Eruption Guitar Lesson – Van Halen


In this Eruption guitar lesson video series, I will show you how to play what is perhaps the most famous guitar solo ever recorded, note-for-note.

Eddie Van Halen brought the guitar playing world to it's knees when "Eruption" came blasting at them off of Van Halen's debut album. The rapid-fire licks and the at-the-time bewildering tapping section where something guitarists everywhere had never heard before. In one quick solo track, Eddie Van Halen completely changed the guitar playing landscape, as millions of guitar players locked themselves into their rooms for years trying to figure out all of Eddie's licks.

In the first video lesson, I will start by performing all of Eruption from beginning to end. I will then teach you all of Eddie's guitar parts up until the tapping section.

The licks you will learn in this first video will be the most challenging of the entire solo by far. The tapping part may be what everyone knows, but this opening section is where you will need the serious chops.

Of course "Eruption" introduced to the world Eddie Van Halen's dazzling tapping technique. It will be in the second video lesson that I will show you how to play than. Even though tapping had been employed by numerous guitarists before, no one had ever taken it to such musical heights.

At the beginning of the video I demonstrate the basic 3 note tapping pattern Eddie uses throughout the whole section. From there it is just simply a matter of memorizing the different arpeggios.

Take your time and get the tapping pattern down by itself first before trying to learn the entire song.

Hope you guys enjoy the lesson. We certainly can't get any bigger than this when it comes to famous solos. ๐Ÿ™‚

Carl....

If these free lessons help you, please donate to keep new ones coming daily. Thanks!! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Eruption Guitar Lesson Pt. 1 - Van Halen

Eruption Guitar Lesson Pt.2 - Van Halen - Tapping Section

13 Comments

  1. Gary Hodgins on April 28, 2014 at 8:48 am

    Cool !!!!

  2. Pushrod Jones on February 8, 2015 at 10:11 pm

    Cool!..It looks so much more technical to do than it actually is..Thanks again Carl..I can do this and never thought I would be able to do so before I had a look here..I’ve been looking at several song lessons here and have been learning them thanks to you..Although I still need to practice them I get the jist of them now..I have been looked at so many lessons on youtube and I get so frustrated with most that do lessons there..Once I found you I’ve learned..I had ventured away from you a few times but after seeing some of the others I came back and this time I signed up..I’m a seasonal worker and my season is over so I decided to learn more songs while I have the time..Once my season begins again I will be donating to this site I promise you that!..I have a couple of songs I want to learn that you do not currently offer and hope once I donate it will be possible to have you do those lessons…”Far Behind” and “Cover Me”by Candlebox are two I would like to learn..complete versions of both..I do know some of them both but I could use help with them..I mention this now in case you do not know them in hopes to give you time to learn them and add to your lessons if at all possible..Thanks for all the lessons you offer now and I have a few buddies that are learning guitar and I’m going to turn them on to this site..keep rockin man we appreciate it and without help from people like you, people like me would still be in a rutt with most of the songs you teach..many,many thanks bro!

    • Carl Brown on February 10, 2015 at 11:05 am

      Hey thanks a lot! I really appreciate the support and yes please spread the word about my lessons as much as you can. ๐Ÿ™‚

      As for the Candlebox songs, I have recently begun to put a lot more 90’s era songs on the site because it was severely lacking in that area. I will check out the Candlebox box songs too. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Carl…

  3. Caleb White on March 1, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    I was hoping for more of it but I guess this part will work for now, It was a pretty good lesson too keep up the good work.
    Oh and here’s a question, Will you possibly ever do any lessons for any Ted Nuggent songs?
    I’m just curious, because it would be awsome.

    Thanks again

    • Carl Brown on March 2, 2015 at 10:31 am

      I might do some Nugent if enough people request it. He is not a personal favorite of mine so I would have to research it a bit to find out what would be good for the site.

  4. Chris Pagano on July 6, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    Hey Carl, I love this site and the lessons are awesome. Before I found gl365 I didn’t even know my basic scale shapes And my playing was incredibly one dimensional. These lessons have helped a lot and I’m definitely ready to tackle eruption, any chance of the rest of the song being on here soon? There’s tons of “lessons” on youtube but usually it’s just some kid posting a smartphone video and the parts are never even explained. Also, is there any chance you could do some steel panther lessons? I know their songs are (lyrically) wildly inappropriate but satchel’s playing is really awesome and I want to learn some of their songs (death to all but metal, eyes of a panther, etc). Thanks again for making all of this available to those of us who can’t afford high-priced guitar lessons

    • Carl Brown on July 8, 2015 at 11:21 am

      Hey Chris, I keep meaning to finish “Eruption” but always seem to get caught on something else. I will definitely put it on my to-do list though!

      I would be happy to do any song that enough people want to hear. I have seen Steel Panther play about a million times since they first started out in LA as Metal Shop. Then they became Metal Skool and finally Steep Panther. I saw them go from small shows at the Viper Room all they way to larger places on the Sunset Strip. They are consistently hilarious.

      I am not very familiar with their original music, but anything that gets enough interest I would be happy to teach. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Carl…

  5. Tony Wilson on December 10, 2015 at 5:31 pm

    Hey Carl,

    I know you are busy and great job on the lessons by the way. I was wonder how far out we are for the whole lesson for this solo. I think we are over 1100 now so it seem pretty popular.

    patiently waiting ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Ahmad Imron on November 17, 2016 at 10:54 pm

    Still waiting for complete lesson of this song .. Thanks Carl ..

  7. Adam Ross on April 16, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    Hey Carl! I just want to say I am impressed and inspired to play guitar because of your uploads. I appreciate all the time and effort you put into your career to inspire others to play such an awesome instrument. I started watching your videos around 2015 when I started playing. After years and years of watching your videos, I am stunned of how good I’ve gotten since when I started. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play “Mean Street” by Van Halen. All the results of the other videos didn’t help. If you have the time to, that would make my day absolutely special! Wish you the very best Carl!

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