honestly his rhythm playing and song structure is what we most love about Eddie whether we realize it or not. The leads are just the icing on the cake, but the chords are really what we feel! RIP Eddie.
I'd agree with this. I like his rhythm playing better than his leads. The little bend / slide trick in Drop Dead Legs is something I never get tired of hearing.
A lot of the chords are implied, and the bass is giving so much to the harmony. Things like an A major chord against a G. The whole chord progression relies on the band picking up the pieces, from bass to vocals.
Ive been playing since i was 17 and I am now 58, and seeing your videos and love for Van Halen as I do, makes me think, I have too many habits of being stuck in the simple stuff and to learn Van Halen I would suggest that Van Halen as a music course for a beginner would be the way to go for any child picking up a guitar so they dont get stuck in playing the simple basics. I know I'll never be able to play 99% of Van Halen because I have the habits of playing simple rhythms. Van Halen should be a course on its own , like Jazz , or like Country. Teachers always ask, what do you like and what would you like to learn. You go to a Jazz teacher to learn Jazz and it's styling, and such. so Van Halen should be noted as being a style on it's own. Great job explaining those chords and how he plays them and fingers them and makes me believe even more Eddie is a bona-fide musical Genius, like Mozart and Beethoven
Ive been playing for 45 yrs and come from a family of famous musicians...I just wanna say Great job and attitude! Keep humble and on top of the game. Peace
@@IAmKillEveryone lol..ya, he's a humble guy. Never really seen him down or anything except for when Duck passed away. That was tuff but Steve doesn't stop. Angel is amazing too!!! She keeps him in line lolol
this is why Eddie Van Halen is my favorite and I built my own frankenstrat, I was 18 when I first heard him in 78 and I've never stopped learning his stuff, I like other guitarist but Eddie's my basic go to guitar player.
Idk about tapping "nonsense" - I mean it was revolutionary at the time - but I agree with the overall sentiment that Eddie was always kind of overlooked for his incredible rhythmic chops. All of those little perfectly-timed harmonic pinches and squeals couched so perfectly into that percussive rhythm slap n' groove... just pure magic. Although my style of playing ended up drastically different from his, Eddie's definitely the reason that I originally picked up a guitar in the first place for sure. And although I play much heavier music I still find myself tone-chasing his elusive "Brown sound" from time to time with the help of modeling software like Amplitube, Bias, etc. Oh how I wish IK Media would work with his estate to release an EVH package for Amplitube 5!
The Intro to mean Street ...Uuughh so KILLER !! Diver Down ...i( i learned this spanish Piece ...) Eddie Van Halen is the Greatest Rock Guitar Player of ALL Times ...He is The Chief !!
@@ThrashRoC hey Jimi I hasten to add while a true original Eddie Van Halen has a lot of shit material where as JIMI HENDRIX has most remarkable and creative compositions and lyrics. Different level really.
You display deep knowledge of the neck. I love how you always know where you are, and the notes that make up chords, no matter where on the neck you’re playing! You’re a super guitar teacher! I’m an teacher by profession, and a working musician...not everybody ( even some really good guitar players I know possess your mastery. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
VERY nice. You've a positive, easy way about you. Absolutely beautiful guitar. Completely utilitarian fine art; played as easy as breathing it would seem. Good thing breathing didn't take as many thousands of hours to become as natural. Thank you for sharing / teaching.
It sounds and feels unlike anything else they released or recorded. It's so dark and angry. Hand-down it's their best album. Eddie's leads and licks are simply on fire! Thanks for watching and rock on! : )
When he kicks in the rhythm on Dirty Movies - OMG. It's Godzilla heavy. And what's up with those two weird-sounding snare beats in the intro?? And that volume thing on the beginning of So This is Love? Got FW on my birthday, summer 1981.
@@countvond233 And was listening to "When Push Comes to Shove" the other day. Another great one from that album. Quirky. Great Holdswoth-inspired solo and killer lyrics from DLR.
Great videos Dave. I was fortunate enough to see Van Halen many times starting with the Women & Children First tour. I've been playing guitar since I was 16 and I'm still learning Van Halen songs and leads. It's my favorite hobby. I'm a professional noodler and EVH is my main inspiration, but not my first guitar hero. Thanks for doing these videos. Very cool.
