeful to my ear and it's just fun to watch how he does it. I'm guessing I'm 20 years older than this guy, but I keep buying his self-made CDs (it's fun to get them in the mail with the cyrillic stuff on the padded envelopes). I don't listen to this constantly - I've got everything from bluegrass to gregorian chant to Holst to Dimitar on my mp3 player.

I think Joe is also right, in that music plays such an important role with memory, go visit musicandmemory.org for some really cool evidence, that the thing that is actually universal is the tie to visuals, smells, friends, etc. of YOUR era.

I can understand not liking it. I never really appreciated EVH until I started trying to mimic exactly what it is that he did/does. I can play everything from Panama except the bit between 2:05-2:18 or so. Partly because I've never had a functional whammy bar guitar ( I blocked the tailpiece on my Strat the 8 or 9 years that I had it). But it would take lots of practice to pull off the intermingling of string bends and whammy bar action with the panache of him (or Dimitar even more so for that matter).

Some of the things I do use quite regularly for other styles from trying to play this one song way back in the day: Palm muting, pinch harmonics using both the fleshy part of my thumb as well as palm depending on where my right hand is picking, moving away from barre chords to the bare essentials, and connecting rhythm parts with little leads in between chords. Doesn't matter which style is at hand - I use these techniques in every style that I'm required to play. One can draw similarities to things that other players have done through the various eras of amplified guitar, or any type of music for that matter.

On Runnin with the Devil - the thing that impresses me on that song are two fold:

1. On the main rhythm riff, the chord inversion choices were very fresh for the day. There is a sort of Bach-ness to these chords - Triumphant sounding.

2. In the verses, the laid back simple groove that he settles into after the 'triumphant' stuff from point 1 is quite interesting. By itself it doesn't sound very impressive, but coupled with David Lee Roth's greasy vocals in the verses and the solid beat provided by his brother Alex, and Michael Anthony's bass, it's just right.

Listening to these in isolation does make one realize how much that band really was a BAND making big sound (not noise IMO) as a unit.

Every so often, someone comes along who causes a paradigm shift in the music field, and I believe EVH was one of those people. Vai, Satriani and others took what he did and built on it taking it to even more interesting places musically.

I remember hearing him for the first time and was so impressed. In one of the club bands I played in, I remember covering a few of his tunes. As I approached what seemed to be a tall mountain of a task..... I began to realize that what he was doing was not really that difficult. After I figured out the first song of his that we covered, I was kinda amazed at how basic most of it was. Of course there were a few "fancy" EVH signature licks and the tapping he did that took a bit of work to get, but essentially, he plays a rhythm since he is the only guitar in a trio.

I was never a die hard EVH fan. I appreciated his work and covered some of VH's tunes.... fun days playing those songs in the beer joints. My favorite tune that we covered was Dance The Night Away.

Guys you are preaching to the choir I am in full engagement with your assessments and observations regarding musical styles and their influences. I just commented on my "personal" taste re: EVH and the rest of the shredders, and do nothing for me.

Later,

I'm with you Danny. EVH was definitely VERY talented, but I found his playing extremely annoying. Anyone playing shred or speed metal just makes me cringe.

Give me something that actually has a melody anytime.

Amen, Danny and Bob!

I don't really label EVH a shredder or speed metal guitarist. If you have spent any time listening to the last 15 years of the shredder genre you would realize that pretty quickly. Most shredders lack originality and innovation and that is something EVH had tons of.

He shaped an entire generation of guitarist and the music they produced. You may not care much for him as a guitarist or his style but his contribution to the art of lead guitar and song writing is amazing. If your a fan and have listened and tried to learn the body of his work you will recognize him as one of the most influential guitarist in the broad range of the rock genre.

Same with Joe Satriani. Some consider him a shredder and while he can, his body of work is laden with originality and innovation. He has written some amazing melodic lead pieces. He took what EVH started and carried it forward.

You can tell I'm a fan right? I have sat with several rock guitarist (not pro or famous) and we have hashed over every guitarist from Hendrix to Gilbert. Argued for days over the merits of each. EVH was always near the top of list.

We did find it easier to keep the players in their respective genre. You can't compare Chet Atkins to EVH or any other cross genre comparison.

Jeff,

As I stated before, EVH has a lot of talent, but his playing is WAY too busy for me.

Even Brent Mason's playing is too busy for me.

You've got to allow the music to breathe and give yourself time to be expressive.

Old slow hand Clapton is a master at doing that. He never gives you the impression that he's trying to throw every lick and note he knows into a solo.

Billy Gibbons and BB King also fall into that category.

But that's just my opinion, and it's not worth any more than any other guitarists opinion.

Jeff S, you would love Dimitar Nalbantov www.nalbantov.com .

Thanks for the recommendation Rockstar. I do like his stuff. What we really need are some nice real tracks with some of these styles. I really like the Brent Mason country soloist but the real track metal soloist lacks emotion and variety. A blues style featuring some SRV style licks would be nice also.