Eddie Van Halen - Know the Man, Play the Music
The guys at Backbeat asked me to write this book and I had a great time doing it! I spent much of the '90s copping Eddie's style and have written more than 30 pieces of music for the "Play the Music" section, all closely based on a Van Halen song or solo. They're printed in both "dots" and "tab" and there's a CD with all the pieces played for you and backing tracks too for you to have a go yourself.
Here are some of the styles and techniques covered:
Rhythm
Pieces in the style of: Running with the Devil, Ain't Talking 'bout Love, Unchained...etc
Some
tracks
from the CD that comes with the book:
EX1; Rhythm using triads
EX2; Triads and sus chords over pedal tones
Lead
Loads of solos, tricks and fills....
Some typical "Eddie" fills:
EX8; two string slurs
EX12; bending and tapping
This one works as an intro, like "Hot For
Teacher"
EX14; tapping arpeggios
This is what you get when you string it all
together...
EX25; soloing techniques
And finally...slapping and tapping like "Fair
Warning"
EX26;
I aimed the book at the intermediate player who wants to get to grips with this exciting style of playing - there are some challenging tracks but also plenty that don't require a high level of ability to start work on.