Eruption transcription

[garbeaj]

I’ve been working on this for a long time with a couple of very smart people who helped me and gave of their time, energy and patience. I’ll post more about it and at some point follow up more posts to this thread and with lesson video clips on each phrase to help further clarify.

That said, this should be crystal clear...I’ve notated every articulation, every left hand fingering, which left hand fingers to use (I=Index, M=Middle, R=Ring, P=Pinky, T=Thumb) and which picking directions to use (Down or Up).

Here is the link to the transcription:
http://www.vhlinks.com/Eruption.pdf

[evhintexas]

I’ve been working on this for a long time with a couple of very smart people who helped me and gave of their time, energy and patience. I’ll post more about it and at some point follow up more posts to this thread and with lesson video clips on each phrase to help further clarify.

That said, this should be crystal clear...I’ve notated every articulation, every left hand fingering, which left hand fingers to use (I=Index, M=Middle, R=Ring, P=Pinky, T=Thumb) and which picking directions to use (Down or Up).

You're back?
Awesome

[garbeaj]

You're back?
Awesome

Thanks! I’m waiting for Brett to upload the pdf link to this thread so that anybody that wanted to be able to just click and print out this transcription that I talked about and worked on for many years!

[Brett]

I'm so sorry Allen for getting this up so late, been a really lousy week, I was slammed with stuff. I've put a link to the PDF in the first post guys. You can DL it from there.

[garbeaj]

I'm so sorry Allen for getting this up so late, been a really lousy week, I was slammed with stuff. I've put a link to the PDF in the first post guys. You can DL it from there.

No problem at all man, thanks!

I just wanted to let anyone that wants it to be able to actually download it and print it if they wanted to...I’ve only been working on “Eruption” for 34 years so the delay was no big deal!🤣

[garbeaj]

“Eruption” Transcription Breakdown

I wanted to share a transcription of “Eruption” that represents what I’ve learned about the Van Halen album version of “Eruption” from all the credible sources that I could find as well as my own observations. I'm not saying in any way that everyone must play the piece the way I have it notated here. I don't know why, but some people get very angry when I post anything and they accuse me of trying to force people to play something the way I have it. I don't care how anyone CHOOSES to play it...Do whatever you want. I'm only interested in how Eddie played what he played and if anyone has any different ideas on how Eddie played something and it is supported by credible evidence and logic,then I'm SUPER excited to hear it and expand my knowledge and share it with everyone.

The idea to do the transcription in this format came from me out of my own wish to correct the inaccuracies of previous attempts. I wrote out all the observations by hand in TAB and I ultimately decided how to present the piece and what observations to include. I used the services of former Guitar World transcription editor Matt Scharfglass for music engraving…in other words, he translated my handwritten TAB cave man gibberish into what I think is a beautiful musical score in standard notation and TAB. I paid for his services completely-which was expensive, especially with my limited means-but his work was worth every penny. I have ZERO knowledge of music theory and Matt’s work is just invaluable to this project. It just plain would not exist if it weren’t for his hard work.

This project is truly a collaborative effort from my friends Bill, Mark Bonta and a special contribution from Troy Grady of the excellent ‘Cracking The Code’ guitar education website. Essentially, Bill transcribed most of the main phrases, I basically got most of what was “in-between” the main phrases on my own along with notation of the tuning offset, delay times, text notations, formatting, cross-referencing other works, etc, Troy figured out the very first repeating lick in Bar 4 with some corrections to the “A-Blues” segment at the 17th fret and Mark and myself went back and forth on trying different components and methods of recreating the final oscillating full-octave dive on our vintage Univox EC-80 A echo units until Mark finally hit the right mod.

