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am i slow for starting to learn "eruption"


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Posted

Your friend's version of eruption probably sounds

like balls dipped in a pool of other people's balls.

The tapping parts aren't hard, but to play it as a

whole, with the right feel and dynamics is not easy.

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Posted

When I'd been playing for 2 years..I could play most Sabbath, Beatles and some Zeppelin stuff reasonably well. I heard "Eruption" and couldn't actually understand it at all. It sounded like EVH had a different instrument to me. I didn't even try and tackle it till years later. I still play it really badly.

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Posted

I've been playing for 20 years and I can't play it.

 

Of course I've never heard the song........

 

Its not a race, but if it was, you want to be the tortoise not the hare.

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Posted

Your friend is lying, he can't play it. "Eruption" is not something you ought to learn during your first few years anyway, as that time is best spent learning the basics. There are also tons of great Van Halen solos that are worth learning before you try and tackle "Eruption".

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Posted

I would agree that your friend is full of ca ca pooty. Pretty much not a chance he can play it correctly. Ask him to record it and post it here.

 

There is no predefined timelines for this and it is never too early to try anything really. Provided you go into it with the expectation that you wont get it all right away. Give it a try! You'll pick up some stuff.

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Posted

I had to wait at least four years to play it...that's because I was playing four years before it was released ;)

 

Seriously though, when it/they came out I couldn't stand them. It wasn't until I was them on the Diver Down tour that I started liking them, that was about 4 or 5 albums into their catalog. So, I didn't learn it until '83 or whenever that was. But previous to that I would turn them off every time they came on the radio. I absolutely couldn't stand them. But once I got hooked I learned everything up to the 1984 album and got many gigs back in the day because I could replicate a good majority of it note of note.

 

It doesn't matter when you do something, the important part is that you are inspired by it. And that might not be be for some time, as was my case.

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Posted

when it comes to playing other peoples stuff, theres "playing" and theres PLAYING.

i thought i could play vai's "for the love of god" after 2 years playing guitar. almost 8 years later, i see that i still have some work to do.

the better you get, the more things you notice about "the pro's" playing that you didn't notice before when you thought you could play it. those minor details that are overlooked by new players are actually the things that tend to take years to master, and not coincidentally, are responsible for like 90% of the listenability of the overall piece. we've all heard someone hack their way through a song thats WAYYY over their head, and maybe they hit most of the notes at the right time, but it still sounds bad because the dynamics are all wrong, the vibratos terrible, the bends are out of tune, the nuances that create intensity like hand-slides are non existent.

the 1-2 year player who bends a note up 7/8 of a step, picking the string casually, with no vibrato, while the professional who wrote the song does a dramatic hand-slide double half-open string rake then attacks all the strings, muting all except the one meant to be heard for a ferocious attack, full step bend in perfect tune followed by a vibrato that can only be had by a 30 year virtuoso, and letting the note ring out into proper feedback before sliding into the next lick with flawless execution. even the untrained ear hears the difference.

in other words, its not just the notes you play, it's how you play them. "how you play them" is what separates the boys from the men.

listen to how your favorite guitar hero plays the notes, and be prepared to learn.

every guitarist wants to "know" that song that they are inspired by. give your friend props for his accomplishment, but before you get discouraged, listen to his playing as a whole, not just his fingers finding the notes. let him enjoy it, it does feel good. maybe he is some virtuoso freak who actually does play it flawlessly. if not, if he continues to play dedicated for another decade or more, he'll realize he hasn't mastered it yet. and until that point, the audience will realize it too.

compare yourself to yourself. forward progress is the goal. if you're moving forward you're doing it right. it doesn't happen overnight. don't be discouraged if your friend is better than you. me a a few buddies started playing guitar at the same time. for the first couple years, the 4 of us were pretty close in skill. one of us would make a breakthrough and pull ahead, the other 3 of us would notice, and we'd be talking behind his back like "damn, matt got frikken good all of a sudden" etc... but it was competitive in a good way, it just motivated all of us to work harder.

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Posted
...does a dramatic hand-slide double half-open string rake then attacks all the strings, muting all except the one meant to be heard for a ferocious attack, full step bend in perfect tune followed by a vibrato that can only be had by a 30 year virtuoso, and letting the note ring out into proper feedback before sliding into the next lick with flawless execution...



