I never thought in a million years I could play that stretch riff. But thanks to you I can pull it off 🤘

@harrisfrankou2368

11 ай бұрын

Great lesson and psychology. I wish when we started playing they had a cheat code like youtube. Best thing to happen for guitar students since the music stand. New Sub, you earned it.

Thank you so much! The beat it solo has a similar stretch and this is really helping me learn it, ice cream man solo will be next!

I know this video is old, but I just watched it for the first time last night. I have watched a lot of your videos, but I don't think I have ever commented. I just wanted to say thanks and mention that picking up on the changed body position to facilitate the stretch, was pretty darn astute. lol Well done.

@PDXguitarfreak

7 күн бұрын

Thank you! :)

Awesome, you can him hear do those pull offs in a swing triplet feel if you slow down the recording. Love this song!

These wide stretches aren’t very difficult for me cuz I have big hands...big hands and big feet...2 outta 3 ain’t bad!!!

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

LOL well I have 1 out of 3... my feet!

@albinullanger7862

3 жыл бұрын

😂 There are infact no bigdicked guitarplayers. It's an impossibility! I play guitar... 😬 And wear 8.5s... 🤔 You beat me. I can however preform these guitarsolos 🙏

@tonyfondacaro1980

3 жыл бұрын

I would trade an inch of D for an inch of fingers.

@qafmbr

3 жыл бұрын

big feet big meat!

@majesticpbjcat7707

3 жыл бұрын

@@tonyfondacaro1980 I couldn't afford that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Great teacher and great playing. Thanks!

Great tip! Inspiring, as usual!

Thanks for these great tips!!! So helpful.

Great tip! Thanks, Dave!

This is great advice and and great playing. Thank you rocker!

Great video! Thanks man 😎

Great content---- always. Thanks for posting.!!

Great vid, so interesting, helpful and clear! Thanks

excellent! very helpful!

I'm really glad I found your page. I'm a visual learner and this is helping me tremendously

You do it well PDX. Lots o' finger exercises to get that "stretch" across of 8-9 frets. Keep playing! Love the dedication you demonstrate in these vids.

Great tip on better position. Thanks!

Thank you for this brother. This is a game changer! Most definitely part of a worthwhile, daily routine!

Nicely done.

Thank you for this! The change of position makes all the difference. One of the best tips ever. First saw this a month ago and now I can play it.

Great video

The stretching you have to do for Ratt “Lay It Down” is pretty painful as well !!!

Cool!! Appreciate this!! Been trying this lick for years! I think I can pull it off now! Thanks! I subbed!

Great lesson! As soon as you re-positioned the guitar, I could picture Eddie doing the same (before the excellent examples)... One note about starting slowly: those exercises sound interesting, and have real potential to bloom into proper licks in their own right. e.g. mixing up the 12-17 with the 12-18 with some different rhythm patterns.

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike! I agree! The 12-17 pattern fits nicely in your typical E minor arrangement. The 12-18 pattern also creates a very interesting feel, almost like the whole tone scale. :)

@parabot2

3 жыл бұрын

@@PDXguitarfreak Can you do a Video on how you set Effects to get your van halen tones for specific Tunes and Era's . Thanx for the great Channel and killer Playing .

Still having trouble doing it, but I do think you're a natural teacher. I'll keep trying. Thanks

Great. Searching for so long for it. Thank you. I have very very large hands, streching is no problem. The riff was the problem.

i play guitar for 5 months and the stretching is the hardest to do for me specially in the upper strings like the low E and A but i found that getting the guitar closer to my body is easier like you said in the video .I am practicing Baluchitherium and there is a legato descending run stretch too on 2 4 6 frets and some other after and taking the guitar closer to my body was easier but still have to practice to have the right timing but i really like your channel .i subscribe a while ago but never took the time to go watch your videos until now because there are so many channels for guitar beginners anyway i am down to the 3 that are the more well tought .So a big big thank you for teaching your knowledge .

great suggest

I gonna watch this later cuz I'm at a doctor sppt.but I already know what you're talking about. Cant wait!!!

thank u! i could never do this passage properly but i will try this next time i practice. might be a good solution for other large stretch guitar parts in other songs too!

Awesome

Thanks for the in depth tutorial and tips. I always find myself struggling with these stretchy riffs and blamed it on my tiny hands lol.

Thanks

Very Cool Brother.

Thanks again for these great lessons ... surprisingly the other thing that I noticed that helps with this is using the ring finger instead of the middle finger for the 16th fretted note. (although the stretch seems long between the ring & pinky, IMHO it actually is more comfortable & puts your hand in a better positon to reach the 19th fret).

