The Impossible Van Halen Riff, Patreon cut!!

Long time listener, first time caller here. Errrrr...I've been watching your stuff on youtube for maybe a month, hahah. Sorry if I'm a little late to this party. I came across this clip on YT last night and worked on it a bit today and think I've got it down using a different technique than you recommend in the vid after realizing that this riff is really damn close to Creeping Death. When you play the main riff from Creeping Death (the one that goes: | 2 2 2 | 2 | | 2 2 2 | 2 2 3 2 32 0 | |0 0 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | Do you alt pick the open E's above? I always down struck the open E and up struck the B/E dyad. Playing the hang em high riff seems relatively easy if you down strike all the B's on the E string, up strike the single A's on the 4th string, and then down up on the double A's on the 4th string followed by an up down strike on the next B/A. I say "relatively" because it's still a really tough riff but i've got it pretty much grooved using this picking pattern after maybe 20 minutes of practice. I do remember hearing you say somewhere that you struggle a bit with upward pick slanting. This is pretty much an upward slanting riff. Edit: Ok, I just played this up against the VH recording which is ~250 bpm.....that tempo officially makes all of my commentary above moran speak as I was playing it at about 220ish. Welcome to the Patreon page, Johny, how's your foot taste? HAHAHAH.

Johnny Utah

Not taking ANYTHING away from the King, but I'm of the opinion that his incredible swing was from the strong bong formed playing with brother. The two of them combined created that rhythm that no other band had. (which is why 5150 is my fave VH song... that double bass at the end is so groovy!) A different example of this was when GNR fired Alder. The drummer on UYI ruined that album for me, so sterile. But is Slash still a guitar God? Yes :)