The "Beat It" Solo
Introduction
The message by Eddie on the VH-Website, telling all of us that he is 100% healthy again and recovered from the cancer he was fighting got me thinking. And I figured it would be interesting for you guys if Iīd write a bit about Eddie. Since thereīs a lot of instructional stuff about his playing-style, I was trying to write about something that might not be covered a lot... so I picked Eddieīs awesome guitar-solo in the Michael Jackson-song "Beat It" (from the "Thriller"-album, 1982 EPIC EK 38-112).
Of course there are some TABs around, but since I had a TAB around that I had made at the GIT, plus had recorded some soundfiles of the solo, I figured I could write about it and go through it in a very detailed way...
About the song...
The song was featured on one of Michaelīs most successful albums, the mega-seller "Thriller". "Beat It", which was one of the singles, was a decent hit and was one of the factors that lead to those huge sale figures.
While studio-player Steve Lukather was involved in many of Michaelīs recordings, it was decided that they wanted to get the hottest player of those days to record a solo for the song. The guy who was considered the biggest guitar hero in those days was Eddie Van Halen, who wasnīt only extremely successful with his band, but also had managed to give rock-guitar-playing an all new twist and thereby influenced thousands of guitarist (an influence that is evident to this day).
Thereīs a funny story about Quincy Jonesī (producer) call to Eddie... Eddie thought it was a prank call, so he cussed at Quincy and slammed down the phone. It took two more attempts for Quincy to convince Eddie that it was really him... So Eddie went down to the studio with an amp and a guitar and recorded that solo.
A lot of players these days are convinced that Eddie edited the solo, added punch-ins etc. I donīt think that it really matters, cuz it is a great guitar solo full of style and attitude, and to me it doesnīt matter whether Eddie recorded it in one take or 20...
The sound...
I donīt think I have to talk a lot about Eddieīs "brown sound" and the gear he used back then... a lot of people talked about that before. Itīs a fact that the solo sounds extremely HOT and aggressive. Eddie most likely used one of his "Frankenstein"-Strats (Heavily modified Strats with one PAF-humbucker, volume-knob, Floyd Rose-vibrato and most likely an onboard-"Frog"- preamp to add some gain and volume to the sound). Amp-wise, he used modified Marshall "Plexis" back then. He ran those through a Variac, which is a device similar to a dimmer... it limits the voltage running into the amp, which makes the tubes clip easier. That leads to a different, sometimes hotter sound.
The solo
OK, first of all, here is an MP3 of a slower version of that solo. I used some delay and reverb, and this version is a few click slower than the original.
Click HERE to hear it.
And HERE is the solo at pretty much original tempo.
And HERE for a PDF version of the entire solo.
This solo was HARD to figure out, tab out and learn, believe me. Itīs not really the speed of the fast passages, itīs those gazillions of little details that are an essential part of Eddieīs sound.. he constantly adds little legato- tricks (slides, hammer onīs etc.), does weird stuff with the wang bar and plays irregular numbers of notes over the straight beats that are so typical for this Michael Jackson song. This solo really BREATHES, itīs more than just a bunch of fast notes, itīs a real statement, with wild noises and howls, more attitude than planning-ahead and accuracy.
Before we get to the TAB of the solo, here is a short excerpt of the rhythm guitar that the solo is played over. The chords are indicated in the TAB of the solo. Here are a few bars of the "Beat It" rhythm guitar, played by two guitars:
Cool huh ? Well, the trademark-thing about it is the straight "on the beat" rhythm, very computer-like, straight stuff. When Eddie comes in with his howling, whirling attitude solo itīs a huge contrast.
OK, here we go. These are the first three bars of the solo:
Eddie starts with a divebomb on the G-string, then adds some bends (to the Bb... weīre in the key of E minor, so consider it Eddies unconditional style). In bar No. 3 he plays tapped harmonics, which are one of his trademarks. If you donīt know how those work: in our example, you fret the D on the G-string. Then tap onto the fretwire exactly 7 frets above, at the 14th fret. After you hit the string pretty fast and hard, immediately take away the finger. What you should hear is a cool-sounding harmonic. This also works 5 frets above the fretted note, and 12 frets above it... notice anything ? Right, those are the distances of natural harmonics ( 5th, 7th and 12th fret )... if you would like to know more about tapped harmonics and also about other nice harmonic tricks on the guitar, stay tuned, cuz I am planning on writing another article for iBreatheMusic about it...
With the left hand, Eddie now slides up to the E and taps the same harmonic again. Since the distance now is only 5 frets, the resulting harmonic is even higher ( and harder to generate ) than the one before.
Here are the next two bars:
This is like one long string of notes, due to Eddieīs legato technique. And he certainly uses another one of his trademarks, the tapping-technique. Pay attention to the irregular note groupings ( 5 notes over one beat, 6 notes over one beat, 7 notes... ). This is hard to play exactly right, and I think itīs alright to skip or add one note or another as long as you put some attitude into that solo...
The next two bars:
Here, Eddie uses some wide intervals, utilizing the "stretch-pentatonic" ( I wrote an article about that for iBreathe too, by the way ). Itīs really tough to play all the little legato-things exactly right, but try it, itīs worth the effort...
In those next two bars, Eddie incorporates some whammy-tricks, before he goes on like this:
This is one of my favorite parts in the solo... Eddie plays some bluesy bends on the B-string, also pulling off to the open E-string, and adds an extremely aggressive pinch harmonic ( while bending up the note )... you might wanna search for the right position to pick to achieve the right pitch for the harmonic. Donīt forget that you can alter the pitch of that harmonic by picking at different positions along the string...
Exhausted, tired, frustrated ? But itīs fun, ainīt it ? I mean, there are SO many details and little things in that solo... alright, turn the page and letīs continue with the second half...
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