“When It’s Love” solo

[garbeaj]

I’ve recently revamped how I play the solo to “When It’s Love”...it’s one of my favorites, but I’ve had trouble nailing it. It’s still based on Clapton’s licks from Cream (in fact, I still think it is Eddie’s most specific ode to Clapton’s phrasing), specifically the cadenza at the end of the live version of “Sitting On Top Of The World” from Cream’s ‘Goodbye’ LP as my friend Bill taught me.

But like the Clapton licks in “Hot For Teacher” and “Panama”, the “When It’s Love” solo features a lot of “silent hammer-ons” or “hammer-ons from nowhere” inserted into the Clapton licks which make them faster and more legato. There are also many beautiful 1/4 and 1/2 step bends in with the regular whole step bends, abd lots of little vibrato touches in there. Again, the guitar is +40.0 cents higher than standard pitch...I think that in this particular case it might be from raising the overall pitch of the guitar track in the mix.

So with these “hammer-ons from nowhere” or “silent hammer-ons” in mind, here is a revised TAB that I created to show how I now think it is played. I watched the few live clips I could find and I think they have only convinced me even further that these “silent hammer-ons” are the key.

[billybobtexas]

I’ve recently revamped how I play the solo to “When It’s Love”...it’s one of my favorites, but I’ve had trouble nailing it. It’s still based on Clapton’s licks from Cream (in fact, I still think it is Eddie’s most specific ode to Clapton’s phrasing), specifically the cadenza at the end of the live version of “Sitting On Top Of The World” from Cream’s ‘Goodbye’ LP as my friend Bill taught me.

But like the Clapton licks in “Hot For Teacher” and “Panama”, the “When It’s Love” solo features a lot of “silent hammer-ons” or “hammer-ons from nowhere” inserted into the Clapton licks which make them faster and more legato.

So with these “hammer-ons from nowhere” or “silent hammer-ons” in mind, here is a revised TAB that I created to show how I now think it is played. I watched the few live clips I could find and I think they have only convinced me even further that these “silent hammer-ons” are the key.

This is cool. I love that solo also. The other solo that has some of these techniques maybe is Don’t Tell Me and Humans Being?


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[MF5150]

In order to get close to nailing Eddie.


You gotta get close to nailing Clapton, or else it will always be missing something.

[garbeaj]

This is cool. I love that solo also. The other solo that has some of these techniques maybe is Don’t Tell Me and Humans Being?

This “hammer-on from nowhere” thing is in nearly every solo on every album. But I don’t acknowledge that anything happened in Van
Halen after February 4, 1989...this was the last date of the ‘0U812’ touring cycle so I wouldn’t have the first clue about “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” or “Humans Being”...never heard of them

[garbeaj]

In order to get close to nailing Eddie.


You gotta get close to nailing Clapton, or else it will always be missing something.

Yep!

[TJ_Kong]

Great job Allen. This is my favorite VH song and the song that introduced me to VH

[iplayguitaralot]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I love how he ends on the 10-12-10 on the blues lick, he does that all over 1984 and I use it in my own playing all the time. You are very on point with the picking patterns, they must be learned right to have the same swing.

[garbeaj]

Great job Allen. This is my favorite VH song and the song that introduced me to VH

Fantastic! I watched all the online YouTube demos and lessons and they are so wrong it’s almost comical. It’s one of Eddie’s greatest solos for sure!

[garbeaj]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I love how he ends on the 10-12-10 on the blues lick, he does that all over 1984 and I use it in my own playing all the time. You are very on point with the picking patterns, they must be learned right to have the same swing.

It is super easy and super cool...it’s REALLY cool how he bends the G note at the 12th fret of the G string a half-step while the C chord is behind it and then he bends the same note up a whole step at the end of the phrase as the progression moves to C/A and the A note is held with great vibrato.

[Majestic]

You got me thinking about this solo some more, as it’s one that (as you said) is frequently tabbed incorrectly, and also by my own failure to play it at album speed without that final lick tripping up my picking hand.

