“I think Clapton is brilliant. He's the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.” ThinkingWantMadePlayMovedGuitarBrilliant Author:Eddie Van Halen
“A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I'm very brutal on my instruments, but not all the time.” PersonsInstrumentsGuitarConnectedBrutalExtensions Author:Eddie Van Halen
“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.” MonthsAmountCoupleMajorsGuitarSteelBreakthroughBending Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.” AgeLessonsSixGuitarPianoHollandPiano Lesson Author:Eddie Van Halen
“My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.” PlaySonGuitarMy SonBassDrum And Bass Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I destroyed a lot of guitars trying to get them to do what I wanted, but I learned something from every guitar I tore apart, and discovered even more things. Things like if the string is not straight from the bridge saddle to the nut, you're going to have friction.” IfsTryingWantedGuitarDestroyedBridgesStringsNutsFrictionSaddles Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I have pictures of me sitting in the racquetball court in my pajamas with an acoustic guitar, and Wolfgang is probably just two-and-a-half-feet tall. I'll never forget the day I saw his foot tapping along in beat! I knew then, I couldn't wait for the day I'd be able to make music with my son. I don't know what more I could ask for.” KnowsTwoAbleAsksWaitingForgetHalfSawsFeetSonBeatsSittingCourtGuitarMy SonNever ForgetTallAcousticsPajamasTappingAcoustic GuitarRacquetball Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I started doing all kinds of weird stuff on the guitar, which became part of my playing. I started doing harmonics and tapping on the guitar and pulling off strings and doing all this weird stuff that no one had ever done before.” KindDoneStuffGuitarAll KindsStringsPullingTappingWeird Stuff Author:Eddie Van Halen
“The one thing I do have is good ears. I don't mean perfect pitch, but ears for picking things up. I developed my ear through piano theory, but I never had a guitar lesson in my life, except from Eric Clapton off of records.” MeanPerfectRecordsOne ThingTheoryLessonsEarsGuitarPianoEric Author:Eddie Van Halen
“Rock & Roll is feeling, and after you know most of the basics ... chords, rhythm, scales and bends ... getting that feeling is just about the most important aspect of playing guitar” KnowsImportantFeelingsMusicRocksAspectGuitarScalesRhythmChordsBasicsPlaying Guitar Author:Eddie Van Halen
“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” TryingKidsWantedThreeSoundMusicPaintingTypeBuiltTownsGuitarPunkRacksPickups Author:Eddie Van Halen
“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.” ThinkingMenWayTwoEndsSoundMistakeMusicRecordsHeardFlowGuitarEruptionGuitar MusicGuitar Sound Author:Eddie Van Halen
“If your going to learn to play lead guitar, get an electric guitar .. it doesn't have to be an expensive one .. acoustic guitars aren't good for learning lead, because you can't play up very high on the neck and they take heavier-gauge strings which makes it hard to bend notes” IfsHardPlayMusicNotesGuitarExpensiveNecksStringsElectricAcousticsGaugesAcoustic GuitarElectric Guitar Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I went to the zoo one day and saw a chimp playing with a beat-up acoustic guitar in a way I had never seen before. Instead of using the pick the chimp was banging the neck and tapping it with its fingers. I knew the chimp was on to something so I practiced this new technique in my room for hours until I'd perfected it.” WayHoursRoomsSawsOne DayBeatsPicksFingersGuitarTechniqueNecksZoosAcousticsBangingTappingAcoustic Guitar Author:Eddie Van Halen
“A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that's not right, all the strings should be off.” ShouldBuiltGuitarStringsIntervals Author:Eddie Van Halen
“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.” IfsDoneKidsStuffTakenEffectsBuildingLessonsGuitarNoisePedalsWeird Stuff Author:Eddie Van Halen
“I'll always leave the same set of strings on my guitars when I'm recording. If I break one I'll just replace it instead of putting on a whole new set of strings.” IfsWholeBreakGuitarStrings Author:Eddie Van Halen
“If you have a great-sounding guitar that's a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that's the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.” IfsKnowsFeelsShouldSoundQualityKnow HowKnowingKeysInstrumentsGuitar Author:Eddie Van Halen
“When I'm home on a break, I lock myself in my room and play guitar. After two or three hours, I start getting into this total meditation. It's a feeling few people experience, and that's usually when I come up with weird stuff. It just flows. I can't force myself. I don't sit down and say I've got to practice.” PeopleI CanTwoPlayFeelingsHomeThreeForceStuffHoursRoomsBreakPracticeMeditationFlowDown AndGuitarCome UpLocksWeird Stuff Author:Eddie Van Halen