Blimey - I didn't realise you'd been to one of my gigs, nice one :thu:





;)

  • Members
Posted

the 1-2 year player who bends a note up 7/8 of a step, picking the string casually, with no vibrato, while the professional who wrote the song does a dramatic hand-slide double half-open string rake then attacks all the strings, muting all except the one meant to be heard for a ferocious attack, full step bend in perfect tune followed by a vibrato that can only be had by a 30 year virtuoso, and letting the note ring out into proper feedback before sliding into the next lick with flawless execution. even the untrained ear hears the difference.

 

 

This is one of the best most accurate descriptions of this type of situation I have read - Bravo Extremist! This is the crux of it.

  • Members
Posted

when it comes to playing other peoples stuff, theres "playing" and theres PLAYING.


i thought i could play vai's "for the love of god" after 2 years playing guitar. almost 8 years later, i see that i still have some work to do.


the better you get, the more things you notice about "the pro's" playing that you didn't notice before when you
thought
you could play it. those minor details that are overlooked by new players are actually the things that tend to take years to master, and not coincidentally, are responsible for like 90% of the listenability of the overall piece. we've all heard someone hack their way through a song thats WAYYY over their head, and maybe they hit most of the notes at the right time, but it still sounds bad because the dynamics are all wrong, the vibratos terrible, the bends are out of tune, the nuances that create intensity like hand-slides are non existent.


the 1-2 year player who bends a note up 7/8 of a step, picking the string casually, with no vibrato, while the professional who wrote the song does a dramatic hand-slide double half-open string rake then attacks all the strings, muting all except the one meant to be heard for a ferocious attack, full step bend in perfect tune followed by a vibrato that can only be had by a 30 year virtuoso, and letting the note ring out into proper feedback before sliding into the next lick with flawless execution. even the untrained ear hears the difference.


in other words, its not just the notes you play, it's how you play them. "how you play them" is what separates the boys from the men.


listen to how your favorite guitar hero plays the notes, and be prepared to learn.


every guitarist wants to "know" that song that they are inspired by. give your friend props for his accomplishment, but before you get discouraged, listen to his playing as a whole, not just his fingers finding the notes. let him enjoy it, it does feel good. maybe he is some virtuoso freak who actually does play it flawlessly. if not, if he continues to play dedicated for another decade or more, he'll realize he hasn't mastered it yet. and until that point, the audience will realize it too.


compare yourself to yourself. forward progress is the goal. if you're moving forward you're doing it right. it doesn't happen overnight. don't be discouraged if your friend is better than you. me a a few buddies started playing guitar at the same time. for the first couple years, the 4 of us were pretty close in skill. one of us would make a breakthrough and pull ahead, the other 3 of us would notice, and we'd be talking behind his back like "damn, matt got frikken good all of a sudden" etc... but it was competitive in a good way, it just motivated all of us to work harder.

 

great post - well said:thu:

  • Members
Posted

I'm a beginner too, one year and a half playing probably.

 

I've tried to learn solos that are over my skills and its a dead end endeavor, at least for me.

 

So what I do is pick little pieces of those solos and use them as drills and licks and try to improve my technique :D

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Members
Posted

when i have played electric already for 2 years???


my friend told me he could play after only 1 year!

 

 

I think your friend was pulling your leg. If he could play Eruption, correctly, after 1 year, then he should be pulling in 6-7 figures as a professional studio musician at the very least.

 

I doubt even Steve Vai could play Eruption after playing guitar for a year. Eruption is one of the most advanced guitar solos I've ever heard, even to this day. No easy task.

  • Members
Posted

when i have played electric already for 2 years???


my friend told me he could play after only 1 year!

 

 

Even if he's telling the truth, who cares? This ain't a competition. And remember, there's a lot more to playing than just soloing, especially in the first few years of playing.

  • Members
Posted

Good call trick! When I first started playing it was all about the solo's!

then when I got around other players I couldn't play with them cuz I dint know chords to well.

to this day I work on chords every time I practice

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Posted


I doubt even Steve Vai could play Eruption after playing guitar for a year. Eruption is one of the most advanced guitar solos I've ever heard, even to this day. No easy task.

 

 

Funny you should mention Vai, as he's the one who did the transcription and tab of Eruption for Guitar Player magazine a few years ago...he tabbed the tapping part on the D string! Coming from Vai for a second you think "well I guess it coul...," then you stop and go "WFT!"

 

It wasn't even the right notes. I have no idea where he was coming from on that tab.

  • 2 weeks later...

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