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From: mls@husky.uucp (Mark Stevans)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Jordan, Chapman, Van Halen, et al.
Message-ID: <267@husky.uucp>
Date: Fri, 8-Nov-85 11:33:41 EST
Article-I.D.: husky.267
Posted: Fri Nov  8 11:33:41 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 17:10:03 EST
References: <686@vaxine.UUCP>
Organization: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY
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There has been a spate of discussion about what some guitarists call
"two-handed hammer-ons":

>>> What is special about Stanley Jordan is that he plays the guitar in a way
>>> that I believe no one else has ever done it - he taps the strings along
>>> the fretboard, playing it like a keyboard

>>While I have no dearth of admiration for Stanley Jordan, this technique you
>>describe is not new, though Jordan has used it more extensively than most.
>>This "two-handed tapping" is relatively common amongst heavy metal guitarists.
>>Eddie Van Halen is a maestro of this technique, and he is the one responsible
>>for its current popularity.
>>And actually, Jeff Beck was doing a bit of it back in the 60's, and I would
>>not be at all surprised if someone like Chet Atkins or Les Paul was doing it
>>a decade or two earlier than that.

>>Ever since Eddie Van Halen stole this ancient trick from the great blues
>>masters, electric guitarists have been beating it into the ground

>First of all, Van Halen didn't STEAL the technique, he LEARNED it.
>Would you say he stole a G7 chord just because some other guitarist
>played it before him ??
>Generally, he holds one finger on a string at one
>fret, and plays two other notes by "hammering-on" and "pulling-off"
>(these techniques are known collectively as "ligado", and were known
>before the blues existed)

I read an interview with Billy Sheehan in some magazine recently.  Sheehan is
the best-known obscure bass player in the world, if you get my meaning.  He
is regarded by many as the best bass player in rock.

Anyhow, he used to hang out with EVH (Eddie Van Halen, of course) back in the
old days, and they developed their skills in this technique from watching
each other, EVH on six string, BS on bass.  BS is reputed to "sound just like
Hendrix, only an octave lower".

Sheehan said in the interview that this technique is not at all new, and that
he possesses a photo of some completely unknown blues guitarist in the fifties
doing it.  Sheehan also said that the earliest known two-handed hammer-on-er
was Paganini, who did it on violins in the 1800's.

Paganini single-handedly (:-)) invented instrumental virtuosity.  He could do
things with a violin that no other human being could do.  He had to write
his own music, just to have something difficult enough to challenge his
skills.  Paganini was frighteningly tall and skeletal.  People said that he
had sold his soul to the devil to gain his skills, and one or two people
even said that they saw the figure of the devil behind him on stage moving
his hands.  Paganini encouraged these rumors, which helped form his legend.
It is also said that during his solos, women in the audience would sometimes
climax spontaneously.

Paganini seems to have combined the most interesting elements of Kiss, Van
Halen, and Elvis Presley.  Truly, there is nothing new in music....

					Mark Stevans
					ritcv!husky!mls