I share your sentiments about EVH being a permanent influence on you. Most people wanted to learn how to play Eruption etc. Me too but I was into his rhythm playing and chords he used. I'm a few years older than you because I first saw VH in April 1978 in Houston and again that same year in November. When they played the Music Hall in April, the sound was awesome because that's where they have musicals and the place had great acoustics. Our seats were on the side of the stage, not very good view but I had a perfect view of Eddie and Alex sharing a joint just before going on, ha.
My goodness. What a great episode! Dude man, your playing just puts a smile on my face...AND THEN I JUST HAVE TO GO PLAY🤘 Thank you, and please keep it coming!
@@LateNightLessons your teaching gift can make Lacan sound simple dude! Hell make 10 episodes for VH, I won't skip your Church. First ever 'Catholic & Protestant' under one fucking roof there :-)
It really is and that's awesome to hear. Both of those tunes (and albums) kick butt. Fair Warning is great, but I'm a big fan of VH II too. Thanks and take care!
Really great video and insight, not just into EVH but a lot of classic players in your series. I was wondering if you give private guitar lessons? You seem like a really great teacher 🤘
@@commentfreely5443 Yes. So is the picture frame, the amplifier and everything else in the room. It's caused by playing Van Halen. It's melts things. (Ok not really. It's a fish-eye camera lens.)
EPIC doesn't even do it! Eddie has said in multiple interviews that he's a better rhythm player than a lead player, and that's probably true. But it's not just what he plays -- it's how he plays it. And don't even get me started about the stuff he writes. My lord. His stuff gives me chills...and the way he creates tension. Holy bugeezuz!
This is SUCH a brilliant breakdown and tutorial... my son is just starting out playing, and I got him a Bumblebee for his bidet, but he's getting so frustrated and trying to do WAAAY to much advanced stuff and blowing his own teenage mind as a result. I told him to just focus on Eddie's rhtyhm playing and how tight, edgy and melodic all that stuff is on its own merit... I was looking for a vid to highlight that ... and look what I found! Thank you for joining the dots ... or stripes! x
Lots of vids out there about VH, but this is BY FAR THE BEST EVH video I've ever seen!!! Thank you Brother a million times over!!!! More chord play episodes... per favor!!!
I want to say thank you for all these years breaking down the actual theory behind these guitar legends, you explain it all so well and I love your content keep it up!
Very cool Eddie educational video my brother. Fair Warning is also my favorite album. Hear About it later has such dynamics and emotion in it. Mean Street, Dirty Movies, wow, album should’ve got more recognition. And I am really glad to hear someone else agree that Eddies playing developed a lot when Sammy joined the band. Chemistry with a great great singer couldn’t have hurt. Judgement Day, Pleasure Dome, are really different than anything with DLR. I’d pay good $$ to just go see the Van Halen’s without vocals if they’d just jam as they probably do at home. Love to see Ed play cello too. 🤘 I’m sure he whips it’s ass too. Again Great EDDIE education my friend.
Nice! I was tooling through this on an acoustic this morning since everyone is still sleeping. At 57 this was new to me and added a few things that my martin seems to like. Thank you!
This is the way I see it....picture yourself a pie graph, divide it in half and you have Eddie Van Halen on one half and everyone else on the other half.
Very nice work brother, I was blown away back in the day when a friend shared for the first time, "Eruption" with me, it changed my approach towards guitar forever too !!!
My thought exactly thats why I picked up a guitar.I remember being on the school bus and every day I would bring an 8 track..yes an 8 track! for the bus driver to play.I remember the first time I brought Fair Warning (best album they did) one day.The kids faces went blank..what is this!??? they said.Well I didn't know if they liked it or were scared...I think most were scared especially when "one for out the door" played...even the female bus driver... I think she had a bunch of KC and the sunshine band tape on board...Gotta love it.VH forever
Really enjoyed this...Eddie is a creative creature and made a career out of keeping it fresh and interesting. You never could predict his next move and along with that he was never afraid to put himself out there with some pretty wild idea's. Thanks for posting and hopefully we will see you dive in a little deeper. Keep up the awesome lessons. Very enjoyable!
Always good to see younger players who take the time to notice just what made/makes the greatest so great. Good work on the chord diagnosis. I'll tell you a secret, he (and most of us) had almost no idea what these chords were; they just sounded good!
1978 was the first time I heard them. They're one of my favorite bands of all time. Back then Eddie was guitar player of the year and was featured on the cover of guitar magazines.
