Ok…
Let me respond to each of your statements in order:
BlackInMind:“Honestly, comparing your Jump transcription to Tom’s tutorial, the differences are so small that one could still use Tom’s tutorial to execute the solo in front of an audience and everyone would hear it and say it was played accurately.”
Tom claims that his “Jump” solo tutorial is accurate to what Edward played on the album version of the song. I have demonstrated that this is not true. Tom did not claim that his tutorial is “accurate enough to execute the solo in front of an audience and everyone would hear it was played accurately”. He claimed that his tutorial was accurate. Not “accurate enough to fool the average drunk audience member” who would have no idea whether it was played accurately or not. This statement is one that I hear VERY often as an excuse for not learning how to play something correctly. Anyone can work JUST hard enough to half-ass anything that they intend to play in front of an audience that is likely drunk and would believe that anythng they heard was identical to the record. If that is your yardstick for learning from recordings, that is certainly your right. But again, that is not what Tom claimed…he claimed that his lesson is accurate. At no point did he say the truth. I posted the truth of his lesson in the comments section of his “Jump” tutorial which is as follows:
“AllenGarberGuitarFun: To be clear…this is NOT how the guitar parts on “Jump” were played on the album version. This tuning and this arrangement that Tom is demonstarting is an amalgamation of general quotes from the album version and a general arrangement for that tuning that Eddie used when he played “Jump” live in the late 90s and on the Sammy and Roth reunion tours in the 2000’s. It is not possible to play the guitar parts of “Jump” correctly if you do not tune to the correct tuning from the album that Tom described at the 0:50 mark which I taught him. There are open string notes involved in this solo that cannot be replicated in the workaround tuning that Tom is using in this video.”
BlackInMind: “I get that you aren’t considering it a truly accurate transcription unless it’s noted what Eddie ate for breakfast that day. But IMO, there’s a point where some details stop mattering. As long as the intent of the performer is correct, that’s all that’s going to register to someone listening.”
See my above points…I’m not noting “what Eddie ate for breakfast that day”, I notate what he actually played according to all available evidence. There is a difference. You have made your opinion clear…that you don’t value note-for-note transcriptions in general whether it is from me or anyone else. Your yardstick for how hard one should work to learn anything is apparently JUST ENOUGH to fool a room full of drunk people despite knowing that you aren’t anywhere near what was actually being played on the recording. And that’s fine. There are fake books and easy arrangements that many people use on a very surface level that leaves the player to rely on jazz improvisation skills to fill in the blanks and play a completely off the dome thing that may or may not have anything to do with the actual recording. That’s great for you personally. I wouldn’t dream of telling you that your chosen method for learning a song or a solo from a recording is somehow a character flaw on your part. You do you. You have chosen to ridicule me because I have a different standard than you. I’m not sure why you felt it necessary to do that. I guess your standard is also that as long as the performer who is playing the part in front of an audience INTENDS to play it accurately, then it is accurate enough for you and an audience in various states of sobriety? I’m not sure why you went down the path of performing these parts for an audience, because I never mentioned that and neither did Tom. Tom claimed he was teaching the “Jump” solo accurately and I am only demonstrating that he is not.
In fact, EVERY NOTE in Tom’s transcription is completely inaccurate to the album version because he is playing it in the wrong positions. This is entirely owing to the fact that he is in the wrong tuning. If you have been playing for as long as you say you have and you have been giving lessons for as long as you say you have, then you should understand this. I’m 52 and I’ve been playing for 44 years and I’ve been giving lessons for 35 years. You have set your bar for accuracy at the level you chose and I have set mine at a different level. I’m not sure why you can’t just let that go without the personal attacks.
BlackInMind: “But please, if you can explain to me what about Eddie’s technique or note choice is being so wildly misrepresented I’m all ears. I ADMIT I HAVE A MOSTLY SURFACE LEVEL UNDERSTANDING OF EDDIE’S PLAYING, but I’ve learned to recognize his licks and tendencies and I’m still seeing guys like Tom and Ben Eller (another YouTuber I’ve gotten Van Halen stuff from) demonstrate the hammers from nowhere, the five note patterns etc.”