Most of what I have learned about this piece and most of what I have learned about Eddie’s playing in general comes from my friend Bill. I have been studying “Eruption” since I first picked up the guitar at age 8 in 1981. Truth be told, I have learned more from my conversations and debates with Bill about “Eruption” and Eddie’s playing in general than I have learned in over thirty years of study by myself. These conversations began sometime in 2010 and they have had a massive impact on my playing and understanding of Eddie’s licks. I also consulted two other friends, namely Troy Grady and Mark Bonta, who have made what I consider to be major contributions. I’ll try to point out exactly what their contributions are and where they appear in the following post so you can get a clear idea of exactly who amongst the four of us contributed what and where.

I have contributed to our discussions and collaborated on this transcription but make no mistake-the majority of this is Bill’s work and I trust his considerable and knowledge, logic and expertise on transcribing and understanding Eddie Van Halen’s playing over and above anyone I have ever read about or met in life. He’s an excellent teacher. But Bill has asked to have his full name to be left from this transcription. As far as I understand, this is partly because he disagrees with some of my observations or the format I used, but from what I can gather from our discussions, he wants to eventually do his own in-depth study in text and video lessons and he’s only comfortable with putting his name on a project if he is totally in control of it-I cannot fault him at all for that.

Let me emphasize again that this transcription really represents Bill’s work to a much greater degree than my work. I would say that Bill has learned a few things from me, but really I learned the most from him. I sometimes refer to this as “my” transcription, but in truth it is the result of the help of many that fully realized the end product that I had hoped for. I sincerely hope that I have made clear how vital their contributions have been, as well as how vital the work of those who previously attempted transcribing the piece has been.

With that said, this transcription is also informed by every transcription that I have ever seen published in magazines or books and every YouTube tutorial I’ve ever seen. None are completely or even close to completely accurate, but I have learned as much as I could from them. Mostly I’ve learned what NOT to do from these sources. One person has even claimed that I COPIED this entire transcription from the Wolf Marshall transcription in the very well-known and often reprinted 1990 official transcription book. I have already disproven that, but I will further point out exactly where this transcription differs from any previous transcription attempt. I consulted all available sources and made myself as aware of the observations of others as possible to help me get as close to the truth of what Eddie actually played as possible.

There were a few of these that I referred to most often. The first of these was Steve Vai’s transcription from the July 1984 issue of Guitar World. The next was the official Cherry Lane Publishing transcription book for the Van Halen album which was transcribed by Wolf Marshall that came out in 1990 and was reprinted in 1996. The next chronologically was Jimmy Brown’s transcription called ‘Tapping Young Lad-The Definitive Guide To Playing Eruption’ from the September 2004 Van Halen compilation issue Guitar World Presents: Guitar Legends-Van Halen. I also referred to Pete Thorn’s YouTube tutorial series on the piece and I watched as many other YouTube tutorials including Mike Himmel’s attempt, Doug Steele’s, Steve Townsend’s (of Wampler Pedals) excellent attempt and even some observations from Alex Skolnick’s 2014 discussion on the piece and his recent Van Halen podcast, Chelsea Constable’s excellent attempt and many other less successful tutorial/demo attempts.

Bill and I have used the Guitar Hero isolated track and the original album version for our primary reference. We sometimes slowed down these tracks, often to half-speed in order to catch as many nuances as possible. We also compared what we learned from Eddie’s other solos in the catalog to what he plays in “Eruption”. Bill, Troy and I also learned or confirmed a tremendous amount of what we know about Eddie’s playing and “Eruption” by listening to Steven Rosen’s 1979 audio interview in which Eddie reveals exactly how he played many riffs.



Bill transcribed several examples in this interview and they corroborate what he discovered about the link between Eric Clapton’s live Cream licks and what Eddie does in “Eruption” and indeed in the entire Van Halen catalog in general. Troy also used this to confirm his observations. This was especially helpful to understand Eddie’s picking direction choices (“Up or “Down” pickstrokes) which we believe come from both straight alternate picking and Eric Clapton’s picking directions which Eddie copied or slightly modified. As Bill taught me, many of these picking directions come directly from Eric Clapton’s short unaccompanied solo at the end of the live version of “Sitting On Top Of The World” from Cream’s Goodbye album.