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I agree Mike. That's the definitely the way I do it too! :)

I don't comment enough on your videos, but just have to say: A) You are an incredible player B) You are an exceptional instructor and C) Repeat both A & B, and D) Can't get enough of your videos. Thank you my friend!

@PDXguitarfreak

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Eric, much appreciated bro. Thanks for doing what you do too!

Good insight. Great how to get that stretch.

Good exeplanation. Subbed and liked. ps: i ordered the same guitar after i bought the frankie relic.

PDX PERFECTION! 🤣🤣🤣🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Great lesson! I am still struggling, though...

Very helpful video. If you are sitting it's best to place the guitar in the "classical" position i.e. guitar body between the legs with it resting on the left thigh (raising up the left foot 6" is also helpful too). This makes it easier to push the neck up nearly vertical and allows the player to bring their left elbow tight to the body and under the neck to make the finger span wider with less discomfort. This has the added benefit or rotating the palm so that it is still parallel with the fretboard. I have a left hand pinky that is short (about 1/2 inch shorter than the index finger) making this stretch quite challenging for me, however using the classical positions allows me to play this sequence reasonably well. Now, getting it up to full tempo is still a work in progress. ; )

Giving this solo a whack.. definitely outta my realm, but that’s the only way to be better. Much appreciated for you doing this tutorial!

This is so great this has always been frustrating for me, but tilting the neck up and close to chest does work! This reminds of another lick - in his 'Beat It' solo that has a difficult stretch lick that is fast. Maybe you could cover it? Thanks always!

Sweet brother! Can you please do a lesson on the end of I’m the one you love and the ending lick of You really got me? That would be awesome.

Muy bueno!!!! Saludos desde Argentina

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

¡Gracias mi amigo! ¡Feliz viernes! :)

Fantastikkkkk grazie viva Van Halen grande unicoRip in pace

I've played a lot of Van Halen, Lynch, Vai and DiMartini since the mid-80s and I have small-ish hands compared to these guys. The key for me to make these and other insane stretches is three-fold: First, you've gotta do stretches. I've had a stretch routine that I do before any serious playing that comfortably increases my reach by two frets from the first to seventh. Second, you've got to have a fast neck that is either thin & flat everywhere you want to reach (Jackson, Ibanez, some PRS, etc.) and/or shorter, Gibson-style fret spacing. Third, on stage you have to learn to pose like all the greats and rehearse these positions as part of your "natural" stage presence. Like my man here says, choking that guitar up high & close will increase your reach dramatically. It also helps out to have light strings. Most of the greats like Van Halen, Page, Hendrix, Gibbons had customized string sets, not your standard OTC sets. Eddie used to use .08 high E and Billy Gibbons uses .07!! You have to experiment with different sizes until you're satisfied. One last thing is fret width & height. This is crucial for speed, accuracy and comfort as a player. Too many guitarists accept a guitar off-the-shelf. If they customize, they begin and end with the pickups, tuners & electronics without considering how important THE NECK & FRETBOARD are!! This is a crucial mistake 😎👍🏼

Great video as always!Could you do the Final Countdown solo?I have trouble with sweep picking but alternate picking just doesn't seem to be work neither.

That stretch to 18 sounds wicked, fit for Death Metal 🤘🏻

I have the hands of a 12 year old girl so playing this lick absolutely SUCKED for me but this lesson was a game changer

a killer lick, as hard to pull off from a phasing perspective as-is from a physical/technique perspective. that said...love that guitar... the scale is 25.5 IIRC, but that lick is a bit easier on those WG style guits as well as on LP type (for me anyways). great lesson. hope you're well!

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

Hey mrdowntown! Good point. I usually don't pay attention to the guitar's scale length when it comes to 25.5 vs 24.75, but I do notice a little difference too :)

Nice! And I thought doing the vertical guitar pose was just to be cool looking!

Oh my goodness~ I need your strap lock system badly~ what is it? Thanks & love your ECM solo!

Hi, I ve checked out your lesson on Ice Cream Man about a month ago and I gotta admit, that stretch was horrible and still is for me, but I tried to treat it as an exercise, not an acutal solo, I started slowly, I went through your tabs a few times and got it down and now I can say that only the pain is gone but speed isnt there yet.. nvm, Im gonna keep trying also, thank you for these lessons, stay safe

How about Randy's solo from Children of the Grave off the Tribute Album

Cool lesson and dam my left hand hurts.