Smiling from ear to ear as you’re playing those old VH riffs! They still sound amazing. Somebody Get Me .. is the only VH solo I learned, always reminded me of a Johnny Winter vibe. Your clips are excellent, thanks for posting.
Thank you so much! Truth be told, I think VH II might be better than VH I. Eddie's all over the place on that album and I do really like that solo. and I do hear that Winter vibe - good call! Thanks again and take care! : )
Thank you for another great lesson. I'm especially fond of your personal insights and opinions. I started playing because of Eddie too. His timing and feel are what had initially grabbed me. For the past two decades my fascination has centered on his early tone. That's putting it mildly, I was truly obsessed with his tone much like building Devils Tower out of mashed potatoes is Richard Dreyfuss did in Close Encounters.
Eddie’s playing is unbelievably complex and I’ve been playing his songs 30 years and am still nowhere near where I’d like to be with it. You see loads of people playing on the Tube that don’t play the chords correctly and it makes a huge difference to the way it sounds but you’ve obviously studied his music for years too and got it right. Nice playing, nice tone, nice guitar and well explained.👍
There’s no question that Van Halen is one of the most influential guitarists! The first player I really started listening to when I first heard their album 1884. A great lead, and also rhythm player. Thanks for sharing his work David! I love all Van Halen music with David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.
Interesting stuff. I too thought EVH was a god when i was a kid but didn't play guitar. But in my mid 40s I just decided to start trying to play guitar and I find your video very interesting. Thanks
Fantastic Video David! Made me an instant subscriber. You have a nice delivery of this subject with zero pretence and genuine EVH fandom oozing through each song demo. Looking forward to diving into your channel and checking out your lessons page. Please keep up the stellar work!
I wore the cassette of Fair warning out it was such an awesome album the first time I heard V.H was at a party back when The cradle will rock came out and that song blew me away and I was a fan for life from then on :-)
Dude!!! As a forty plus year old, been playing since my 20’s, no one has ever explained “ SUS” chords as well as you did right here in this video. I’ve known what it means, and applied it to my playing, but I wish someone 20-some years ago would have explained it just like that! I’m not only going to send this to someone who is just starting off. But I’ll share this video with some of my other people who have less the grasp on music theory than I do! Hey, great content man. I’ve always enjoyed your videos. Rock on
There are many videos that came after Eddie's passing away, but there are many more before that... Its a testament to how Great of a influence he was on modern rock music... RIP Eddie
I'm so glad to hear someone give VHII it's flowers. I love Fair Warning as well... hell, I love all of the original VH albums. But for ME, VHII has always been my favorite. I remember saving up my allowance as a kid to buy 1984 when Jump was all over MTV. I got to the local store to find it sold out, so the store clerk talked me into VHII. Dude, I must've played that record to absolute death - to the point where I even caught my Mom humming Dance the Night Away while doing some chores around the house lol. That album's vibe was so infectious - there was something there for just about everyone. DOA, Beautiful Girls, Women in Love... from the opening cover of You're No Good that record just cooks all the way through! RIP EVH!
Hi David, I am a recent subscriber to your channel and first wanted to say thanks for the excellent content and guitar analysis! I love both DLR and Hagar eras, and agree with your comment on EVH's phenomenal rhythm abilities. I think the 5150 album was the turning point where he took the rhythm playing to the next level. Look forward to more of your videos. 👍🤘
Thanks Jeff! EVH is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and while there are always people arguing over who is "the best," there's really no one else that comes to mind that was the complete package like Eddie. He had the tone, the touch, the ideas, the technique, and the music. There were other players on the scene at that time that had one or two of those things, but (IMO) no one else had all of them working/firing at the same time until he came along. Now since that time, we've had truckloads of players copy his style and ideas, but if you go all the way back to the source to look/listen, you'll find that Eddie paved the way for everyone that came after him and just like Hendrix, he helped give guitarists a brand new identity. : ) Thanks again and ROCK ON\m/
I think I was one of the 7th thousand subscribers. Every time I see a video, I wish this dude lived down the street from me. I don't like people, and I don't have too many friends. But I'd love to hang with this dude and talk shop.
