At the Colorado School of Music we have students come from all over the Denver metro area for private music lessons including Lakewood, Wheat ridge, Arvada, Golden, Morrison and Evergreen. We offer piano lessons, guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, violin lessons, viola lessons, vocal lessons, voice lessons, clarinet lessons, saxophone lessons, drum lessons, percussion lessons, trombone lessons, tuba lessons and euphonium lessons.
Today I am going to be talking about one of the most innovative guitarist of the 20th century. Edward Van Halen. Van Halen born January 26, 1955 in Amsterdam. Edward inherited his father’s music ability. Jan Edwards father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinettist, and saxophonist.
Van Halen was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded in 1972. Eddy began learning the piano at age six. Van Halen was never taught to read music;[11] instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart and improvised. Between 1964 and 1967, he won first place in the annual piano competition at Long Beach City College. His parents wanted him to be a classical pianists, but Van Halen gravitated towards rock music. Eddy transitioned from piano to drums and eventually finding his home on the electric guitar.
Van Halen’s 1978 instrumental solo “Eruption“, which was voted number 2 in Guitar World‘s readers poll of the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos”,[91][92] showcased the tapping technique, which uses both left and right hands on the guitar neck. Although he popularized tapping, he did not invent the technique. According to MusicRadar, Steve Hackett – lead guitarist with Genesis in the 1970s – is “widely credited with inventing two-handed tapping” and was an influence on Van Halen.[93] When asked about this, Hackett said, “Eddie and I have never spoken about it, but yes, he has credited me with tapping… Eddie is a fine player, of course, and he’s the one who named the technique.” Eddy brought this tapping technique into the main stream and made it his own. Outside of this technique Van Halen changed the way guitar players tones were and added a whole new approach to playing the electric guitar. He was the master of manipulating natural and artificial harmonics. Eddy has some of the most incredible guitar solo’s as well as some of the great rock guitar riffs ever wrote.
No matter if you are a beginner of advance guitarist there is something to be learned through Edward Van Halen’s guitar playing and song writing.
I hope this blog on Van Halen has got you inspired to better your skills. Please contact us to come in for your $10 introductory lesson from one of our great instructors or myself. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lesson,vocal lessons as wells as some orchestral instruments and more.