Great video of my favorite guitar lick! Only thing I’ve never understood is how in the hell he plays this with his middle and pinky, instead of using his ring finger like us mortals.

Alternatively, as many great guitarists have and still do, sit down in your sit down practice position where everything is comfortable and shorten your guitar strap so that when you stand up, the guitar is in the same position. Believe me, it works wonders.

One way to help work it up to the beats per minute is start at 80 bpm and do the lick slow. After a minute or so, go up 5 bpm and repeat. Do this as far as you can go up until you're at 178 bpm. Do it once a night for a couple weeks and see how close you can get. (only takes about 15-20 mins a night) It may take a while to get up to 178 bpm, but the slower bpm you'll be able to ingrain the lick more deliberately.

hi! great video, i am currently working on this solo. The main problem for me is not the stretch although it is fairly hard, but figuring out the picking pattern to keep it flowing. I've been playing it for a couple days straight now on a slow tempo, but that only results in being able to play it better at slow tempo :-D do u use economy picking or straight alternate picking with 1 pull off?

@bruzanHD

Жыл бұрын

The key is to just not think about it, just like Eddie :D

My exercise based on the dime bag Cowboys lick that goes 11, 12 then 15 on each string is to replace the 11 with 9th fret so it's a minor third then a minor third again on each string..

Great tone. Could you show how to get that great tone. Thanks

F yeah!

Now I understand why I felt like I could stretch the whole board when I was younger and played a flying V

Hey man it's me again, lately I've been really trying to focus on how to improve at guitar the best and how to get to a point where I can make my own riffs. But riffs aren't enough I'd love to be able to come up with solos and make full songs as I really want to be in a band. But I seem to only make one riff and that's it I don't really know how to make a full song out of it and how to add things like Verse riffs, bridges etc. I don't really know much theory and keys so I just wing it and see what sounds cool to me. Which ends up in me kind of aimlessly pottering around the fretboard until something cool happens. Which works but it's hard when I'm uninspired, or the riff ends up being a knock-off of an already existing rock riff from a band. Any advice at all? Thanks

My strat's fretboard just doesn't have the real estate for my left hand. Once I begin descending to the lower strings in this pattern, the body of the guitar interferes with the angle my hand for the available space on these higher frets. I'll have to try a more shreddy axe for a comparison.

This is one thing I’ve noticed and helped me stay motivated learning stretched Van Halen licks. Some people even improvise and tap stretched licks. I’ve seen that be done with the Beat it solo. Would tapping the stretched lick work for the ice cream man solo as well? Oh and if I ended up catching your attention, would you consider doing the Not Enough solo? I think it’s a very beautiful solo

@ronschock6545

3 жыл бұрын

I always tapped it and it basically sounds identical. It's all about the attack you put into the fretting hand to simulate the pick strokes. I never had a tab for it and I assumed that it was a tapped run so I learned it that way. I also do the intro for Hot for Teacher in a similar manner just because of the intervals involved. Again I figured this out way before there was any tablature available and presumed that Eddie was tapping it. And that was a long time ago my friends...

@ascentiall

3 жыл бұрын

@@ronschock6545 Awesome to know it can be done! The hot for teacher intro does have tapping in it. Do you mean you tap the 12th and 9th?

@ronschock6545

3 жыл бұрын

@@ascentiall that's the way I figured out how to do Hot for Teacher originally. When the tabs and the video came out showing it was actually flat picked , I already had it so well down that I just kept on doing it the way I figured it out originally. The bounce with the tapping hand actually creates some interesting overtones if you hit in the right spot when you're tapping. Adds a little extra dynamic to the lick.

@ronschock6545

3 жыл бұрын

Further to this comment, in regards to the solo in beat it? I also learned this one by ear and some of the wide interval licks in this one I also figured out by tapping. My fretting hand is much stronger than my pick attack. I play left handed but I'm actually ambidextrous. If my parents would have had the good sense to tell me I was holding the damn thing upside down, I probably would have Played it right hand and we would not be having this conversation LOL!

@ascentiall

3 жыл бұрын

@@ronschock6545 Man learning by ear is such a good skill to have. Well look at that we’re both left handed lol. Are you telling me that the hot for teacher intro isn’t tapped? I thought it always was.

PDX I still think that Outro stretch Jake does in Bark at the Moon is tougher. What do you think?

@eddiejr540

3 жыл бұрын

Good call...that Bark at the Moon lick is freakin painful !!!!!

@backtoshallabal6662

3 жыл бұрын

@@eddiejr540 I can’t tell which one is tougher!

