Branches Book

BRANCHES

Eddie Van Halen left everyone's jaws wide open in confusion while they wondered how he played guitar. He raised the bar of playing and caused guitarists to sacrifice all their time studying the instrument with the hope to keep up. The guitar work and techniques used in Van Halen were unheard of at the time. Eddie Van Halen is a special case; he invented and revolutionized completely new techniques. The most iconic technique used by the legend is the world famous tapping. This is when both hands of the guitar player are used on the fretboard to play notes. This goes against the traditional way in which one hand is used to hold down the note and the other hand is used to pick it. He realized that he didn’t have to pick the note and by freeing up his right hand, he could play extra notes on the fretboard. Eddie Van Halen also brought fast alternate picking to the table. No one knew it was possible to play that fast until the first time they listened to the second track “Eruption” on the first Van Halen album, which struck pure terror into every guitar player. Other techniques used were pinch harmonics, in which the pick was tilted at an angle to produce an overtone. He also popularized natural harmonics. This is when the overtones are tapped out over the frets using the left or right hand. Eddie Van Halen revolutionized the way the whammy bar is used. The whammy bar pulls the strings flat on the guitar and is normally used a little to create a natural vibrato sound. Eddie Van Halen took this to the extreme by pulling the bar all the way down, creating what is called a dive bomb. Eddie is an extremely rare case because not only did he create a unique sound he created a vocabulary, which for many players are a must know. Stevie Ray Vaughan made blues cool again. He rose to stardom in the 80’s inspiring many guitarists to dive back into the deep world of blues. His influences included blues, rock, rockabilly, and jazz, which can all be heard in his playing. Like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan was the vocalist and only guitarist of his band. This also made him develop a style, including both rhythm and lead. This is shown throughout his music and most famously in “Pride and Joy,” in which his lead licks are an extension of his rhythm playing in a sense that they don’t drop the main rhythm of the song and fill the space of both. Stevie Ray Vaughan's tone is just as influential as his playing. The sound of his guitar is one of the most sought after tones ever of any instrument. As soon as one note is played people can instantly tell that is Stevie Ray Vaughan. He used Fender and Marshall amps on clean settings and used overdrive for his solos and even some rhythm. The overdrive came from an Ibanez tube screamer, other pedals that made an appearance include wahs, fuzz, and octave pedals. What sets Stevie apart from other guitarists is that a big part of his tone is achieved through string size. Stevie was known to use 13 gauge strings, which gave him a thick spanky sound. Most guitarists use 9 or 10 gauge strings. 13s are extremely heavy and hard to play, but not for

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