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The Beat It Solo
(17 May 02)
The second half
Here, Eddie again changes position and moves from the lower positions to an higher area of the neck, where he plays some cool bluesstyle licks. Now here is the part many of you were waiting for, the awesome tapping-passage:
There sure are a lot of players who are able to play even faster and more sophisticated tapping-licks than Eddie, but only a few are able to incorporate those into cool solos with bunches of trademark-phrasing the way Eddie does. And that is still something that sets him apart from many others. Itīs the attitude and style. Also, you gotta remember that this solo was recorded in 1982 / 1983, before the "Varney-wave" rolled in. Many players still didnīt know what tapping was at all and still thought this was either extremely fast left hand playing, a keyboard or a difficult overdub...
Not to say that this tapping-part is easy...
Gee, Iīm rambling ainīt I ?
Well, here are the next two bars:
In the second of those two bars, Eddie uses another one of his trademarks, "trem picking" (aka. "fly picking"), which consists of continuos fast picking of a single note. So here, Eddie climbs up the E minor scale, moving up to D, bending up to the high E as the climax of the solo, to be seen in the next bar:
According to some rumours, this was actually Michael Jacksonīs favorite part of the solo :)
Here are the final two bars:
Eddie stays on the high E (or rather the high D bent to E) and keeps picking it. In the final bar, he slides down the D-string, then he frets the high D on the G-string and slides down... thatīs it...
And now ?
Well, of course you might ask why I went through all that work and wrote this long article about that solo. Well, I think it is interesting to take a closer look at masterworks like this one, to analyze them a bit (while remembering that this is a rock nīroll-solo and no constructed thing meant to be analyzed ) and figure out why they sound good.
Feel free to attempt to learn the whole thing. Itīs hard work, but worth the effort. I'm sure you will pick up something that you might incorporate into your own playing (I am not talking about stealing, but about picking up some feel and attitude from this cool solo and getting influenced by it)
It also is an interesting task to learn solos like this one, a goal to work for. It will most likely not sound like it does when Eddie plays it. That is not due to a lack of ability, itīs just the old saw: he has got his tone in his hands and fingers, and even if you play the same notes through the same gear, it will not sound exactly the same. Which is a good thing, because after all youīve got your OWN sound and style (or are working on developing just that), and thatīs cool.
So I hope you found this interesting. Whatever youīre gonna do with it, have fun, keep listening and practising and try to pick up some of the fire Eddie put into these few bars... itīs beyond mere notes and tricks...
Let that inspire you to come up with your own licks and solos.
Eddie live in the 80s
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Eric started playing the guitar at age 10. He attended GIT and studied with Scott Henderson, Brett Garsed, Dan Gilbert amo. Eric is involved in several bands and recording projects and his instrumental debut - Hidden Creek - plus his instructional book Talking Hands - A Guide To Contemporary Lead Guitar Techniques is available HERE
Visit his website at www.ericvandenberg.net
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