The Best Thing To Learn In Order To Play Like Ed

[Strat78]

Sounded real good Phil Was that the KnE 'Holdsworth' strat with a different neck ?

This was a different body that I cut myself using medium weight hard ash. Ha ha, since we've had a little more humidity these past couple days, the guitar has been easier to play, go figure.

[vh junkie]

Glad to see you doing videos strat78! Please keep them coming! So many of you guys post such great info on Ed's technique... and some damn fine clips and videos! Sometimes though... when I listen to Phil's clips, I feel like I can "hear" how to play the song! Of course this evaporates when I actually pick up the guitar! But having that feeling is really cool while it lasts!

[JimiJames]

http://youtu.be/MJb6nzHG-VM

(heh, It's a bitch at full tempo.)
killer EVH hybrid riffage @ :37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niMyzC7UxZo

Thorny good examples of rhythmatic approach. Nice playing

[Strat78]

http://youtu.be/MJb6nzHG-VM

(heh, It's a bitch at full tempo.)
killer EVH hybrid riffage @ :37

Haha, yeah, I had to move on pretty quick before I made a bigger fool out of myself with that Ipswich lick.

[Star*Guitar]

Like the look of that Strat Phil....Nice work and riffage.

[Strat78]

I really like those type of VH solo's, Light up the sky is another good one, but that one does not have the wild vibrato over bends like the HAIL solo or YRGM.

[plexified]

Ok ,I am in . How do you recommend Ol ' Plex posting video . WARNING < DANGER WILL ROBINSON < OL' PLEX IS GONNA SHRED HERE > ok , that's the disclaimer . But the files are big , just from my I phone whats the dealeo school me here and I will put up some shut up . Funny thing is I am taking care of my Dad and he is cool with music , but the volume thing is gonna be fun . We just got done hacking up a Mazda Miata for a Mustang GT powertrain . Yes it outruns everything . Had to sell it . Gave Dad diapers But yes I am in with this . I just thought pics and clips were out with the metro crash . Clue my dumb ass in ! And BTW those clips were awesome . Great command of the fretboard . And Strat you have the tone , so I shout you out I wanna hear that cache . And don't forget you can use full face coverings via , bandanna , ski mask , wrestling mask ala south America or just do blue screen man . Seems your all that tech savy . Me , I have to shoot the footage on my 8 mil , mix the sound on my 8 trak ( Tascam 388 ) and convert it . Naw , just foolin . File size is my concern and format and making fun of me getting older is a new pastime . But , yes I think we are on to something here with this . The UFC is guys sizing each other up and banging heads . Lets put this together and bang some strangs and such and push this to some shove . I believe you all are on to something . We may be able to 'pull' some out of the shadows . They may not like to type , but darn they can play and there we go . We immediately need RGalpin , Ralle,JNew,Garbaez,FlamJam,Cooter , all you all , I can't think I am so thrilled to do this . Michael Buffer gets the mike as he enters the octagon , he says ,"Its TIIIMMMEEEE!". Yeah man damn time to push this thing . Lessons , live , Loving the Jam , Interaction . Perhaps we can cross the threshold of mediocrity and the perceived death of the beloved Metro Amp Forums ! Like we were going to do anyway . Onward Vikings of old , its our time , time to tear it up . Clips please ............... I know the VCR is still blinking . Woo Hoo . (Time for JNew to check up on me to make sure I am taking my meds ) just for fun speak , I take no meds ( work is watching )

[garbeaj]

Plug in your iPhone to your computer. Then download to your computer (it will automatically give you instructions). Then go to YouTube and create an account if you haven't already done so. Then upload your video from your computer.

You can upload directly from your iPhone to YouTube using the YouTube Capture app, but you can't upload in the highest quality HD settings. If you upload to your computer and then to YouTube as I have described you will be able to select high quality video to upload to your YouTube account.

Then copy the link to your clip and paste it between [youtube] and [/youtube] when you make a post to a thread in this forum.

[garbeaj]

Getting back to the influence of Eric Clapton's live Cream playing on so much of Ed's playing...

Here is my TAB of the solo from "When It's Love"...one of Ed's most overt homages to Clapton's playing. The fill leading up to the solo and the other lead overdubs besides the actual guitar solo were likely recorded with the 5150 Kramer. The actual solo was played on the neck pickup of one of Ed's vintage 50's sunburst/maple neck strats.



