Quote

I was so used to doing old blues licks with the first three fingers. When I started using my pinky and finding more spread things, that's when I started getting my own style.

Eddie Van Halen

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Eddie Van Halen
Age: 65 †
Born: 1955
Born: January 26
Died: 2020
Died: October 6
Composer
Guitarist
Musician
Record Producer
Singer
Songwriter
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Edward Van Halen
EVH
Edward Lodewijk van Halen
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen
Three
Findings
Used
Finding
Firsts
Spread
First
Fingers
Things
Using
Style
Pinky
Started
Licks
Getting
Blues

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I'm not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.
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Some people think a song without words isn't a real song. Tell that to Beethoven and he'll kick your ass!
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It makes me feel kind of weird, but obviously the Man Upstairs gave me something and it touches people, and I'm just so blessed.
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I'm blessed with a good pair of ears. That's how I fooled my piano teacher. I'd watch his fingers and I'd listen to it, and I just kind of basically learned it by myself.
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There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.
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Bass is for people who can't play guitar
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I played 'Eruption' two times for the record, and we kept the one that seemed to flow ... there's a mistake at the top end of it whenever I hear it, I always think, Man I could've played it better ... but I like the way it sounds. I'd never heard a guitar sound like that before.
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When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove.
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I wanted a Gibson type sound, but with a Strat vibrato ... I bought a body from Charvel for $50.00 and a neck for $80.00 - I slapped it together, put an old Gibson PAF in it and painted it up with the stripes
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It's always about the music, never about anything else.
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I applied to Uncyclopedia Bassists, and was accepted!!
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The stainless-steel frets were a major breakthrough, because of the amount of playing and bending that I do. I have to get my guitars refretted every couple of months.
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Every song is like a kid. How can you have that many kids and have a favorite? Which one do I like to hang most with?
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I've had a hip replacement, I've beaten cancer, I had my hand operation, and I stopped drinking. Something inside of me just went, 'I'm done.'
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On 'Van Halen,' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning,' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.
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And if I would have taken lessons I probably wouldn't have done it, and what forced me to do all this weird stuff on the guitar was I couldn't afford effects pedals, I didn't have all this stuff when I was a kid so I just tried to squeeze all the weird noises I could out of the guitar, which brings me to building guitars.
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I was just a punk kid, trying to get a sound out of a guitar that I couldn't get off the rack, so I built one myself ... I wanted a Gibson type of sound but with a Strat vibrato .. I went to town painting it and I put three pickups back in, but they don't work - only the rear one works
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Rock stars come and go. Musicians play until they die.
Eddie Van Halen