Tue, 29/07/2008 - 22:24 - Owen Edwards

EDDIE, MARK & PHIL

OWEN EDWARDS: IT’S CUSTOMARY IN THESE SORTS OF INTERVIEWS TO ASK HOW YOU STARTED - I IMAGINE YOUR TALE IS MORE COMPLEX THAN MOST!

You could say that! When I originally wanted to play guitar - about 15/20 years ago - there weren't any role models for what I wanted to do, so I came up with the idea that as long as I had something that would enable me to strum a note with my right arm, I could make it happen with my left hand and be able to fret the actual notes.

So, I came up with the concept of literally taping a pick to my right arm. For about six months I tried it on and off, but I was a little worried about what people might think - as I said I really didn't have any role models: and I really didn't know how it would be accepted. So I stopped - y’know out of fear basically.

Then, close to three years ago I realised that I still loved the guitar: I'd spent the last 15 years staring at pictures and being fascinated by the whole thing. I'd listen to people like Phil Hilborne in the guitar magazines showing how to play these impossible Eddie Van Halen Riffs like ERUPTION!

No - that’s sincere! I was always a big Eddie Van Halen fan, and I'd always thought those lick were impossible to play - y’know, no one else will ever be able to really do all that! Then I heard Phil in Guitar Techniques play the ‘Beat It’ solo and it was flawless man! Just like Eddie, so I thought: "Well, maybe this is all possible..." and the love I'd had for the instrument had kept growing and growing. I knew I needed to revisit all of this and try it again. Just to see...

PHIL HILBORNE: YOU WERE SAYING YESTERDAY THAT YOU'D LEARNT ‘ERUPTION’ FROM JAMIE HUMPHRIES..

Yeah - I learnt ‘Eruption’ from Jamie on www.licklibrary.com. And some by ear. That was another thing: now, with the Internet being so big and part of all our lives there were doors open to me that weren't before. Hey - for the first time I could actually see someone play all those scary licks!

OE Which makes a BIG difference...

Absolutely! The Internet now gave me a ‘real’ teacher, but in the privacy of my own home - and I could really dig deep into this thing: the time was right to start looking into ways to actually achieve my dream of playing hot rock guitar. I quickly realised that I needed more than just a pick at the and of my arm: I had to be able to emulate, like, a thumb and first finger to actually hold it. So, I made this sort of ‘extension’ to my arm and just used masking tape (that felt the nearest approximation to ‘skin’) and I molded it to get the pick at a 45 degree angle...I pressed it down and got myself a ‘thumb’!

Then I got some Eddie Van Halen stripes on my picking ‘apparatus’, and now I have a sleeve that I can change when I need to - it’s all functionality, y’know?

OE WHEN YOU HAD ALL THIS READY WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU TRIED - DID YOU GO THROUGH THE NORMAL ROUTE OF CHORDS AND EVERYTHING? OR GO STRAIGHT IN AT THE DEEP END WITH SOME VAN HALEN?!!

Guess what - I went straight into it with some hot Van Halen! I didn't have a teacher telling me "You need to start here, and learn notes" and all of that I didn't - I just wanted to get in there and riff!

So, I would pick musical pieces that I thought were fun - like my older brother liked that Dire Straits stuff from the first album (John plays Knopfler’s opening licks over Sultans) and I loved that so I went straight into that.

‘Sultans of The Swing’ was the first song I ever tried to play back 15 years ago - and y’know, even then, I knew it was possible as soon as I'd got a lick and a chord to sound.

But back then I didn't have the mental strength to do it: I was too concerned about things that didn't really matter: like what ‘other people’ would think of me, and everything...

I'd got myself to a certain point back then - trying those cool Mark Knopfler licks... but then something stopped me.