This statement says it all. With this statement, you are saying that you don’t care about learning Van Halen’s guitar parts on anything but a surface level and as such you are in no position to make any authoritative statements on what is and what is not accurate when it comes to Van Halen transcriptions. Yoiu also have made it clear that you can’t understand why anyone would ever want to learn ANYTHING beyond a “mostly surface level”. You don’t value note-for-note accuracy (as close to note-for-note as is currently possible with all available evidence) and you have made it clear that you think that no one values it…not the player that is studying the material (whether they ever play the material in front of an audience or not) or any audience that might be within earshot of the player who might execute the material live. I never spoke about playing the material in front of an audience, so I don’t really know why you brought that up…again, apparently the least amount of work that you can do to execute something in front an audience is the best thing for all performers to do. I don’t agree with that, but you are perfectly entitled to believe that.
I can make comparison TABs that show the exact differences in what Tom is teaching and my transcription…I can modulate Tom’s TAB down to the correct fingering position that it should be in if he chose to use the correct tuning, and I can show you exactly what he’s missing, but you don’t really care about that. You don’t seem to care about note-for-note accuracy…or do you? You claim that you think that Tom’s lessons are “the most accurate out there”, but then in the same breath you say that transcribing and studying things on a note-for-note accurate level doesn’t matter in general because the audience won’t be able to tell the difference. It seems like you are saying two things that ae completely the opposite of each other. For the record, Ben is quite lost on most of his Van Halen videos. He falls prey to a lot of guesswork without really studing the available evidence. This is the common thing that I find in most online lessons and demos.
BlackInMind: “Of course, there’s degrees of this.”
Yes. You seem to have a different standard for learning Van Halen than you do for learning Yngwie and Marty.
BlackInMind: “Andy James teaching Rising Force using two handed tapping is actually “wildly inaccurate” to the point where I’d say it’s BS to charge money for it. Getting the right notes, right techniques, and right intent but maybe missing some flub or muted note or whatever on the recording is still a damn good transcription.”
Again, you have a different idea of teaching and learning than others do. Tom doesn’t “get the right notes, right techniques and right INTENT”. I completely understand what it means to transcribe something that isn’t accurate to what was actually executed on the recording…but that is for a seperate discussion and not in an attempt at note-for-note transcription. Again, it is fine that you don’t value note-for-note transcriptions for Van Halen particularly or you have a “close-enough” attitude about transcribing in general. If this is so, then I wonder why you are on this site? Is Cracking the Code about guesswork? Is it about “close enough”? From what I’ve seen here, this is not the case.
BlackInMind: “It sounds to me like you might have a bit of a chip on your shoulder against these guys that have presented their material in a compelling and easy to understand fashion with nice production quality, performance execution, and charismatic delivery (and take it from someone who is a professional guitar teacher of 20+ years, that last detail matters). Nothing stopping you from doing the same, though!”
And here’s where your intent is clearest. You stoop to insulting me.
Look, I focus 100% on the actual playing, the actual music, the actual content. I create unambiguous thoroughly researched transcriptiions and I create videos that are not performances that are about “charismatic delivery”. I’ve taught guitar lessons for 30 plus years and I can tell you that in my experience, that last detail DOES NOT MATTER. I’m not putting on an act for my students or for anyone that happens to see my demonstration or lesson videos. Your assertion that I am somehow jealous of Tom’s “compelling and easy to understand fashion” and "nice production quality, performance execution and (especially) charismatic delivery is just flat out wrong. I’ve found all of those things to be a hinderance to learning the actually accurate content. But you do you. I’m not here to insult you as you are doing to me.
I’m making the statement that Tom’s videos are not accurate and I do believe it is not cool to represent them as such and to charge money for it is not cool. It would be one thing if he said the truth as a disclaimer on his videos which could go something like “I’ve only been studying Van Halen for about three years and here is my guess as to what he might have played. I haven’t really done any due dilligence on this material, but give me money for these lesson videos because I have high production values. The content isn’t accurate, but trust me it is accurate becasue I say it is. Now give me money”. You are entitled to your opinion and so am I. And, once again…let me state for the record that I have communicated with Tom many times abiout this personally and he knows that what I’m saying is true.
In the end, I believe that one positive method of learning from recordings that I have found useful for myself and my students is to start by learning something you love as accurately as possible. THEN, decide where you would like to proceed from there…maybe you can put your own spin on it, maybe you can vary it slightly, maybe you can simply play it as accurately as possible, maybe play it in a different style, maybe try various combinations of ways of playing it…at least you have the solid foundation of knowing how something was ACTUALLY played to the best of your knowledge from all currently available evidence. This isn’t the only method of learning from recordings I’m simply saying that I have found this method to be beneficial. It seems like an obvious place to start. I’m sure it is also perfectly valid to AVOID learning what was actually played on a recording…