I got this YouTube comment the other day, thought I’d share it: 

This probably sounds silly, but I’m 45, and people take technology for granted and use it in ways that I’m not even aware of. I’ve been playing guitar since 1991, and used to buy tablature at first on a friend’s recommendation because I don’t read music. It was very tedious to learn Van Halen solos this way and I didn’t get very far. They just don’t sound right picked out note by note, and I couldn’t make much sense of it. I gave up on tab and settled for just playing by ear and improvising, and after a couple of decades, I got to be a pretty competent guitarist.

I stumbled across your “And the Cradle Will Rock” solo dissection here purely by accident a few months ago. I just never thought about people posting something for free on YouTube that I used to pay for, and with a video demonstration to boot! I watched a couple of your other video demos that day. The bag of tricks you showed me opened up a whole new world. I feel like I’ve been riding my guitar with training wheels all these years, and I’m finally learning how to pop wheelies! I can actually play a lot like Eddie now, something I always wished I could do, so incredibly cool!

So, I wanted to come back and say thanks for posting such helpful videos. Rock on!

My reply: Thanks sir!! It’s pretty immersed in common sense once someone shows you. That’s part of Ed’s mystique; make weird sounding shit that baffles the ear, but once you can SEE what’s going on, it’s all quite easy to grasp. And that’s why I hate TAB, unless it’s written by the dude who played the part. Trust YOUR ears, not some 15 year old kid in Texas who shat out a crappy TAB.

I do notice some clowns coming out of the woodwork charging for EVH solo and song lessons, but Daddy Doug kicks down info for free, pretty much. Stick with me, I try and do it right..Ahhh!!  Make sure you watch my fix vids as well. After I post a video, I’ll sometimes hear the solo again, watch another guy on YouTube play it, or an VH isolated track will pop up, and it’ll bother me that my way is slightly off.  So I fixy.

I also suggest you watch a couple of guys play the same part. I recommend YoBroMan.