This Guitarist magazine issue, we learned with great sadness of the passing of one of the few guitarists who genuinely deserve to be called ‘iconic’, Eddie Van Halen. Many of the extraordinary things that earned him that well-deserved status are detailed in our in-depth tribute to his life and works on page 60. But it’s also worth pointing out that it was his spirit as a player not just his mastery of the instrument that set him apart. For sure, his technical command of the guitar opened the door to the whole shred era – but I don’t think too many players would have been so eager to walk through it had it not been for the joyous, headlong energy of his playing on tracks such as Jamie’s Cryin’ or Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love.Hendrix had the same quality, too, a generation before – a sense of channelling something larger than himself when he was in full flight. Both players are a reminder that music is, when all is said and done, a means of turning emotion and creative inspiration into sound – freely transferring the contents of one’s heart and head to the air via the fretboard.
That thought resonated again this month when I picked up an old Led Zeppelin songbook I’d bought as a teen but set aside for many years. Fingerpicking my way through Black Mountain Side, I realised why I’d never quite nailed it all those years ago – the tab was wrong! Only took me 28 years to realise… Nearly three decades on, I played and replayed the record and let my hands go where seemed most natural and finally I had it.
When rules fail us, instinct often supplies the answer. Enjoy the issue.

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• New Scientist – November 14, 2020
• Macworld UK – December 2020