I have notated the tuning from the album as I usually do-this part of the transcription came completely from me. If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the process I use to determine Eddie’s tuning offsets, please check out the sticky thread on tuning:
https://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/thr...uner-reference

This transcription is also informed by my use of the standard, non-locking, vintage style Fender tremolo unit as I played through every note. Eddie used a Fender tremolo system on the original Frankenstein guitar which was almost certainly used to record the album version of “Eruption”. There are certain pitches (especially during bar dives) which are achievable only on a vintage style Fender tremolo and the overall tone of the recording is clearly from the vintage Fender tremolo. You can of course play the song on a guitar equipped with the Floyd Rose tremolo system, but the sound is completely different and some pitches may not translate exactly.

I’ll break each phrase down and explain the logic that Bill and I used to come up with the fingerings, articulations and picking directions that I have written in this transcription along with a reference for how Troy caught the first repeating lick in Bar 4 (which escaped Bill and me and every other person I’ve ever seen attempt it) and his logic for how parts of the A-Blues section at the 17th fret was played.
The isolated track opens with some feedback and echo noise that can help you set the tempo for the main delay.
I used the same Dunlop/MXR Echoplex delay pedal and I compared it's setting to my H9 to get a digital readout of the exact timing. This is where I came up with the “500 ms” notation. Obviously, the track has reverb as well. I’m not going into that here because recreating the reverb from the album is a whole topic unto itself. But remember that the reverb and delay are combined to give the great atmosphere that we all know and love. Brian Kehew’s EXCELLENT discussions on the Sunset Sound YouTube channel can provide more insight into this. I also highly recommend Pete Thorn and Dave Friedman’s excellent breakdown of the tones from the first album, but that is a different discussion altogether.

The more commonly known opening of the song from the album version begins with a power slide that leads to the open A5 power chord at the second fret. From listening to the isolated track and the album version slowed down, here is how we believe it was played.


This opening power slide has been incorrectly or unclearly transcribed in every transcription and YouTube tutorial that I’ve ever seen.

For examples of how Eddie most likely didn't do it:

Steve Vai in Guitar Player 07-1984:

This simply notates a slide of some sort, but no attempt is made to actually transcribe the sequence. To be fair to Steve, as he mentioned in a recent interview with Dweezil Zappa, he did not actually play through any of “Eruption” on guitar when he transcribed it…he simply listened and then wrote it out. He also did it quickly on a publishing deadline and without the benefit of decades to constantly examine the piece.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wolf Marshall/Cherry Lane Publishing-1990:

This shows an unknown muted noise as the beginning of the sequence and shows the slide down starting at the 14th fret which is incorrect.
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Jimmy Brown in Guitar World 09/20/2004:

This is closer, but it notates the sequence as a slide on the D and G strings up to the 13th fret and back down to the open A5 power chord. This is wrong for several reasons.
The first and most obvious is that the beginning point of the slide up the neck is omitted entirely. We have notated the sequence beginning on the 7th fret of the A and D strings and sliding up to the 13th fret on both of those strings concluding with sounding the G note at the 15th fret of the low E with a slide down to the low G note at the 3rd fret of the low E.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[garbeaj]

Much of my reasoning for this sequence comes from slowing down the recordings and hearing the pitches. Also, the fingerings reflect a logical progression of finger placement that I think best leads to the open A5 power chord fingering. Also, in Jimmy Brown’s TAB, the slide up and down the G string would render the G string slightly flat on a vintage Fender tremolo equipped guitar. You can demonstrate this yourself on most guitars…if you do aggressive power sliding up and down the neck on the G string, check your tuning immediately. You will likely find that the string is slightly or very flat. The string will eventually return to pitch, but it will be slightly flat for a moment. The A note on the 2nd fret of the G string is not flat on the recording. You can slide up and down the A and D strings as much as you like on a vintage Fender tremolo system and the strings will remain in tune. The way I have the opening transcribed has the correct pitches and the open A5 power chord is perfectly in tune on a correctly set up vintage Fender tremolo system.

