Wolfgang Van Halen Breaks Down Eddie’s Two Tapping Styles: “He Made the Impossible Look Simple”
When it comes to the art of two-handed tapping, Eddie Van Halen stands as the undisputed pioneer — the man who turned a clever trick into a revolution that changed rock guitar forever. But now, decades later, his son Wolfgang Van Halen is breaking down exactly how his father’s groundbreaking technique worked — and why, despite its jaw-dropping impact, Eddie himself always considered it “super simple.”
In a recent interview, Wolfgang pulled back the curtain on the legendary guitarist’s mindset, revealing that Eddie actually employed two distinct styles of tapping — one rooted in fluid, melodic phrasing and the other focused on explosive rhythmic precision.
> “Dad had two main approaches,” Wolfgang explained. “There was the classic lead-style tapping — like what you hear on ‘Eruption’ — where it’s all about melody and movement across the fretboard. But then there was the rhythmic kind, which was more percussive, almost like a drum pattern on the strings. It’s subtle, but once you notice it, you can’t un-hear it.”
According to Wolfgang, Eddie viewed tapping not as a gimmick or flashy trick, but as a natural extension of musical phrasing — a way to reach notes that would otherwise be physically impossible with one hand.
> “He never saw it as something special,” Wolfgang continued. “He’d just say, ‘It’s super simple.’ But that was Dad — he could make the impossible look effortless. What he was really doing was expanding the guitar’s voice without even thinking about it.”
The younger Van Halen also recalled watching his father refine his tapping during jam sessions and late-night experiments in their home studio.
> “I remember being a kid and hearing him play these lines that sounded like they couldn’t come from a guitar. He’d just laugh and go, ‘It’s easy, Wolf,’ and I’d be sitting there with my jaw on the floor. That was his genius — he didn’t overcomplicate things. He just played.”
Eddie’s dual approach to tapping — combining melodic legato runs with rhythmic, syncopated bursts — became one of the most imitated techniques in guitar history. But as Wolfgang notes, it was never about showmanship for his father.
> “He wasn’t trying to impress anyone,” he said. “He just wanted to make cool sounds. That’s what made his playing timeless — it always came from a place of curiosity and joy.”
Today, Wolfgang carries that legacy forward with Mammoth WVH, honoring his father’s innovation not through imitation, but through authenticity.
> “If there’s one thing I learned from Dad,” he concluded, “it’s that you can’t chase what’s already been done. You take the inspiration, but you make it your own. That’s what he did — and that’s what I’m trying to do too.”
Eddie Van Halen’s “super simple” tapping may have seemed effortless to him, but its ripple effect continues to shape generations of players — a reminder that true innovation often begins with curiosity, not complexity.