The "hard" parts are in the last four measures...I got these with Bill's help (once again, thank you wjamflan!) and he might be able to insert picking directions.

Essentially, this part is very, very similar to what Ed does in the very fast parts of the "Panama" solo and it is also based on the "Sitting On Top Of The World" cadenza lick. Whether you care for the Hagar years or not, this is undeniably one of Ed's best solos and it is the most clear cut reference to Eric Clapton he ever did, though the tone strikes me as closer to Blackmore's neck pickup through overdriven Marshall sound...

[garbeaj]

Still working on getting time to make a clip...

While "browsing" the internet at work I stumbled on this from a 1982 interview with Ed:

Did you go through a period of imitation before your own days of invention?

Van Halen: Definitely, and Clapton was it. I knew every note he played. That's what I was known for around home. Me, Alex and another bass player called ourselves Mammoth and we were the junior Cream. [Shortly before going on stage, Eddie played Clapton's "Crossroads" solo for me, calling it "one of the best live recorded songs ever."] It's funny; when I do interviews and tell people Clapton was my main influence, they go "Who?" Because they're thinking about Clapton doing "Lay Down Sallv," not the Bluesbreakers or Cream.

[Maverick]

S W I N G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garbeaj]

From the 1980 Jas Obrecht interview:

Guitar Player: When you started playing guitar, how much time did you spend with it?

EVH: All day, every day, I used to cut school to come home and play. I was so into it.

GP: Were you self-taught?

EVH: Definitely for guitar, I never had a lesson in my life, except when a friend of mine a long time ago showed me how to do barre chords. I just learned from there.

GP: How did you teach yourself leads?

EVH: [Duplicates Eric Clapton’s solo in “Crossroads” from Cream’s Wheels of Fire LP]. I know that song note-for-note, and also “I’m So Glad” [Fresh Cream] and the live version of “Sitting on Top of the World” [Cream, Goodbye]. I used to know all that stuff.

[EVH]

There a few songs with Eruption of course that a serious fan should know VERY well with the Proper feel and tempo to understand Ed's timing, technique, swing and musicianship :

I would pick I'm the One, Little Dreamer, Atomic Punk, Romeo Delight, So This Is Love?, MeanStreet, Hear About It Later, Hot for Teacher, Drop Dead Legs, Girl Gone Bad - extra noted solos - House of Pain, Eruption, Ice Cream Man. Learn all those songs, so you can play to the CD DOUBLED, learn the technique, timing, attack so you can slip behind the beat or on to the CD, learn the swing on most of his solos and of course rhythms to his style of swing, and various dotted eight note, dotted, quarter note, dotted 16th note all with various variations of swing, hard swing, to scottish etc. Last learn economy picking with emphasis on downstrokes where-ever possible as preference to downbeat (for timing and attack) and learn to play all this with picking notes that aren't tapped with the same convincing feel before you use hammerons to death. Most publications cite Ed using hammer-ons and pull-offs and tapping at about 90% of his style...

I'd say Ed picked the majority of his notes when not tapping or apreggiated pentatonics (similar to string skipping). I think most miss this because Ed uses a .50 to .60 pick and light strings but picks hard most of the time. Using a pick @ 1.14mm has a lot more noticable attack. However, anyone who really studies Ed's technique will quickly realize he can easily pick everyone note with his unique feel but he nearly randomly uses hammer-ons and pull-offs -mostly for the effect or glissando or easier swing in a complex arrangement of notes. That is my 2 cents

[garbeaj]

There's really nothing random going on in Ed's playing. He plays the same licks in a regimented way nearly every time. And the key is Clapton's live Cream playing, specifically the licks from the cadenza at the end of the live version of "Sitting On Top Of The World" from Cream's Goodbye album. If you don't understand this you will never understand how to actually play the most difficult and fastest passages in Ed's playing.

Ed is really not a swing feel, improvisational jazz guitarist and approaching learning his playing from that standpoint is an exercise in futility in my opinion.

[rgalpin]

here is the secret: when clapton plays blues licks, it sounds like blues. when ed plays the very same blues licks, it sounds like VAN HALEN.