You should notice that your fingers are in perfect position to finger and strike the open A5 power chord when you perform the opening power slide sequence the way we have it TAB’ed. The ring finger lands on the 3rd fret of the low E string leaving your index finger in perfect position to catch the D and G strings at the 2nd fret and leaving the A string open to hit the chord in time and in tune easily.

The opening power chord is followed by a slide up the A string from the 4th fret to the 7th fret with a “bend and release” segment that can best be thought of as wide vibrato, but that vibrato can be dissected into the bends and releases that I have notated:

Then the quick palm muted walk up the A blues scale followed by the bend/release/pull-off/hammer-on/bend section:


This segment has been transcribed correctly and almost identically in nearly every transcription and video lesson clip that I’ve seen, so nothing particularly difficult or controversial about this segment. Once again, the bend and release on the very last note sounded in this section is best thought of as wide vibrato, but I have notated the actual pitches of the bends and releases in this wide vibrato.

In contrast, the next section IS controversial and very often transcribed differently between different transcribers and players and I feel they(Bill and myself have all missed what Eddie actually played. Let’s call this section, “B-string hammer-on/pull-off section”. There’s more to this section than just pull-offs, but this title should suffice for the sake of this examination.
Steve Vai in Guitar Player 07-1984:

Wolf Marshall/Cherry Lane Publishing-1990:

Jimmy Brown in Guitar World 09/20/2004:

And even Bill and myself were wrong about how to play it.

But Troy NAILED it finally and he has substantive evidence to support this.

I have the lick beginning with a specific Upstroke of the pick on the open high E string. The rest of the sequence is performed ENTIRELY with the left hand, beginning with the key to the lick...the "silent hammer-on" or "hammer-on from nowhere" at the 8th fret of the B string. This is then followed by a pull-off to the 5th fret of the B string, another pull-off to the open B string and then another "silent hammer-on" to the 8th fret of the G string. This lick is present in many of Eddie's greatest solos in different keys and sometimes the same keys in solos from "Somebody Get Me A Doctor" (Live footage from US Festival and the 5150 Vault backs this up), "I'm The One" (5150 vault footage and other video backs this up), "Romeo Delight" (5150 Vault and other sources back this up), "5150" (live in Tokyo 1989 backs this up) and others. This was a controversial lick and it has been transcribed in many different ways, but I believe Troy and myself have put the controversy to rest. There are just too many clips of Eddie playing the lick this way that back up how I have it notated and a total absence of any clips backing up Eddie playing the lick as Wolf Marshall has it transcribed.

I believe that Troy Grady was the only person that finally caught how this segment is actually being played. Others may have figured it out-Alex Skolnick was very close, but he missed the silent hammer-on to the G string at the 8th fret-however, I’ve never seen it played or transcribed in a public format anywhere before.

[garbeaj]

Here is a link to the forum post on Troy’s website where I sought help and a fresh pair of eyes and Troy came through with SOLID evidence of how Eddie played this lick and Troy’s observations on the “A-Blues” section at the 17th fret are also covered:
https://forum.troygrady.com/t/feedba...ption/29244/25

The next segment appears after one more repeat of the “B string Pull-off” lick which leads to the D note at the 7th fret of the G string (instead of the “Blue” note at the 8th fret of the G string that was previously sounded in the section I have marked with the repeat bars). Here is how Bill and I believe this section was played:

The 8-7-5 pull-off segment on the G string in our transcription has been notated as a bend and release at the 7th fret of the G string followed by a pull-off to the 5th fret of the G string. We believe that our version is more correct if you listen to the slowed down track and if you follow the many instances in Eddie’s other solos (like “Panama” for instance) where Eddie plays this section as a 8-7-5 pull-off sequence. This “8-7-5” pull-off pattern on the G string is a stock Eddie lick (and indeed a stock blues lick) that he uses in box positions across the fingerboard, and again, we feel that listening to the slowed down track and using Eddie’s often repeated stock licks in other solos help to confirm that our version of this segment is more correct to what is actually being played than any of the other transcriptions.

