Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 28

COVER STORY

THE BIRTH
OF EDDIE
VAN HALEN’S
TAPPING
EVH July 20 1988 pt 2 Eruption

Eddie Van Halen is spontaneously creative. The gift
that he gives us does as much for him, as well. He
doesn’t think about his playing. He just plays. One
afternoon he explained the origin of his tapping
and the spontaneous combustion that became
“Eruption.”
Do you remember the birth of “Eruption”? Did
it happen over a couple of months?
The actual piece or the technique?
The technique and the piece.
The piece I don’t remember exactly. I just came up
with that one night. It wasn’t like a thing that I was
working on. It’s like I started coming up – you know
– using that technique. Where I got the idea from
was I had never seen anyone do it. Okay. I’m sure
people have done it. But I never saw anybody. But
what got me was I think back in the early ’70s when
Led Zeppelin was still together. Jimmy Page would
do his “Heartbreaker” solo, and he would stand by
his amps, and right on the lip of the stage, and he
has his [right] hand in the air. ‘Cause he would do
his pull-off [with the left hand]. Yeah, what happens
if you just move the nut? I took this finger [on right
hand] and went like that [put it behind his fretting
hand].
You took the right finger and went behind
what you were doing (with the left hand) and
made yourself a moving capo.
Exactly. Then I said wait a minute. What if I just use
this [first] finger [on the left hand] there?
And move the right finger to the other side.
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DIGITAL EDITION

So that’s where I came up with the idea.
From actually physically seeing Jimmy
Page in concert.
Yes, yes, yes. That’s what spawned the idea of
that. I’m going, fuck if you can put it there like
that, just move it. Do it anywhere you want.
Then I started adding harmonics to it.
By going 12 frets away.
Yeah – because harmonics are all relative, too.
It’s like in E you can go ping, ping, ping, ping.
Well if you move the whole thing up they are
all in the same place. So then I thought fuck
it. If you can hit open ding ding like that you
can move it up and ping 12 frets. Or if I had a
guitar I’d show you.
It’s 5 or 7 (frets) away. It’s mathematics.
That’s exactly it. I didn’t know it was
mathematical. I thought it was like magic.
Wow, it only works in E. No, it doesn’t. You can
move everything. It’s all relative. You can do it
wherever you want. ■
APR/MAY

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