Really liked the straight talk and examples. I always had the feeling (even in the late 70's or early 1980is era) that Ed Van Halen, was really and he has admitted as such, that it was not being perfectly musically correct, but about creating sounds, that he liked, and it was not necessary to follow the "rules," exactly, but to get the sounds he liked out of the amp, and just playing with chords and not worrying about correct "musical theory," to create sounds that are cool and unique. I always get the feeling that many of Ed's songs start out with or simple sound (or he would see a chord in Guitar magazine, like, he is just practicing. And he always seems to have one chord (and then he diddles with it) and moves it up and down the neck. There are video interviews with Ed were he talks about practice tapes. That he has hundreds of practice tapes. And the implication is that he just hits record, and then starts noodling around. No restrictions. Then later plays the tape back and if there is some thing unique that sounds melodic he grabs that tiny little thing and creates an entire song out of that. Which is really smart to stay on one chord and then expand on it using sus and building scales from that progression.
David I agree! I’ve always considered Fair Warning a tier or two above all of the other VH releases. From the tapping intro to Mean Streets all the way to the over the top outro fade out solo to One Foot out the Door--its one heck of a guitar ride all the way through! 🎸🎸🎸🎸
I feel that way too. : ) I've always put that one in another "place" in my head. It's unlike any of the other releases and so dark and moody. Eddie's on fire the entire time. I also really like Van Halen II. I think it really samples a lot of Eddie's influences and he's all over the place on that one.
It is great to see someone dissecting the many different Van Halen harmonies, chord progressions and chord types that he used in his songs. Many do not talk much about the guy’s rhythmic side but I believe that it should be much more talked about.
The vibe I got from your video was like sitting with a really cool guitar teacher who has a similar appreciation for Eddie and you're just talking like a couple of buds with guitars.
Great video man. I totally connect with you. We’re the same age I’m sure lol I just got my Kramer American restored and this video got me pumped back up to start playing more from my VH roots!!! You rock!! Thank you!!
When original VH hit the scene it was like an alien landed. It was a new way to approach the guitar for sure. It changed the way musicians looked at the instrument forever. Sure Jimmy Page was lighting it up then too , but we knew what he was doing . Not ED though when I first heard tapping I was WTF is he doing and the harmonics on the intro to Mean Street . Then cathedrals came later and I was like WTF is this guy doing on a guitar. Plus his rhythms are the best part of his playing.
I’m 100% on board with you brother. Van Halen has always been my musical mainstay - even though I’ve ventured into other genres over the years. And yes - Eddies rhythm playing is what truly moves me, greatest riffs ever! But the transcription books aren’t always correct! Some of those “standard” chords we talk about are actually played somewhere else on the neck and Eddie uses some very unorthodox methods. And believe me - I was fooled! Because just when I thought I had something figured out, I’d hear those isolated VH guitar tracks on RU-vid and was not only COMPLETELY FLOORED by how wrong I was, but also just how much of a genius EVH is!
Eddys rhythm guitar is some of the best of all time in RnR. He lends an edge and an aggressive attack to every rhythm he plays that stands out no matter what genre or style he's playing. Playing same chords but he changes up the "routine" to become something new and visionary.
Absolutely agree, Fair Warning was so dark, but so good!! My go-to guitar fix when I need a boost with the haunting album cover to cap it off. +1 Sub, nicely done!
Great breakdown and analysis. Eddie also got me started in music when I was very young, and it was all of these things that you mentioned that caught my ear and pulled me into his music. Enjoying the content. Keep it up!
I had a moment of sadness thinking about Eddy and the old VH and pulled this video up and dang this is good stuff. Eddy was the absolute king of the power chord and his use of suspended chords is the bedrock of most every 80s metal hair band that came after. And that angry tone on rhythm being tuned a half step down is beautiful. And all the odd augmented and diminished or half step slur weirdness in the progressions grabs me every time.
Hi David, this is great stuff. Love your take on it! Making me revisiting the old stuff and reminding my how great it all was. Please keep it up, this is fantastic!!!
Hey thanks for the videos! Just found your channel and I have enjoyed your simple way of presenting some pretty complex ideas. Reminds me of my first guitar teacher. : ) I could go on, but just wanted to say thanks for now!
Thank you and I did create a VH part two, but it focused on music from the Sammy era. I'll be sure to add some more EVH ideas to the content soon! Thanks again and rock on!
Great video Man. I like your personality and candor. You explain things so well and are obviously a great player. You know your stuff. Thanks for the video, and I look forward to more!!!