The next segment has also been transcribed very differently in books and magazines and in online tutorials. Here is how Bill and I see the next segment:

In this section, pay special attention to the “silent hammer-on” at the 7th fret of the D string in the repeated licks on the G and D strings. Also note the very light palm mute that I have notated and pay special attention where it begins and ends. This is crucial to getting the feel right for this part. The “silent hammer-on” is a major part of Eddie’s style and it shows up all over the place, but most especially in his fast playing. For example, Eddie does a silent hammer-on in the same box position in the beginning of the first solo from “I’m The One” and at the beginning of the first fast run in “Spanish Fly” and in other places in the fast picked parts of “Spanish Fly”…and MANY, many other places. These “silent hammer-ons” are so strong and clear that they sound almost as loud and clear as picked notes. This is something that Eddie mastered and threw into many of his solos.

The little walk-down after this segment that gradually slows in speed is not really controversial and is probably easily understood, so I won’t go over that section.

The tremolo bar dive section just before the power chords come in has been transcribed incorrectly in every TAB and video lesson that I have seen. Here is how I see this section:


I will say that most transcribers that have worked on “Eruption” have done so using a Floyd Rose tremolo system, with the exception of Pete Thorn who uses a Suhr vintage Fender style tremolo system. I use a vintage Fender style tremolo and I believe that this may have helped me get a little closer to what Eddie is actually doing on the record. This dive section involves specific slides and silent hammer-ons followed by pull offs to the open E or A strings. If you follow the score closely using the left hand fingering that I have notated and if you use a standard Fender non-locking tremolo unit, you should achieve almost, if not exactly the identical pitches and articulations that Eddie did on the recording. Remember that he used a vintage, non-locking Fender tremolo for this recording of “Eruption” and of course he used one on all of the tremolo tracks on the first two Van Halen albums. You can approximate these articulations with a Floyd Rose tremolo, but it might take some extra work to get it closer to the original recording since the mechanical movement and pitch change is different between a vintage Fender tremolo and a Floyd Rose system.

The power chord section has also been transcribed in many different ways, but this represents how we hear it:

Notice that we begin this section with a VERY soft pick scrape (not really a pick slide, but just a scrape noise) and a VERY soft silent hammer-on at the 17th fret of the low E string that is then VERY softly slid down to the 5th fret of the low E string. I can’t stress enough how soft this section is…many other transcribers have supposed that there is an overdub in the power chord section that may have contained this sound, but we don’t hear any overdub on any part of the recording of “Eruption”. Again, this little slide leading to the open A5 power chord is extremely quiet, but it is what we hear so we must notate it.

Also, nearly every transcription I have seen shows the G power chord being played with the D octave on B string and even sometimes the high octave G note on the 3rd fret of the high E string. We hear simply the three note power chord of the low E string at the 3rd fret being fingered with the Thumb and the open D and open G ringing. We hear the MXR Phase 90 being switched on right at the point of the G power chord being sounded. Up until now, Eddie did not engage the Phase 90. The Phase 90 remains on for the rest of the recording. We also hear the D power chord being played twice…the first time with a Downstroke and the second time with an Upstroke. This chord is held until the Middle finger is slid from the 3rd fret of the B string to the 19th fret of the B string. The open D is left ringing through the beginning of the next phrase…

We can call the next phrase the “unison bend” segment.

