Editorial - Issue 4 (04)/2007

Have you ever imagined yourself the times when Eddie Van Halen could be deprived of tapping technique's author title or Yngwie Malmsteen of his title "The King of Neoclassical Hard Rock"? I think that it is very probable. If you consider something innovative (revealing), it needn't mean that it reflects the reality. Those who are interested in the history of music should know that a guitar wasn't drawn out of a hat, but it comes from hunting bows used by people thousands years ago. It was similar in Nicolaus Copernicus' case who was a Polish astronomer, but wasn't the first inventor of model of the solar system with the sun in the centre, but he was the first man who offered a workable framework of that model and managed to explain it in a mathematical way. But we should remember that there were other scientists who came up with the same thesis before Mikolaj Kopernik (1473-1543).

Therefore I want to come back to Van Halen's case. Many people consider him the author of tapping technique. If I remember, this technique was earlier used by the likes of Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce of Cream for instance, but Mr. Van Halen only developed the technique and got to use it to a larger scale. But the most convincing argument supporting my theory can be found in the history of music. Do you know what "flagolet" is? It is a gentle harmonic tone of a dull timbre that is come out off the stringed instruments by a delicate touching the strings with a finger instead of a normal pressing against them. I am pretty sure that it was a prototype of tapping technique used by violin geniuses like Niccolo Paganini and Henryk Wieniawski for example. I am convinced that we can't call Eddie Van Halen the originator of tapping technique, but raher a man who has refined the flagolet and implemented it on guitar ground. Thus, I'd prefer entitling him "the implementor of tapping" to calling "the author of tapping" in general. The situation is similar in Malmsteen's case. If you look back over twenty years ago, you should realize that Uli Jon Roth and Randy Rhoads used classical excerpts in their guitar parts in the past before a Swede, but Mr. Malmsteen managed to use it to strongly greater degree in comparison to aforesaid instrumentalists.

Pleae, just remember that if you want to promote your idea, you have to know how to appeal to the people and how to ably passing it on. Someone can reproduces others' works, and be considered their author at the same time. It's worth realizing that reconstructing isn't the same creating from the scratch. That's why I regard Mr. Van Halen as a tapping technique implementor, and Mr. Malmsteen as one of neoclassical hard rock co-originators! It's no a will to initiate a new terminolgical revolution, but only my personal opinion on some musical issues. I count on your comprehension, my Dear Readers!

Mikolaj 'Nicolo' Furmankiewicz
May 2007

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