Playing the rhythm parts to 5150 is hard!

[romanianreaper]

Warmoth on far right. Old Kramer Focus (I bought new in '87-ish) with Musikraft neck I finished with TruOil on far left.

Holy moley man, that quilt on that guitar on the right is badass!!! All of those guitars look sweet!

As far as 5150 goes, in my opinion that is why Eddie is one of the all time greats. When everyone else was doing something, he went a different way and paved new roads. Not just that song but the whole album has a bunch of songs that seem easy but when you dig in they are really hard. Look at "Summer Nights" for example. That seems like a nice laid back song but it is the way he is phrasing things. Ed always has this way he plays like he is setting his own tempo and playing along to it. "5150" can probably never be learned to a click track. I tried to just do it in my head and was going nuts. LOL

"Get Up" is another example. I remember being in high school when this album came out and being like "WTF?"

 

[ChurchHill]

The best advice I've ever heard for learning new songs is, "If you can't hum it, you can't play it." I've found this to be very true. When listening to music that I want to learn, I'll spend several days both familiarizing myself with the music and learning how to hum the parts I'll be playing. For me, it's easier to discern what the parts are when I'm not playing and competing for the same tonal spectrum (in other words, without adding my guitar to the mix. Once I'm comfortable with humming the parts, I'll start learning the parts on the guitar. First, breaking the song down into sections (riffs, verse, chorus, etc.) After I'm comfortable playing them, I'll work them all out together planning along with the song. I'll intersperse that with more listening time, going back and forth until I've got. With some harder songs, I'll bring the sections down into phrases, or even just a couple of bars, always checking with the recording to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Anyway, that's not specifically about 5150, but it works for me.

 

[paulyc]

OP, is the problem left hand or right hand ? Left hand is repetition, just keep playing the chord shapes over and over. Right hand is your “clock”, and the key to Eddie’s rhythm prowess, that swing or swagger is a bitch. Gotta be loose. Javy’s Example isn’t bad, but it’s a bit too close to straight time, too rigid following the beat. It’s almost like you need to break up each beat and land somewhere in between them. To me, that’s all feel. Hard to notate that with sheet music or tab. You just gotta feel it.

 

[paulyc]

Hey, Jayy, that sounds great!! That H910 is such a big part of that sound, too. That's a really cool thing to have at your disposal. I know exactly what you mean about those Jazz picks. I could never really gel with them, either.

Thanks. It was rough, both playing and recording. I never could get the mic placement where it suited me and it never sounded as good as it did in the room. I have about given up on trying to learn microphone placement.

Yeah the H910 and H949 were a big part of Ed's sound, especially from Fair Warning through 0U812.

Did Ed use the harmonizer through the amp in the studio like a guitar effect or was it run through the console ? Seems that would make a difference in the tone. In other words, is the mic getting the harmonized sound, or is it being created on tape ? I think the latter.

 

[Jayy]

OP, is the problem left hand or right hand ? Left hand is repetition, just keep playing the chord shapes over and over. Right hand is your “clock”, and the key to Eddie’s rhythm prowess, that swing or swagger is a bitch. Gotta be loose. Javy’s Example isn’t bad, but it’s a bit too close to straight time, too rigid following the beat. It’s almost like you need to break up each beat and land somewhere in between them. To me, that’s all feel. Hard to notate that with sheet music or tab. You just gotta feel it.

I can totally agree with that. Playing with the shuffling swing that Ed does is about impossible for me! I was doing good to try to hold any time at all playing that. I wasn't playing to a beat or a click or anything at all.

 

[Jayy]

Hey, Jayy, that sounds great!! That H910 is such a big part of that sound, too. That's a really cool thing to have at your disposal. I know exactly what you mean about those Jazz picks. I could never really gel with them, either.

Thanks. It was rough, both playing and recording. I never could get the mic placement where it suited me and it never sounded as good as it did in the room. I have about given up on trying to learn microphone placement.

Yeah the H910 and H949 were a big part of Ed's sound, especially from Fair Warning through 0U812.

Did Ed use the harmonizer through the amp in the studio like a guitar effect or was it run through the console ? Seems that would make a difference in the tone. In other words, is the mic getting the harmonized sound, or is it being created on tape ? I think the latter.

I'm pretty sure it was the latter as well.

 

[SpiderWars]

OP, is the problem left hand or right hand ? Left hand is repetition, just keep playing the chord shapes over and over. Right hand is your “clock”, and the key to Eddie’s rhythm prowess, that swing or swagger is a bitch. Gotta be loose. Javy’s Example isn’t bad, but it’s a bit too close to straight time, too rigid following the beat. It’s almost like you need to break up each beat and land somewhere in between them. To me, that’s all feel. Hard to notate that with sheet music or tab. You just gotta feel it.

Definitely right hand. The left is fairly straightforward as you said. His sense of timing is one of the things that makes him so unique. I'm getting closer, as usual 'slow it down and in small sections/chunks' works best for me.

 

[paulyc]

OP, is the problem left hand or right hand ? Left hand is repetition, just keep playing the chord shapes over and over. Right hand is your “clock”, and the key to Eddie’s rhythm prowess, that swing or swagger is a bitch. Gotta be loose. Javy’s Example isn’t bad, but it’s a bit too close to straight time, too rigid following the beat. It’s almost like you need to break up each beat and land somewhere in between them. To me, that’s all feel. Hard to notate that with sheet music or tab. You just gotta feel it.

I can totally agree with that. Playing with the shuffling swing that Ed does is about impossible for me! I was doing good to try to hold any time at all playing that. I wasn't playing to a beat or a click or anything at all.

Well the good news is you’re right on the beat with no click or reference, so that’s great, just gotta be a little less rigid for EVH. A LOT of his rhythms are that way...

 

[Mailman1971]

Maybe this was mentioned above. But I remember a interview that he recorded 5150 with a old Flying V because it had dead strings on it and he liked how it sounded for that song.
It was mentioned in TGFPM interview with him that tabbed 5150.

 

[paulyc]

Maybe this was mentioned above. But I remember a interview that he recorded 5150 with a old Flying V because it had dead strings on it and he liked how it sounded for that song.
It was mentioned in TGFPM interview with him that tabbed 5150.

I thought that was Hot For Teacher ? Because he needed the pickup switch to go to the quiet parts ? That's a '58 Flying V too, the holy grail of Vs.

 

[Rick Lee]

Maybe this was mentioned above. But I remember a interview that he recorded 5150 with a old Flying V because it had dead strings on it and he liked how it sounded for that song.
It was mentioned in TGFPM interview with him that tabbed 5150.

I thought that was Hot For Teacher ? Because he needed the pickup switch to go to the quiet parts ? That's a '58 Flying V too, the holy grail of Vs.

He used it on HFT too, though 5150 is tuned down to Eb and the solo is overdubbed and uses a Floyd Rose.

 

[evhfan]

https://youtu.be/BOkWN4uMVk0

This is us covering it at rehearsal about a year ago. In the meantime I’ve tightened up the parts but I couldnt find any video of this song from a recent show.
My drummer is playing it on a kit at the rehearsal hall and not his usual one...