This is the beginning of a segment that has been confounding transcribers and listeners for decades. This represents how we hear it using every tool that we have available. We feel certain that this segment contains the famous “mistake” that Eddie has often referred to in interviews. He mentioned to Guitar World in 2002 the following: “I didn’t even play it right. There’s a mistake at the top end of it. Whenever I hear it, I always think ‘Man, I could have played it better’…” and this is what Bill and I believe he is referring to. As he slightly speeds up these unison bends, he seems to get a little excited as he is heading to reposition his hands for the following phrase and he somehow unintentionally sounds the open G string along with some other unintentional string noise. It is a pitch that can clearly be heard on the original recording at full speed and at slower speeds. Bill and I believe it is more important to focus on the phrasing of what Eddie may have likely intended to play. Getting caught up in figuring out how to recreate this unintentional “string-noise” mistake can lead to losing sight of the two phrases that occur around this point. When I play this phrase, I actually intentionally strike the open G, but Bill does not. Either way, we don’t believe Eddie intended to sound the open G and it was an accident. Be that as it may, I felt it was necessary to include my best representation of this mistake since it can be clearly heard on the recording and it had to be included in the transcription.

The “second phrase”, as we call the next segment, is an example of B.B. King and Clapton style phrasing that involves heavily accented Downstroke “chop” movements with some non-accented Upstrokes. I have notated the heavily accented Downstroke “chop” notes with an asterisk in the score and I have also shown a particular note at the 20th fret of the high E string in this sequence that is EXTREMELY lightly picked with an Upstroke and “choked” with a very short duration. This note can be thought of as a quick “breath” between the heavily accented Downstroke note at the 19th fret of the B string that precedes it and the heavily accented Downstroke note at the 17th fret of the high E string.

I have placed the note at the 20th fret of the high E string in parentheses to try to get the point across that this note is barely audible when the track is played at normal speed. It only becomes apparent that this note exists when the track is slowed down to half-speed. For an exaggerated example of this type of “chop” Downstroke heavy accent with some unaccented Upstroke “breath between accented Downstroke notes”, watch the beginning of this BBC interview with Eric Clapton at around the 4:45 mark) in which Eric hits some heavily accented Downstroke notes with a “chop” of his wrist and then follows with some very, very light, unaccented notes played with an Upstroke in between these heavily accented Downstroke notes:


The next segment is fairly easy to execute…it is a continuation of the same Clapton/B.B. King style “rhythmic chopping”. I have also notated where the heavier accents fall as I did in the “first phrase”. One thing that is completely different from any other transcription is the “silent hammer-on” at the 20th fret of the B string in Bar 13. Bill caught this silent hammer-on and I believe that he is correct. I have always picked this note, but I now believe it to be a silent hammer-on.

At this point, I’m going to take a break in showing the differences between my transcription and the other transcriptions. I wanted to give anyone reading this an understanding that this transcription is different in many ways than any other transcription attempt and I hope I have accomplished that. I’ll continue with some further explanations of the rest of the piece soon.

[garbeaj]

Here are some video clips that support Troy's observations on the "B string hammer-on/pull-off" section (Upstroke on the open High E string, "silent hammer-on" at the 8th fret of the B string, pull-off to the 5th fret of the B string, pull-off to the open B string and "silent hammer-on" to the 8th fret of the G string and repeat). On all of these clips, I urge everyone to use the Playback Speed controls on your YouTube player and set it to at least half-speed or slower so you can see very easily exactly what is going on:

Troy provided this clip from the US Festival of the solo to "Somebody Get Me A Doctor" and this is what convinced me. Of course this is the lick in B....Upstroke on the open High E, "silent hammer-on" to the 10th fret of the B string, pull-off to the 7th fret of the B string, pull-off to the open B string and "silent hammer-on" to the 10th fret of the G string, repeat):



I found the same lick performed the same way in B during the solo from "5150" on the live in Tokyo 1989 video:



The same lick in B is played the same way in the 5150 Vault footage if any of you happen to have it...I can't confirm or deny that I've seen it! Look at the 33:43 mark during the trio footage of them doing "I'm The One", specifically at the beginning of the second solo-it is super clear and up-close, plain as day evidence of him playing the lick this way.