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

I think you are right. I always cheated at the end of Bark and found a simpler way to do it then Jake did... kind of like Zakk Wyle would play it too.

@Anthony-nk4ky

3 жыл бұрын

@@PDXguitarfreak I believe Jake knew of the “easier” method but chose the way he did for tonal reasons. He mentions it in the video of that clinic where he finally tells people what the chord stabs are for BATM

How do you get that sound? Is it the wolfgang guitar? A EVH pedal?

hey man, great video i have on question tho, if i repositioned the guitar for a stretchy part in a solo, how do i recover without having to have the guitar pointing to the sky for the rest of the song, and without the guitar flinging off my leg? hope this question makes sense lol

@PDXguitarfreak

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! You just need to learn how to pivot from one position to another as seamlessly as possible... I don't know how to explain it otherwise... just takes practice, and usually practicing it slow, and working up to the right speed helps too :)

@gball6755

5 ай бұрын

@@PDXguitarfreak sounds good! thanks again for all you do !

Its the positioning I struggle with more than the actual stretching. I can reach the 19th fret but the note is completely silent when I pick it XD

@turkeywheat

3 жыл бұрын

wheres your thumb?

Damn...i have trouble going from 12 to 17. I do the same thing on solos. Sometimes I have my guitar almost straight up.

@PDXguitarfreak

3 жыл бұрын

I hear you bro. My hands are not big so I find a lot of times I will be just naturally bring the guitar neck up towards me when playing in general. :)

I thought Eddie propped the guitar up like that to be a badass. I guess it's physiologically easier to do it like that. Still a badass move... Thanks for this tip. I'll give it a try. (PDX...I'm guessing Portland is involved in all this sonehow? Lol. It also looks like there's some touches or taps on the 14th frets instead of just 12-16-19 across the fretboard)

The tough part of this stretch for me isn't the index finger to the pinky or the 12 to 19. It is the stretch from 3rd finger to pinky from 16 to 19 that I struggle with. I still haven't gotten that. I find myself wanting to lift my index finger off of 12 which blows the whole lick because 12 is the pivot note. I'll keep working on these exercises though and hopefully someday get this one down.

@janezimmerman7987

Жыл бұрын

Try using the 2nd instead of the 3rd finger.

@edla2005

Жыл бұрын

@@janezimmerman7987 Hi Jane, I have tried that also. My hands are small. I can tap these notes but it's not the same.

Hey Dave hope all is well. Try doing those stretches on Eddies old white / black striped strat from his early years The scale length is much more different compared to his new signature series axes. All those years of stretching caused him to have hand problems n he eventually needed surgery to repair them. Great lesson n string exercises bro. ROCK ON.🎸

How to pull that off. I,see what you did there 👍🏻🤪

When it's played slower it almost sounds like bagpipes! 😃😃

The stretch part in “Beat it” is harder for me

Beat it stetch lick is shorter but still harder imo

Just tap on the 19th fret

Drop Dead Legs solo please???

Is there a way to do it without the pinky

@howsannie

3 жыл бұрын

Tap it

@ronschock6545

3 жыл бұрын

Like he said... Tap it. You have to be very aggressive with your fretting hand to get the proper attack or it will sound like you are cheating.

Nice video... But killllllR guitar my man

Eddie was the King 🤴👑

They say if you can play this stretch, you have a big $%#@.

At this point, my problem isn’t the stretch anymore. I can’t play it at normal speed to save my life... Any Suggestions?

Just tap this...sooooooo much easier, and it sounds fine.

@danielgonzaleztejedor9486

3 жыл бұрын

Then you will play wrong notes.

Could do it by tapping

You are the only other guy besides me and my friend (that taught me the lick originally) who plays the lick correctly. We figured it out and posted basically everything you have here on the MetroAmp forum over 10 years ago. Incredibly, you are THE only other person that does it right. Here’s a clip of me playing the solo: kzread.info/dash/bejne/f2WKzpeipJS6is4.html

my kb cats out

Now I know why Eddie hated to play that song!

I have big hands for a woman, but I can't do this without it hurting - but I also have arthritis. This is one TOUGH lick.

Similar to the beat it solo... You need to stretch a lot some people can't physically do it... If you are serious about achieving this...you need to do what athletes do... Train hours each day ..

My hand isn’t big enough 😩

We know

John Petrucci is a great example of using a footrest for intense shredding: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZXmCybyDcbqppcY.html

Didn't need the demo at 3:08 😳..

woah he died a week after this video

Did you know that Eddie had a favorable tendon condition suitable for playing this type of music?