This guy has similar thoughts to us regarding Eddie’s “phantom picks” (“hammer-ons from nowhere” is what they’re labeled in many guitar communities), albeit his tab is a stitch different than yours.



Sticking w/ the topic of “hammer-ons from nowhere”: the only person I’ve ever personally witnessed play the “So This is Love” solo correctly is Jedi McFly. THAT lick is a b*TCH for me to play at even 75% speed. Referring to the one near the solo’s end, where he starts on the B string, descends down to the A, with his pinky striking (unpicked!) the first note of each descended string. F*CK that lick! And BRAVO to Jedi! I need to find that thread and give him props.

EDIT: So This is Love, not Out of Love. My bad.

[Majestic]

Now that I think about it, Eddie does it during the final “Ice Cream Man” lick as well. For whatever reason, I can handle that one, even though both incorporate leading with the pinky finger on descending string changes.

I don’t even think it’s leading with the pinky-slam that’s the problem: it’s that he immediately hops back up to the previous string with his first finger (picked), and then hops down again permanently with the pinky, but by picking it this time. Then pull-offs, then the pinky-slam down to the next string, then back up to the previous....etc.

EDIT: sorry for the randomness. Lost my password for a few years, and just stuck w/ lurking a few times a week.

[garbeaj]

You got me thinking about this solo some more, as it’s one that (as you said) is frequently tabbed incorrectly, and also by my own failure to play it at album speed without that final lick tripping up my picking hand.

This guy has similar thoughts to us regarding Eddie’s “phantom picks” (“hammer-ons from nowhere” is what they’re labeled in many guitar communities), albeit his tab is a stitch different than yours.

Sticking w/ the topic of “hammer-ons from nowhere”: the only person I’ve ever personally witnessed play the “So This is Love” solo correctly is Jedi McFly. THAT lick is a b*TCH for me to play at even 75% speed. Referring to the one near the solo’s end, where he starts on the B string, descends down to the A, with his pinky striking (unpicked!) the first note of each descended string. F*CK that lick! And BRAVO to Jedi! I need to find that thread and give him props.

EDIT: So This is Love, not Out of Love. My bad.

Yeah, I saw his clip/lesson (I’d say his way of playing it and the way I play it now are more than “a stitch” different!) and a few others...they are all way wrong and VERY different from how I’m now playing it. I used to have trouble with it too. My good friend Bill-who has taught me more about Ed’s style than anyone-doesn’t have it quite right either. I played it the way he taught me for years, but I could never get it right until about a week ago when I started watching some of the live clips and went back to the record again...the key was the use of the “silent hammer-ons”. That was what was missing from what my friend Bill showed me, which was pretty well note correct, but it was missing the “silent hammer-ons”. When I incorporated them where I saw Ed using them in the live clips and even in the official video, it finally made sense.

If you want to know how I played when I was following my friend Bill’s observations, you can see me do it in my “Clapton/Van Halen Lesson” video at the 6:00 mark. You should be able to tell that I got all the notes in, but the legato is just note there. It’s night and day with the “silent hammer-ons” versus without them.

[garbeaj]

Now that I think about it, Eddie does it during the final “Ice Cream Man” lick as well. For whatever reason, I can handle that one, even though both incorporate leading with the pinky finger on descending string changes.

I don’t even think it’s leading with the pinky-slam that’s the problem: it’s that he immediately hops back up to the previous string with his first finger (picked), and then hops down again permanently with the pinky, but by picking it this time. Then pull-offs, then the pinky-slam down to the next string, then back up to the previous....etc.

EDIT: sorry for the randomness. Lost my password for a few years, and just stuck w/ lurking a few times a week.

Not sure which part of the “Ice Cream Man” solo you are talking about?

[Majestic]

The Outro lick! Sorry..... NOT the solo!

[garbeaj]

The Outro lick! Sorry..... NOT the solo!

Hmm...there’s no pinky in those parts and they are really by the book blues phrases.

Do you have a link to the clip of McFly doing “So This Is Love?”