There are more examples of the lick in B from "I'm The One" from the 2007-2008 tour and later footage where they are playing this song. Here is a clip from Baltimore 2008:


I've never seen any examples where Eddie plays this lick any differently. It's ALWAYS the same, unless he makes a huge mistake. No instances where he picks the note on the G string in any of the sequences as I used to and as so many others have thought he did....he just never plays it any differently than this way in A during "Eruption":


Or this way in B during "I'm The One", "Somebody Get Me A Doctor", "5150" etc.:



I think the reason that myself and really everyone else missed this is that we didn't look at the available footage closely enough or that the clearest video footage was only available relatively recently. Also, all the previous transcriptions were faulty and I think they caused everyone to automatically play some of this lick incorrectly just from seeing it transcribed incorrectly so many times.

This evidence is irrefutable.

[turnbuckle]

Like I've said before Garbeaj, keep your ears peeled for those open string notes, Edward snuck them in a lot

[garbeaj]

Like I've said before Garbeaj, keep your ears peeled for those open string notes, Edward snuck them in a lot

I may have told you that...I don’t recall you saying that to me before? The open string really isn’t the thing...it’s the silent hammer-ons that are unusual that nobody really caught before. Or at least some caught a few, but no one caught all of them before.

[turnbuckle]

I may have told you that...I don’t recall you saying that to me before? The open string really isn’t the thing...it’s the silent hammer-ons that are unusual that nobody really caught before. Or at least some caught a few, but no one caught all of them before.

And they probably never will

First and foremost, Edward was a piano player. Piano players sound notes by slamming their fingertips onto the keys.
This concept of a "hammer on from nowhere" has blown your mind. Why is that so far fetched?
Will you only listen to "Bill" or "Troy"?
Where does it say in the guitar player's manual of style that a note has to be picked first, or hammered onto from an existing note?

There is a big difference between learning this stuff from digital versions, slowed down with digital hardware, as opposed to learning this stuff from a slowed down analog vinyl pressing, that came directly from the analog master tapes.
Digital vs Analog- Analog wins! Digital is fun and easy, but not as detailed.
I don't know what it is, but it is very different. A lot of things that you may have thought were picked, aren't necessarily so.
Digital has a way of filling in the blanks, or something, I can't explain it. We have discussed this years ago.

This is why I have always taken your picking patterns and/or HO/POs, with a grain of salt.
Garbeaj my friend, I do appreciate your hard work, and your obsessed dedication to this subject,
even though it has become quite trivial to myself in recent years.

You're kinda getting all Perry Mason dude

[garbeaj]

And they probably never will

First and foremost, Edward was a piano player. Piano players sound notes by slamming their fingertips onto the keys.
This concept of a "hammer on from nowhere" has blown your mind. Why is that so far fetched?
Will you only listen to "Bill" or "Troy"?
Where does it say in the guitar player's manual of style that a note has to be picked first, or hammered onto from an existing note?

There is a big difference between learning this stuff from digital versions, slowed down with digital hardware, as opposed to learning this stuff from a slowed down analog vinyl pressing, that came directly from the analog master tapes.
Digital vs Analog- Analog wins! Digital is fun and easy, but not as detailed.
I don't know what it is, but it is very different. A lot of things that you may have thought were picked, aren't necessarily so.
Digital has a way of filling in the blanks, or something, I can't explain it. We have discussed this years ago.

This is why I have always taken your picking patterns and/or HO/POs, with a grain of salt.
Garbeaj my friend, I do appreciate your hard work, and your obsessed dedication to this subject,
even though it has become quite trivial to myself in recent years.

You're kinda getting all Perry Mason dude

I don’t know where you are getting that I never thought it was possible for Eddie to use the “hammer-on from nowhere”. I’ve known he used it many times in many places in the past, so why you claim it “blew my mind”, I have no idea.

