Wolfgang Van Halen says his father was “right” to start him out playing drums instead of guitar: “I play guitar like a drummer”
With Van Halen blood running through his veins, it’s no surprise that Wolfgang Van Halen knows his way around a guitar. However, Wolfgang’s father Eddie Van Halen was in no rush to teach his son guitar – in fact, he didn’t buy him his first acoustic until he had first become proficient on the drums.
In a new interview with Rick Beato, Wolfgang reflects on how this drum-first approach has helped him as a musician. “I think my dad was right to start me on drums,” he explains. “It’s a really good place to start rhythmically. You just understand music from that dynamic first, and you kind of grow from there.”
READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen reveals he and his dad jammed a song on the new Mammoth album before he died: “I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I played drums”
As Wolfgang notes, his foundational understanding of percussion is something he utilises across his now-multi-instrumental arsenal. “I play guitar like a drummer, I play bass like a drummer,” he says.
“Everything I start with is the rhythm of it,” he adds. “The rhythm section is tight because it’s my instincts.”
Wolfgang Van Halen is a proficient multi-instrumentalist, but explains how it’s “always drums first”. And that approach stems from how he was taught by his father.
In a 2023 interview with MusicRadar, he revealed drums were the only instrument Eddie properly taught him, and he was largely left to his own devices while learning guitar. “Other than [drums]… there was never a moment where Dad sat down like, ‘I’m gonna teach you how to do this,’” he revealed.
“I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I like how I was able to teach myself from looking at guitar tabs on the internet and just trying to replicate every one of my favourite songs.”
Back in 2023, Wolfgang also told the Talk Is Jericho podcast that his dad only got him a guitar after he has mastered the drums. “He had magazines on the table and was like, ‘do this and do this’… the second he saw I could do that he bought me a V drum kit and for my birthday the next year got me an acoustic kit,” he said.
In the same podcast, Wolfgang also praised Tool’s drumming for “expanding” his musical knowledge. “Tool was a big band for me… I noticed I became a better drummer when I learned how to play Tool songs,” he explained.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