What you seem to be missing is that I’m referring to all other official transcriptions and online lessons and even forum posts...NO ONE had ever caught that specific lick being played in that way before, as I’ve shown. If you have read any of my posts, you would see that I learn from ALL possible sources, not just my friend Bill and Troy Grady. I also use my own ears, my own logic, my own brain to gather all the best information that I can at all times from any and all sources I can find. I’ve also listened and learned from my original vinyl sources, but there is no evidence that learning from a vinyl source is in any way better or more accurate than learning from any other source, but from what I can understand from what you are saying...you seem to think that my observations aren’t accurate because I haven’t referred to the vinyl source? That’s just an assumption on your part, because I have indeed. Or you are saying that my observations are overly accurate and overly analytical and are somehow wrong in your eyes? I’m not sure what you mean?

You speak as if you’ve always known how to play this lick or you speak as if you don’t care how the lick was actually played? Which is it? You seem have some sort of issue with me because I care to take the effort to learn the material as close to the way Eddie played it as possible. I don’t have a problem with you or how you choose to learn or not learn something. I’m puzzled as to why and what you are saying.

If you think that what I’ve done isn’t worthwhile, why are you even commenting at all? If you think you know better than everyone else, why don’t you post your own transcriptions and clips with evidence? Why don’t you make a clip of yourself demonstrating why the way you think that the way you playing something is more accurate? I’m always open to learning from EVERYONE and I’m always open to being wrong and learning something new, from ANY source, as long as there is evidence to back it up, not just unsupported and unsubstantiated and cryptic claims of somehow superior knowledge.

[japeape]

Holy shit, man, congrats!

I'm thumbing through the new Guitar World, and your definitive transcription
of "Eruption," is featured & credited to you.

Man, it's come a long way since the 80's, where i thought, some of those
phrases seem uncomfortably odd (the old tabs).

I'm looking at what you have done, and NOW it makes sense.

I still can't play it.
But visually, i can hear it and picture Eddie's fingers.

GUITAR WORLD.

Again, congrats!

You've been devoting time to this since my old CVH forum days.

[garbeaj]

Holy shit, man, congrats!

I'm thumbing through the new Guitar World, and your definitive transcription
of "Eruption," is featured & credited to you.

Man, it's come a long way since the 80's, where i thought, some of those
phrases seem uncomfortably odd (the old tabs).

I'm looking at what you have done, and NOW it makes sense.

I still can't play it.
But visually, i can hear it and picture Eddie's fingers.

GUITAR WORLD.

Again, congrats!

You've been devoting time to this since my old CVH forum days.

Thanks very much indeed! I intend to try to go more in depth into the piece here than the magazine did. I want to make sure that everyone can understand the parts clearly.

Also, I want to make it clear that this was done with the major help of some friends who have taught me a massive amount and whose work in the transcription is just as, if not more important than my own. In fact, I fought to have my friend Bill’s name listed on the transcription, but he did not want to have his name on it. I originally conceived of the project as a way to get Bill’s many brilliant observations about the piece out to as many people as possible. The truth is that though I was the driving force behind the project as a whole, Bill’s observations actually made up the vast majority of the transcription. He and I went back and forth over each note until we came to a consensus or agreed to disagree, but I agreed with what he observed 99% of the time. I did change a few things that Bill and I originally agreed upon when Troy Grady demonstrated exactly where we were wrong. Troy made a really key observation that helped correct the first repeating lick that I discussed above. His input was a huge lightbulb moment and I’m FOREVER grateful to him for his help.

They did use the entire transcription exactly as you see it here. I also added several corrections to the “I’m The One” transcription that I was not credited for, but I didn’t have enough time to correct the whole thing before the publishing deadline. They also asked me to correct the “Mean Street” transcription, but again there just wasn’t enough time to get it done before the deadline.

I know you were there at CVH which was the first time I ever got a computer and literally the first time I ever went on a forum. I’ve learned a lot from some great players and super knowledgeable people in the forums in the years since. I owe them all more than I can say...believe me, I learned more from them than they from me.

Thanks for the shout out!